Q: At Ipex, what was the overall message for the print industry?

A: Without question, that digital printing is an industry bright spot. Caslon forecasts that digital color page volume in North America will grow from nearly 10 percent of digital pages in 2008 to almost half of all digital pages printed --- more than 325 billion pages --- by 2017. This growth is driven by transaction printing along with short-run books, direct marketing, photo-based products and marketing collateral. Digital is the segment of the graphic communications market that is growing. While competition is fierce, digital printing helps print service providers differentiate themselves.

Q: What were the key themes that stood out for those in the high volume transaction output (HVTO) industry?

A: Most of my conversations with attendees revolved around how they can better meet the needs of their clients --- clients that not only want to reduce costs, but also increase revenue and response rates.  Often, those answers lie with transpromo. Inserting marketing messages on a statement or invoice is definitely a compelling application. After all, it’s a captive audience --- according to InfoTrends, 98 percent of users read their statements once and 85 percent read them twice.

So when the promotional message is combined with the statement, marketing messages are almost guaranteed to be read. Transpromo offers the ability to speak directly to customers’ specific needs and past purchase behavior and turn once-a-month obligations – like sending a bill - into revenue generating opportunities for print providers and the demand generator.

There’s still a large segment of the graphic communications industry that has yet to dip its toes into high-volume transactional printing. So these initial conversations are very important. They can spark an idea or shed light on how digital print advancements can make these transactional and transpromo applications a reality.

That’s a key theme I took home with me --- that the market is poised for major growth as vendors continue to educate.

Q: What was the buzz about TransPromo at Ipex?

A: There was buzz around what inkjet can do for transpromo and the high-volume transaction market. We previewed our high-speed production inkjet technology at the show – a technology that delivers vivid image quality on low cost, untreated papers without any special coatings or bonding agents. We’re still in the development stage but interest was definitely piqued for what a device like this could mean for the industry.

In Xerox’s stand there was also buzz around making sure our customers have the right workflow and business development support that will maximize a technology investment.

At IPEX, we launched two new business development offerings to do just that. The first is the new Continuous Feed Essentials Kit, providing information to plan, build and implement a profitable continuous feed business --- including transpromo applications. The second, a new continuous feed ProfitQuick Financial Modeling Software that helps print providers increase productivity and achieve cost and efficiency savings on transpromo jobs. We also launched LDP Lean Document Production and Design service that offers a comprehensive assessment of key operational matters including equipment types and usage, headcount, peak hours, job cycle times, steps and touches, run lengths and print windows to reduce production costs and maximize technology investments.

Q: Were there any surprises at Ipex?

A: The biggest surprises --- and possibly the most pleasant --- were signs of the economy shifting. There were indications of things turning around before the show, but IPEX confirmed the economic shift we hoped for. Signs of recovery were all around as we saw attendees investing in new technologies. We had a great turnout in our booth, large crowds for our Real Business Live! presentations and saw strong sales that included companies purchasing equipment on site.

Q: Based on your experiences at Ipex, what’s your best advice for today’s HVTO printer?

A: Innovate and differentiate --- which translates to the entire industry, not just those in the HVTO marketplace. Take time to analyze your business to see what areas will achieve maximum growth and then go after those markets.

Operating status quo is not an option and print providers need to create value for their customers by bringing something new to the table. They need to assess equipment, software and business model needs and make necessary investments. Continuing to find ways to improve productivity and developing new value-added services that will improve business by bringing in new customers.  

Q: What’s in store for the remainder of 2010?

A: It’s unbelievable to think the year is half over. So much has happened in 2010 already, but we’ve only scratched the surface. We’ll continue to work with our customers to make sure they have the right mix of innovation and proven hardware technology, software and services at their fingertips.

Helping our customers find success is our greatest achievement and we’ll continue to invest in multiple technologies and bring innovative products to market, coupled with the right workflow and business development tools and resources to help them accomplish their goals.