A new book by Frank Romano provides a comprehensive introduction to anyone to understand inkjet technology and its application. The books eight chapters cover:
The History of Inkjet Printing
The Component Era
The Wide-Format Era
Inkjet Printing Technology
Industrial Printing
Packaging Printing
Transaction and Transpromo Printing
Drivers and Trends
“Inkjet is not hype,” Romano says. “It deserves to be taken seriously, and those who are serious about their future in printing and graphic arts should pay attention.”
Inkjet! History, Technology, Markets, and Applications is available through PIA/GATF Press and can be ordered online at www.gain.net, or by phone (toll-free 866-855-4283)
OutputLinks published an article today by Pete Basiliere, Research Director at Gartner on separating the hype from the real. Basiliere points to a Gartner idea called the Hype Cycle that “characterize the typical progression of an emerging technology, from initial over-enthusiasm through a period of disillusionment to an eventual acceptance of the technology’s relevance and role in a market.”
In What’s Hype, What’s Real? Basiliere shares highlights from Gartner’s 2008 Print Markets and Management Hype Cycle. These include:
Organizations that isolate the production printing function from overall customer communications find themselves losing ground to more agile competitors.
Trans-promo and CRM printing is steadily progressing from a dream of print technology providers and pundits into a viable, revenue-generating strategy.
There is a need to continue to monitor Office printing to keep cost down.
Over at WhatTheyThink.com Noel Ward says transpromo and inkjet “have levels of hyperbole approaching that of NASCAR, the Superbowl or European soccer championships.” Of transpromo and inkjet together he says:
First up is trans-promo, which we’ve been hearing about for a few years now, usually promoted as if it will magically lift its practitioners out of the depths of whatever economic morass they may find themselves and hoist them to astonishing new levels of productivity and profits. Please.
Then there’s ink jet, already very successful for large format and although appearing promising for various types of document printing, it is still just getting underway and has a ways to go. Its leading advocates claim the ink jet train has left the station. You’ve got to be kidding me. Sure, a couple engines and a few cars are moving, but the rest of the train is still sitting at the platform with passengers milling about, getting their tickets, trying to figure out where they are sitting, and wondering where the hell their luggage is.
Look, I’m a marketing guy and I understand how building awareness and getting the attention of buyers and consumers are essential parts of growing a new market. But a little objective truth is nice every so often. Even though we’re all old enough to have fairly well developed BS detectors, I continue to be amazed at the number of people who unreservedly buy into the idea that trans-promo and ink jet printing –especially when combined– are magic carpets to a new world of printing profitability. We all know there are few free lunches in business or life and that new technologies have an extraordinarily consistent habit of not working as advertised. So it is with trans-promo and the supposed miracles of ink jet printing.
Don’t get me wrong: there is enormous potential for both trans-promo and eventually ink jet for a wide range of applications, but the reality is that the former is more difficult than it first appears and the latter is mostly not ready for prime time. Taking the plunge now with either or both can be a good thing to do, but you might not want to bet your kids’ college fund or your retirement on either one
What do you think? Have we reached “levels of hyperbole approaching that of NASCAR, the Superbowl or European soccer championships” when it comes to transpromo?
At drupa 2008, Noel Ward, Director of Trade Show Coverage for WhatTheyThink.com spoke with a few Océ’s Execs on digital printing and the technology Océ is bringing to market.
Océ ColorWave 600 at drupa 2008
Noel Ward with with Jaap van’t Ooster on Océ’s ColorWave 600.
I have had the opportunity to speak with over 50 companies about the obstacles in Transpromo communications. Some who have implemented Transpromo, others who are considering. Interesting is the fact that there are some common denominators:
A champion — someone who sees the value, understands the opportunty and views it as a “revenue opportunity” as opposed to just a operational savings.
Compelling evidence — as mentioned earlier in the blog, the lack of documented success due in part to people not wanting to lose their competitive edge by sharing too much.
Internal politics — Transpromo is an organizational committment. The larger the organization, the tougher it is to get the support. All of the parties involved within the company must be involved to be successful. Therefore, success is driven tops down.
Assuming there is a champion who gets senior management support a phased plan that outlines objectives, applies metrics and that can effectively take a company from where they are to where they want to be. Important is the “phasing” and not trying to do everything at once.
Many of the issues that have been brought up would be part of the plan … data, marketing messaging, procurement procedures, etc.
Accomplishing items 1-4 — and seeing it through including measurement.
Also found that service bureaus viewed Transpromo as a major opportunity — Some corporations do, but many view as a competitive pressure.
Skip Henk is President/CEO at Xplor International. He can be reached at
Every time a “drupa year” rolls around there’s excitement and anticipation about what’s to come and what all the new machinery and technology means for different types of print providers. But, with drupa taking place so late this year, decisions are being delayed and equipment vendors and print providers alike are effectively waiting for the next bottle of toner to drop.
On one hand, business owners are concerned about spending their limited dollars on the right solution for their company to expand revenue growth. On the other hand, the operations managers and their teams who spend their days in the trenches may be anxious to replace aging fleets so they can leverage new features, streamline operations, increase throughput, and reduce costs –now rather than later. And vendors need to help provide the right product to the right customers at the right price points.
The drupa caveat
No matter what is going to be shown at drupa, virtually all the big vendors have already shown their new innovations to their most important customers, and will finally roll them out to everyone else in Dusseldorf. Some machines, however, will not be available for a year or longer. And because at least a few customers will have already committed to buying the latest device as soon as it is available and others are already being primed to pull the trigger, some vendors may not be able to meet demand for up to a year beyond the announced delivery dates. This means that some products rolled out at drupa may not be readily available for two years! This potential lag between announcement and availability is hardly ideal in a rapidly changing market. In fact, it makes it increasingly harder for print providers to determine which product or printing system is best for a given set of applications.
One approach is taking smaller steps, closer together rather than bigger ones with longer separated time periods. For instance I look at the growing demand for cut-sheet full-color printers today and see several 60 to 70 PPM machines selling for well into six-figures while others, like Océ’s CS650 Pro, provide much of the same functionality but with a much lower entry fee. This provides printers a lower cost of entry by taking a smaller step into the market for digital color printing. Then, as that part of their business expands, they can add more machines and still have a more productive and more cost-effective solution.
This approach also works for print providers who recognize the potential of full-color TransPromo documents but may not have convinced enough customers to make the leap. Here, an approach and a product solution, such as the Océ VarioStream 9240 that can deliver job appropriate color –from black-only to full-color– can handle a wide range of jobs while customers get ready to move ahead.
It’s not about the product
Still, balancing today’s economic concerns while deferring equipment purchase decisions may ultimately impact whether print providers can rely on technology investments to remain competitive. Some could effectively go backwards while waiting for new technology to become available. The remedy is not letting the product drive the decision process. Begin by identifying the applications you need to produce and what you think is required to produce them profitably. Next, rather than focusing on the products with the greatest visibility or most hype built up around them and trying to fit them to your requirements, look at the companies behind the machines and their approach to the marketplace and to doing business. It’s very important to look for the vendors that invest continuously in their product lines and build products intended to support real (rather than imagined) market needs, and that can provide the support your applications require. As I noted last time, pick the company first. Then work with the company to identify which product will meet the needs you have today and that can be upgraded to meet your needs tomorrow. Which leads me back to drupa.
drupa
The very size of the show absolutely requires that you must know what you want to see before you go. But go with an open mind and an “application focus.” Arrive in Duesseldorf seeking the most effective ways of addressing each of your key apps. Compile a list of the companies you want to consider before you go and prepare to spend time with them in multiple ways. You may wind up starting with a sales representative, but take advantage of the show to meet with product managers, technical people and executives. Meeting with the headquarters staff is the best way to cement the next steps for a future meeting and for testing of real world application files. Also make a point of meeting with a company’s senior executives such as the president or CEO. Everyone you meet should be willing to dig into your applications and business needs to begin developing a plan to help you with your latest challenges.
There is a wide range of equipment and software becoming available that has the potential to transform your business. Basing your choice on the company that best understands your business and the applications you need to run will help you find the best products for your needs today and be able to adapt to those you encounter in the future. Good shopping!
Guy Broadhurst is Vice President of Product Marketing in Océ North America’s Commercial Printing Division. He can be reached at .
As showcased in the news over the past few weeks, the newspaper industry is being hit hard by declining ad sales and a dwindling readership. The whole situation is exacerbated by the less than ideal state of the current economy. There have been a few blows to the newspaper industry in Boston over the past few months. Most recently in the news is the Boston Herald considering to outsource its printing to two independent printing companies outside of Boston. Always looming is the threat of the Boston Globe being sold off by the New York Times as well. However, there was another sad newspaper event in Boston this past year: the closing of BostonNOW.
BostonNOW was a free daily start-up newspaper geared toward the commuters of Boston, set to compete against the Boston Metro, a widely-distributed incumbent free daily. Unfortunately, BostonNOW’s financiers felt that the newspaper was not valuable enough to continue funding, and it folded just a year after its first publication. This happens to be the case with a number of media start-ups. What was unique about the concept of BostonNOW, however, is that it had three aspects: print, web, and mobile, with the print aspect being driven by reader-created content.
Most of the content that wasn’t from wire services or general local news was created by the readers of the paper through the use of blogs setup on BostonNOW’s website. Anyone with web access could create a blog on BostonNOW’s website and start writing content. The content that caught the eye of the editors would be selected and be scattered around the newspaper. Sometimes larger articles (many of them rants from everyday Bostonians) would get their own headline and article space, while most other snippets would appear in groups of black boxes.
Regardless of the content or the placement, an interactive element to the newspaper was implemented, adding value for the content creators (making them want to pick up a paper with what they said printed in it) and for the general readership (seeing what your peers have to say). Trends in current social media, such as use of review sites like Yelp.com show that people want to know and also trust what their peers in their community say, especially with the existence of an open feedback loop or forum.
Another example of leveraging communities for content creation is the implementation of Kodak’s Microzone Publishing technology at the Chicago Tribune. With Microzone technology, newspapers can create websites for different communities within a city or town. Citizens of that community can register on the website and share community news or create their own original content. Editors can then grab that content to publish in a weekly community section of the newspaper. Each community gets a special targeted section with content from its members. Companies within targeted communities can advertise within the locations they want their ad to reach, adding value to a newspaper advertisement, while keeping the cost down to allow smaller companies to advertise. In theory, the newspaper circulation will increase because of the higher value of the content.
Reader-created content is one way to add value to traditionally printed newspapers in hopes to increase readership. As some newspapers eventually transition into digital printing, there are limitless possibilities! At drupa 2008, various newspaper solutions were showcased by Océ, InfoPrint Solutions, HP, Wifag, and others. Clearly vendors want to get into this market, and are making great advancements in technology to make concepts become reality. For newspaper subscribers, this technology could mean a totally personalized newspaper containing reader-created content and targeted advertising not only by region but by the reader’s buying habits and personal preferences of that reader. Perhaps the term NewsPromo will be used to describe this new digital phenomena. While it’s still a far cry from this digital newspaper, it’s a big step in adding more value to every newspaper sold.
Bryan Yeager is a Senior Research Analyst in the Production Workflow and Customized Communications Services group at .
InfoTrends recently reported “both the business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) environments, audiences prefer personalized and relevant content in business and marketing communications. In a world where the average consumer is bombarded by some 3,000 marketing messages daily, targeted and personalized printed communications can significantly improve audience response and enhance the overall fulfillment of business objectives.” These findings come from a new report released by InfoTrends on Entry-Level VDP. According to InfoTrends, “Entry-Level VDP provides a definition of entry-level variable data printing and identifies the market opportunity for print service providers. It discusses the needs of document owners in the In-Plant/CRD and Commercial market segments, and outlines the opportunity for print service providers. It also provides examples of variable data applications and a representative listing of entry-level variable data solutions.”
TransPromo Summit the 2-day event focused on helping marketing executives and print service providers develop stratgies for using transpromo in advertising and marketing campaigns has annouced John Blossom, President of Shore Communications Inc. as keynote speaker:
John Blossom’s career spans more than twenty years of marketing, research, product management and development in advanced information and media venues, including major financial publishers and financial services companies (Citicorp, Quotron and for Reuters
Holdings PLC), as well as earlier experience in broadcast media and advertising. Blossom founded Shore Communications Inc. in 1997, specializing in research and advisory services and strategic marketing consulting for publishers and consumers of content services. Mr. Blossom’s engagements have included strategic marketing consulting for major corporations and startups that are using the Internet to position themselves in new and existing content markets.
Shore’s research, news analysis and weblogs, including major contributions from Mr. Blossom, have been recognized widely as leading sources of authoritative insights into the content industry, receiving top industry awards including the EContent Magazine 100, the Software and Information Industry Association CoDIE award for Best Media Blog and a Top Ten Analyst recognition from Technobabble 2.0.
Blossom’s extensive global experience with the marketing and management of financial information services, including real-time datafeeds, established him as one of the thought leaders in this important market segment, leading to strategic assignments with the executive management team of Reuters Group PLC. Mr. Blossom was also a key player in a number of ground-breaking Internet-oriented initiatives at Reuters, including the introduction of content management services and a global effort to integrate Internet-based information suppliers into the mainstream Reuters information services environment.
Transpromo Summit takes place August 13–14th, 2008 in New York City. More information is available at http://www.transpromosummit.com
Eliot Harper has a Q & A on TransPromo on his VeeDeePee blog. Eliot says, Grant Stewart [of Vectis] answered some “interesting questions” on transactional-promotional mail which are worth noting. While these questions may seem obvious to many, they’re helpful for those who are considering TransPromo applications and want to understand what value they can provide.
