Reporting live from a pre-IPEX media briefing in Brussesls.

In this morning’s lead-off presentation, Oliver C. Mehler, CEO, Atlantic Zeiser, announced that what he called “Industrial Digital Printing 2.0 is here”—and that with the help of his company’s technology, printers actually will make money doing it.

Atlantic Zeiser specializes in high-resolution digital printing and coding on industrial products. Its customers produce materials that frequently need content changes. “We don’t care about the substrate,” said Mehler, as the printable surface could be anything: paper, carton stock, non-porous materials such as plastic or glass, or three-dimensional structures. The conditions in which the printing is done vary greatly as well.

Mehler said that IDP 2.0 isn’t out to replace offset and flexo. These methods will still be used for static content; Atlantic Zeiser supplies the technology for the addition of variable print at the late stage of manufacturing: inline marking, coding, serialization, and decoration. Variable data must be verified for accuracy on the production line, as the printing is being applied to the product.

Atlantic Zeiser offers a choice of 18 different digital printing engines, including the ultra-high-speed and -resolution Delta family. Its Omega family consists of UV-capable spot color engines. The Gamma line includes single-pass CMYK engines with resolutions up to 1060 dpi.

The newest addition is the AZ Delta family of single-pass spot color engines operating at speeds up to 300 fpm in print widths up to 205 mm at a native resolution of 600 dpi. Also announced was the AZ line of high-resolution digital inks, including UV inks curable by LED arrays. To complement these inks, Atlantic Zeiser offers the Smartcure UV LED curing module. The advantages of UV curing include “cold light” exposure that protects sensitive materials; and ozone-free operation.

Among the applications for Atlantic Zeiser’s inline printing systems are packaging and direct product imprinting. ROI should take place between two and 18 months, says the company, thanks to economies achieved by integrating the systems with existing production lines. Packagers and product manufacturers now can do their own variable imprinting without having to rely on outside services.

Mehler also talked about VDP enhancement for PDF workflows. At IPEX, the company will announce a solution that makes it possible to print with small, flexible, and secure data streams.

For customers preferring offline solutions, Atlantic Zeiser offers the DigiLine family of web-to-web and sheetfed digital printing units for coding and imprinting. There are two models for web printing, and four or sheetfed. Three models of the DigiLine single-product imprinting system are available. Mehler spoke of imprinting costs of “several cents per thousand” with these solutions.

“We can prove that this increases the operating profits of any industrial product manufacturer,” Mehler said.

The Dutch Enterprise Chamber have dismissed requests by Hermes/USS for an investigation into the negotiations between Canon and Océ.

Hermes Focus Asset Management Ltd, which holds 3.3% stake, and Universities Superannuation Scheme, which holds a 1.8% stake, last week filed the request with the Enterprise Chamber for an investigation with respect to the negotiations between Canon and Océ about the tender offer for Océ shares and subsequent events.

Please excuse my ‘pig Latin.’ As any wine-lover knows ‘In vino veritas’ is a well known excuse for ‘okay, just one more.’ In wine – the truth.

With our morphing industry, could it be argued that digital processes are the ‘wine of truth’ that expose long-believed shibboleths in the print media business?

Digital by nature is trackable, measurable and therefore monetizable once a metric is applied to the time and space. Most offset printers I know have spent fortunes on costing and estimating programs and personnel, and still ‘hidden costs’ rear their weasel-like heads, compromising profit and souring client relationships if they are asked to pay a bit more ‘for the file fixes’ e.g.

Of course for savvy printers, the reverse has been a lucrative area for years. Build enough ‘padding’ into the job, get the costs down and you can experience what London Cockney hucksters call ‘a good little earner.’ Extra profit because you over-quoted. However, in today’s world, it’s usually profit erosion that hits the poor printer.

What digital does is lock down your costs to a known quantum. Equipment lease + rent + labor + click + utilities + consumable equals TCO – total cost of operation. This is often calculated by the equipment vendor from word go, so long as he knows your applications and volumes. In the offset world, you buy a press and some CTP and work it out yourself. Many printers must be getting it wrong judging by the number of business failures.

It affects digital printers too, but it shouldn’t. Here in Australia, one of our premier digital houses with two i-Gens, Nuveras and Docutechs fell into administration 2 weeks ago. It was a great business run by a great guy – an American in fact. But it is believed he was using offset profit margin thinking on digital. It’s a tragedy but at least this business was quickly snapped up by a newly-energised 107-year-old offset house that happened to be looking into buying digital presses and now have both the presses and a business. They probably got a bargain.

They say that in a bear market, or recession, “money returns to its rightful owners.” Any business needs to harvest a ‘bit of surplus for the winter.’ If this is there, instead of increased borrowings at punitive interest, hard times can be ridden out.

Digital, correctly applied, sorts it all out. Every nook and cranny of cost can be discovered and charged for. It enables free-market competition to flourish from a known baseline, unlike many offset shops who take on work ‘to keep the presses rolling.’

Some say that offset equipment vendors have assisted the overcapacity and hyper-competition that has driven profit away from print businesses. Let’s hope the same won’t apply to digital as it juggernauts its way further into our sector.

In digio veritas – you know where you stand; don’t blow it. Time for a cool Zinfandel. Cheers!

By Brenda Kai, Executive Director, EDSF

EDSF, the international non-profit organization dedicated to the document management and graphic communications industries, could not be effective without the outstanding leadership of its Board of Directors—all volunteers who support EDSF in its mission. EDSF grants scholarships to students in support of their academic careers, provides research grants to colleges and universities, builds awareness about industry careers, and recognizes innovative educators and educational programs.

To bring more insight into EDSF’s efforts, Franchise Services President and COO, Richard Lowe, the new EDSF chairman, shares his thoughts on EDSF happenings as they relate to helping students.

As an industry leader, Lowe joined the Franchise Services in 1989, and today the company’s print management group operates the brands of Sir Speedy, PIP, Signal Graphics and MultiCopy—all well-known and highly successful brands in the quick printing industry.

DN: Congratulations on your new position as Chairman of the Board of EDSF. How long has Franchise Services been involved with EDSF?

RL:We are proud to say that Franchise Services has been a supporter since EDSF was founded in 1996. Their primary focus has been, and continues to be making positive changes in the lives of students, and we share that dedication. I personally joined the Board in 2008 and served on the Development Committee prior to becoming Chairman.

DN: What benefits does EDSF provide to the industry?

RL:It’s hard to imagine a more challenging business environment than we have experienced this past year. Despite all the turmoil, there remains within the increasingly complex world of document management, graphic communications and printing a critical need to attract and foster the development of the next generation of business professionals.

However, also during this same time, financial assistance programs for students have been drastically reduced while the costs of an education have continued to rise. EDSF programs help fill these needs by providing  scholarships to students attending two-year and four-year college/university and postgraduate programs worldwide. To date 306 scholarships have been awarded in ten countries.

DN: What is the biggest challenge EDSF is facing?

RL:Fundraising remains a critical issue and it is no surprise that the Wall Street Journal reported that contributions to non-profit organizations focusing on education were down 24 percent in 2009 due to the economy. To overcome this shortfall requires a different approach to fundraising and a willingness to investigate new initiatives. This year, we developed several campaigns and programs designed to attract a higher number of individual contributions in addition to our corporate sponsorships.

One of my personal favorite’s, is the Adopt-a-Scholar program designed for donors interested in a more personal approach to providing educational support. Participation in this program provides each donor with a thank you letter from the student receiving support along with their photo and a short profile.  Other new programs also include:

• eBay Giving Works
• Continuing education partnership with AIIM Certificate Program

In addition, there are many different ways to establish or contribute to an existing scholarship award.

Information about all donation opportunities is available on the Web site at: www.edsf.org.

DN: What other thoughts would you like to share with our readers?

RL: I would like to thank everyone who supported EDSF’s “The Future is Bright” campaign in December, and ask for your continued support.

With the recent disaster in Haiti, we’ve seen the difference the “Power of Many” can make. Everything we give today, no matter the size, has more meaning, more power, more importance and for our students, more hope.  Every dollar donated has a greater impact than it did just a year ago. We ask for your help in working to make a difference for a student pursuing their dream of continued education.

In closing, I want to share a quote from one scholarship recipient from 2009:

“Knowing the industry is behind me and willing to support me financially means so much. This generous scholarship encourages me in preparing for a bright future and allows me to put a stronger focus on my education rather than how to pay for it.”

- Jason Landrum

How many digital printers think about marketing digital printing as green printing? Not just from a technology standpoint but also from an applications standpoint?

When you switch to database marketing — reducing your mailing by 90% by culling out only the top 10% of your database to personalize and mail to — you are also GREENING your print marketing at the same time! When you personalize a booklet, reducing a static 72-page booklet to a 16-page personalized one, you are greening your projects at the same time. Think about how much you help your clients lower their environmental footprints in terms of paper, ink, energy use, transportation . . . and the list goes on.

I just released a report titled “Greening Print Marketing: A Practical Guide” that has an entire section devoted to how digital print applications “green” print marketing. We’re used to looking at the case studies in terms of how they affect the bottom line (and rightly so), but many of those same applications have a green angle. Every time you cut costs through efficiency, targeting, and personalization, you save your carbon footprint, too.

I’m also fascinated by just how poor a carbon footprint e-media has. The more I learn about it, the greener print looks.

The digital printing industry really has an environmental story to tell. I wonder how well we’re telling it?

EDSF, the international non-profit organization dedicated to the document management and graphic communications industries, announced it’s 2010 Board of Directors. Among EDSF’s leadership roster of highly respected and well-known industry CEOs, presidents and top executives are several new Directors, including: Jon Cannon of FedEx Office; Jennifer Matt; Kathleen McHugh of Presstek; Mark Kilgore of BÖWE BELL + HOWELL; Francis McMahon of HP; Darnell Ghidotti of AlphaGraphics; and Sandra Zoratti of InfoPrint Solutions Company.

Brenda Kai, EDSF’s executive director, said, “With innovative and passionate industry leaders like those on our Board of Directors, EDSF will surely succeed in its mission of enhancing the value of document communication by fostering education and leading-edge research, and building a community of support to benefit document creators, users and the future workforce of our industry. We thank them for their time and valuable contributions.”

EDSF 2010 Board of Directors:

Chair
Richard Lowe, president and COO, Franchise Services, Inc.

Executive Vice Chair
Carl Gerhardt, president and CEO, Allegra Network LLC

Secretary/Treasurer
Fred Rosenzweig, president, EFI

Vice Chair for Education
Sam Yoshida, vice president and general manager, Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Member-at-Large
Malkon “Mal” Baboyian, president, Production Printing Systems, Océ North America, Inc.

Executive Director
Brenda Kai, executive director, EDSF

Directors
Eric Armour, president, Global Business Group, Xerox Corporation
Jon Cannon, senior vice president, Global Operations, FedEx Office
Darnell Ghidotti, vice president business solutions, AlphaGraphics
Trevor Haworth, CEO, CGS Publishing Technologies International GmbH
Jeff Hayes, president, InfoTrends
Mark Kilgore, executive vice president, BÖWE BELL + HOWELL
John Mancini, president, AIIM International
Jennifer Matt
Kathleen McHugh, vice president and chief marketing officer, Presstek
Francis McMahon, director of marketing, U. S. Graphic Arts Business, Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Company
René Müller, president and CEO, GMC Software
Tawnya Starr, president, PrinterPresence
Sandra Zoratti, vice president, Global Solutions Marketing, InfoPrint Solutions Company

There seems to be an ongoing discussion about names and descriptions of things in our industry, particularly when it comes to the seemingly hotly-debated phrases “print service provider” and “marketing service provider”, as well as their acronym counterparts, “PSP” and “MSP”. Cary Sherburne sparked some debate last year with her post on Print CEO about “PSP”. There have been more recent points of discussion, as well. WhatTheyThink’s Peer Groups blog has discussed what encompasses a company that bills itself as a “marketing service provider”. On Printing Impressions’ blog a few days ago, Margie Dana expressed her distaste for printing companies that bill themselves as marketing service providers. Dr. Joe also weighed in, providing his thoughts on how printers should approach marketing services.

All of the aforementioned posts make a number of great points, some call for new or different terminology to be used, and others call out vendors and industry analysts/consultants (like myself) for causing confusion by instituting these terms in the first place. Vendors often use these terms to describe their clients, and I certainly have used them in many of my writings for InfoTrends, although I try to mix it up a little for variety’s sake. To be frank, I see the discussion about the use of these specific terms as a bit silly at face value. That’s not to say that terminology is not important, but I think this specific discussion really leads to larger issues that are happening within the industry, mostly dealing with structural change and transitioning that many print businesses have been going through. Read the rest of this entry »

Hermes Focus Asset Management Ltd, which holds 3.3% stake, and Universities Superannuation Scheme, which holds a 1.8% stake, have filed a request with the Enterprise Chamber of the Court of Appeals in Amsterdam for an investigation with respect to the negotiations between Canon and Océ about the tender offer for Océ shares and subsequent events.

The minority shareholders request, “certain provisional measures, being the suspension of the resolutions taken during the Extraordinary General Meeting of 12 February 2010, the suspension of voting rights on the preference shares and the appointment of additional independent Supervisory Directors.”

In a statement to the press Océ said they, “regret this step and will oppose the request.”

Hermes Focus Asset Management Ltd, has stated in the past that the terms of the off “do not represent a fair sharing of value between the shareholders of Canon and those of Océ.” In a public letter released in January, Hermes stated they “won’t tender their shares.”

Canon announced its plan to buy Oce in November 2009 for about $1.1 billion in cash.

Digital printers these days are being pressured to “go green,” which typically starts with adding PCW (postconsumer waste) content into paper. But is PCW really all that it’s cracked up to be?

I recently did some investigating into this question and got some surprising answers. In fact, there is a legitimate argument for the fact that PCW might have a less positive impact the environment than preconsumer waste.
Read the rest of this entry »

I.T. Strategies, on behalf of the Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization (PRIMIR) and the world’s printing equipment and supplies manufacturers, is conducting comprehensive research to establish a baseline identifying when and under what conditions analog printing applications could shift to digital printing. The applications to be examined include Marketing Collateral, Catalogs, Magazines, Manuals, Newspapers, Books, Direct Mail, Transaction/Financial Printing, Labels, Packaging and Specialty Printing.

Read the rest of this entry »