I got disturbed when I read Greg Sterling’s Screenwerk blog, in which he described how certain big media companies are turning to “content farms” populated by barely-paid “digital serfs.” Ugh! Writers are worth a lot more than $5 an article. In fact, a good copywriter can save your business.

In its August issue, Target Marketing magazine featured a story about how the Mayo Clinic lifted its newsletter subscriptions 28 percent. Moreover, the boost in subscriptions happened during a price hike, a postal rate increase, and a looming economic recession. The copywriter did it. Marketing Director James Hale, Sr., explains. “I directed our lead copywriter .. to take the tough economic issue, actually acknowledge it, and demonstrate the good value and wisdom in buying our newsletter.”

Still not convinced? Ever heard the phrase “Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?” How about “I’ll take the roast duck with the mango salsa“? Copywriters did that, too (and a lot more for Geico).

That’s right, marketing folks. Copy. Don’t leave the post office without it.

Nancy Scott is the Editor at Direct Marketing Association of Washington and the President of Liberty Communications. See more of Nancy’s work at www.marketingbrillo.blogspot.com

In today’s competitive market, experience, tactical expertise, education, and a mantel-full of industry awards may not be enough to land you a job, let alone your dream job. In fact, they may only be enough to get you a “thanks for your time.” To stand apart, you’ll need more.

I’ve interviewed and hired a lot of candidates and have come to recognize the importance of an expanded skill set that goes beyond the traditional and expected. Let me share two things I look for in an account director for our agency.

First, be human. Too many of the candidates we see try to be perfect. They focus on what they’ve accomplished, their successes, and how “good” they are. As people, I think we can learn far more from our failures than from our successes. I learn far more about a candidate and his or her true strengths by learning about how they’ve dealt with adversity.

The truth is, things happen. Unpredictable things. Not always good things. Especially in direct marketing, and especially in account management, or as we refer to it, client advisement. Emphasize how you’ve been tested by and navigated through something for which you couldn’t have prepared. Describe a situation in which you’ve been uncomfortable yet followed the truth, won a hand with the cards you were dealt–or ground past the status quo to achieve something notable. Remember, it’s not about the products, it’s about the process.

Second, as with any communication, you need to be relevant. Know the company you’re speaking with. Go beyond what’s published, and find out what makes them tick and what their aspirations are. Knowing where they come from, where they want to go, and how you can help them get there–information that’s relevant to your interviewer–can catapult you out of the pack and into the lead…and help managers separate the best people from the best resumes.

Like a bidding war at an auction house, the printing business has been undergoing a fairly silent, yet the biggest consolidation this industry has ever seen. In addition, there have been an unheard number of plant and company closures resulting in a shrinking of the industry. This has led to a unique environment for buyers like us and a shift in the industry that has always been dominated by small business.

To first understand the impact of this current trend, you must take into consideration that printing is not just a big business–it is the biggest. US domestic printing is an $83+ billion industry that tops the automakers in terms of size and the number of people it employs (1+ million). Sounds pretty outrageous until you stop to think about it. In a society that’s constantly in search of access to information and literally obsessed with record-keeping, it stands to reason that printing is ubiquitous. From new car manuals to tabloid newspapers to t-shirts to those little tags on mattresses, nearly every product calls on the printing industry somewhere along the line. Put in that light, the numbers don’t seem so far-fetched. So the big question is: if the printing industry is suddenly starting to be controlled by a small group of industry leaders and many of the 70,000 plants in the country are shutting down, what happens to principals such as market competition and market controls such as “supply and demand”. . . not to mention the people and personnel it effects?

In the last year alone, as the economy has struggled, the industry giants have been buying up large portions of the market through mergers and acquisitions. This has pushed out the middle part of the market and, at the same time, made it difficult for smaller shops that make up the largest percentage of the industry to compete. Huge print companies like RR Donnelly, Quad, and Quebecor have acquired other players like Cenveo and Bowne and have solidified their hold on the market. Even in our own backyard, six very prominent regional shops have succumbed to economic pressures. This is a result of the economic times, coupled with a reduction of work available and renewed competition by these large national companies. With everyone competing for a slice of a much smaller pie, it has become increasingly difficult for these smaller shops to storm the weather.

As the volume of work continues to shrink and the number of players competing continues to shrink, we as buyers are faced with a market place driven by issues such as risk aversion and longevity tied to heavy pricing pressures. The landscape for print companies is really changing. Former relationships are always in question these days, and price and fiscal viability have become the benchmarks by which these companies are measured. The good news is that those with solid portfolios and strong business practices seem to be rising to the top. There is no question that once things have found equilibrium that there will be more work going to fewer players and that we as buyers will have fewer choices, less competition driving the marketing, more pressure to use the big companies, and less influence.

So for an industry that has remained fairly unchanged for so long, the next few years will usher in an era of reinvention and realignment. I believe that companies that have a business strategy that can readjust, be nimble, and be reliable will rise to the top and may be in a position to challenge the goliaths on the block–others may soon find themselves on the auction block. 

What do you think smaller firms need to do to survive and thrive in this market?

What do you do when a family member is stricken with cancer?

You offer support in any way you can. Encouragement. Prayer. Help with the chores, pay a couple of bills. Whatever it takes to help him or her focus on the fight at hand.

The same holds true for your extended family, doesn’t it?

You offer support in any way you can. Whether a lifelong friend, a neighbor, a colleague at work, you naturally want to help.

As part of Team Centurion, I’ve joined with colleagues from around the globe to raise money for LIVESTRONG, the cancer foundation started by cyclist Lance Armstrong, on behalf of our good friend and fellow printing industry analyst, Steve Reynolds.

Steve selflessly raised money on behalf of other cancer victims by riding in three LIVESTRONG “Century” (100 mile) events over the last three years. This year’s ride would have been Steve’s fourth ride except for his June diagnosis of Stage 4 Colon Cancer. Despite the advanced stage and extreme seriousness of his situation, Steve is rising to the challenge and has begun his fight.

My colleagues are normally competitors with each other and Steve, but we’re united by something much more powerful than commerce – hope, courage and a determination to crush cancer. I will be joining colleagues and friends the afternoon and evening before Graph Expo opens in Chicago on October 2nd to show our support for Steve.

People who have been Steve’s customers and competitors will take a spirited 1.5 mile walk to show our support of his personal fight against cancer. We will gather at 4:30 at The House of Blues in downtown Chicago during which we’ll stop to toast Steve at two pubs.

Then, at 7:00 PM, we’ll arrive at the D4 Irish Pub & Cafe for a reception and dinner buffet sponsored by AR Advisors, Oce, Ricoh and Xerox. Everyone, whether a walker or not, is welcome to join us at the dinner. A $25 minimum contribution to LIVESTRONG is requested. Join us any time during the evening that’s convenient for you, but please confirm your attendance in advance if at all possible.

Coincidentally, October 2nd is “Livestrong Day,” so named because on that date in 1996 Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer. Or, as he put it: “The day I was diagnosed with cancer was the day I started to live.” Lance realized he had to grab hold of his life and take nothing for granted. He made a decision to face his illness with courage, strength and dignity. On October 2, Lance Armstrong became a survivor.

The money raised in Steve’s honor by Team Centurion will go to support LIVESTRONG’s programs and services, which inspire and empower people affected by cancer. If you or someone you know is diagnosed, these resources will help them to face the challenges of cancer, head on, and live life on your own terms.
Please support Steve and help make a difference in the cancer fight.

Come to the events in Chicago to demonstrate your support. If you cannot make it, no problem. Simply visit the Livestrong website to make a contribution

Thank you!

I was flying home from a new business meeting the other night and realized I was in rarefied air…but not in the plane. This air was in New Jersey of all places. It was the fresh air that my team was breathing when we presented to a prospective client without the aid (read: “crutch”) of a PowerPoint presentation. Got the client, by the way…

Oh, we had one in the bag, but thankfully, we never took it out of the bag. We just talked and connected with the people in the room.

I heard a guy that is much smarter than me, Glen Urban of MIT, talk about a new dynamic that we are all playing under called TRUST. People (note: I didn’t say companies) want to partner with people they can trust. In his estimation, everyone wants to trust–they just don’t know who to trust. By connecting with the people in the room without the barriers of the computer, the cords, and the overhead projector, we quickly established ourselves as a group that was not hiding behind anything: we could be trusted. In turn, that helps build customer loyalty.

Why else was not having a PowerPoint so effective? People are tired of them.

This client even jokingly said, “Thank God you’re not going to do a PowerPoint. We’d just rather talk.” Enough said. They want to talk so they can gauge what kind of person you are and if they can trust you. Only then will they open their kimono and tell you what their real problems are and specifically what you can really do for them. Once you understand their pain, you can give them an honest assessment of your solution against your competitor’s.

Need more reason to ditch the Powerpoint? I’ve got 250 million more.

According to Microsoft’s own estimates, there are 30 million PowerPoint presentations made every day. EVERY DAY! I couldn’t believe it either. Imagine the dollars wasted on making so many people sit through so many poorly constructed and prepared presentations. I saw some astounding guestimates on the total dollars wasted, and it looks something like this:

• 4 people per presentation
• 1 half hour presentation
• 1 half hour presentation = a quarter of the time wasted

That means that we are wasting 15 million person hours per day. At an average salary of $35,000, the waste per day nears $252 million!

Let’s take a step back, and figure out how we got here and how we get out.

We have 3M to thank for the advent of the slide presentation. With the advent of plastic film, companies were suddenly able to produce computer-generated slides which would be projected onto a wall through an overhead projector. Then came PowerPoint.

PowerPoint was originally built for the Mac. The original name of the program was Presenter; however, due to some trademark issues, it was later renamed and released as a software package in 1987 by Forethought. Microsoft acquired Forethought and quickly added the software to its Office Suite. Seems to me that if smart guys like Bob Gaskins and Dennis Austin named it Presenter, they assumed that we would let the software take over the presentation–and that’s exactly what many of us have done the past few years.

An old article I saw by Edward Tufte reminds us that our misuse of PowerPoint has also allowed the presentation to become a substitute for the presenter rather than a supplement. He contends that the misuse breaks one of the more important rules of speaker which is respect your audience. He also demonstrates where these presentations can be misleading and dangerous.

So how we get out of this rut? I subscribe to the KISS mantra on this one. So I have 3 easy steps for you to follow:

1. Stop using PowerPoint tool as a crutch.
2. Become the presentation.
3. Look them in the eye (without the glare of the projector), connect with your audience, and build their trust in you. 

Editor’s Note: Ed also claims that by leaving the projector and the laptop back at the office, his presentations are not only more effective but he is also flying through airport security these days. That would make 250 million and 1 reasons to lose the Powerpoint!

Here we are: the dog days of summer. For marketing departments, it’s prime season for planning—for both the balance of the year and ahead to 2011. So what’s worked so far in 2010? It’s no secret that marketing departments were hit heavy by budget cuts in 2009 because of the economic downturn. However, the lessons from the prior year have started to payoff in 2010; we are more resourceful and more efficient with our smaller marketing budgets.

In 2009, some direct marketers were quick to cut direct mail from their marketing mix and focus solely on the online channel. In 2010, direct mail has made a comeback. Marketers have realized that when used effectively, it is necessary to their multi-channel marketing mix and can be one of the best tools for starting a conversation with their customers.

To that end, the advent of digital printing methods has allowed increased flexibility for companies to be more audience-focused. It’s not enough to just personalize the greeting of a marketing piece; marketers can use the technology to create campaigns that speaks relevantly to their customers at the individual level based on demographics and previous engagement with campaigns. Further, digital print technology allows for these greater design freedoms with quicker turnaround times.

Marketers can leverage direct mail as a launch pad for their online marketing efforts. For instance, a highly personalized direct mail piece can drive a customer to a PURL where they can access highly personalized online content that is specific to their engagement with the company. The PURLs then can direct customers to the company’s social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, where they can engage with fellow customers and ultimately creating a community around your company.

As you look to the rest of 2010 and beyond, remember the lessons of resourcefulness and efficiency when planning your marketing programs. Find out what channels are most effective at getting them to act, and use that marketing mix to create a cohesive marketing message. Create conversations with your customers, don’t talk at them in some channel that they aren’t even listening to.

You want a window into the human mind? Look at some direct mail pieces. How people respond to them — or don’t — can tell you plenty. That’s because direct mail is all about psychology. It’s understanding what makes people behave the way they do.

Take outer envelopes. What will make someone open one? The smallest of details can tip the balance. Is there a return address? Is it accompanied by someone’s name? Is that name pre-printed? Or was it “added on” just before going out? Then there’s your color choice. Paper stock. Postage type. Type font. All this before the headline and visual (if you even have them) register.

When you think about it, the odds are hugely against us. Everyday, people are bombarded with more and more advertising messages. Then they come home from a long day’s work, stand over the wastepaper basket, and sort their mail. We have mere seconds to deploy enough knowledge about human nature to get our packages opened.

And yet, everyday great new direct mail pieces emerge. Some of the best work in the industry is being done today. Our targeting methods are more efficient. Our options are greater. And our creative people are more talented. But the big difference, in my opinion, is that we know more about what makes people tick today than we ever have. And that’s key. Because in order to capture your prey, you first have to think like them.

Social scientists and behavioral economists have shown that human beings have developed certain automatic or reflexive behaviors. They’ve identified:

1. Compliance triggers
2. Loss aversion
3. The principle of reciprocity
4. Social proof
5. The pull of the magnetic middle

And numerous other influencers to human behavior. Take what they’ve learned and apply it, where appropriate, to your programs and communications—which helps make your customers and prospects more likely to do what you’re asking them to. Want to learn more? Register for my August 4 webinar (Why people do what they do - an how marketers can use it to their advantage) and find out how to harness human behavior triggers in your direct marketing efforts.

With social media being, well, everywhere, it was no surprise that it made its presence at the June NEDMA Awards in four new categories:

1. Best SEO Campaign
2. Best Twitter Page
3. Best Blog
4. Best Other Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

What was surprising was the amount of entries in these categories – or lack thereof. Where competition was fierce in more traditional categories, there were only a sprinkling of entries in these new media categories. This is where I pause and ask the question, “Can someone please remind me, and all marketers, the true definition of direct marketing?”

From what I was taught and continue to practice, Direct Marketing really has two main principles:

1. Engage in a one-to-one dialogue with your target audience
2. Require your target audience to take some sort of action–call, click, move, you name it.

If you accept this definition, why is direct marketing synonymous with direct mail in so many marketers’ eyes? In the last five years or so, there has been no bigger trend than delivering relevant, personalized communications to build trust and credibility with your audience. For most companies that aren’t spending marketing dollars on broadband awareness campaigns, one-size-fits-all communications are passé–almost irresponsible in today’s marketing communications mix.

As a result, DR TV and radio, email, and yes even social media is about creating relevant, one-to-one dialogue with your target audience and motivating them to act in some way, shape, or form. If this is the case, why hasn’t direct marketing led the charge instead of being relegated to a category on the bar graph titled “direct mail” that decreases in size and budget year over year?

My plea to direct marketers is to strip the stigma of the red-headed stepchild that only creates unwanted credit card solicitations and rethink what it means to be a true direct marketer in this day and age.

How has your agency or company expanded the definition and importance of direct marketing for your business? Or is it thought of more as the dinosaur that used to have the stature of a T-Rex, but has shrunk to the size of a Flintstone vitamin?

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

By Andrew Leung

To those who use it, JDF is considered one of the most innovative technologies in the printing industry. It allows workflow to become much more automated and help streamline some of the more cumbersome and repetitive tasks that often can cost printers a substantial amount of money; it was built to help eliminate waste. It costs nothing for printers to use the specifications for JDF, but the systems that incorporates its ability is where the cost lies. JDF is still relatively new, and while there are those in the printing and graphics art industry that have adopted its potential and capabilities, others are still skeptical about it, in the long run, JDF is here to stay.

What is JDF?

To put it simply, JDF is an XML-based file format used as an electronic job ticket. It was designed as a standard for the printing and graphics art industry to catalyze implementation of different applications, systems and workflow by various vendors. A JDF file contains all the information that operators in prepress and print-production would normally need to know from a more “traditional” job ticket, except that it is all done electronically. When one system receives instructions on what it needs to be done, it performs the task, which then, in turn, generate new instructions for the next process down in the workflow. At its core, JDF does what a normal job ticket does, and so much more.

History of JDF

The inception of JDF dates back to 2000 when Adobe, Agfa, Heidelberg and MAN Roland collaboratively created it. However, the former two companies had made their own attempts prior to that year in developing a standard for exchanging job-related data across different graphic applications. Adobe had created PJTF, which stands for Portable Job Ticket Format, a now outdated file format that was used to instruct programs how pages should be processed for workflow systems. It was only limited to imposition applications, such as Kodak Preps. Other than imposition instructions, PJTF also points out other information such as press sheet size and press marks. What limited PJTF from ever being further developed was that it only was able to define prepress data, not a full workflow.

The four companies envisioned that JDF would be able to do the following:

• cover all processes related to printing.

• go beyond what PJTF was able to do.

• to be based on XML, streamlining the accessibility and comprehensibility of the file, as well as making it easier to be further developed using existing technology.

In 2001, they had brought the specifications for JDF to a non-profit standard organization within the industry called CIP3, which today is evolved into CIP4 (International Cooperation for Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress) to have it publicly standardized. In April of the same year, JDF version 1.0 would be published. Initially, the majority of the industry did not conform to implementing such standards to their current workflow, despite the fact that JDF had received immense coverage in trade magazines. Companies would eventually see the benefits of using JDF in their system, and the momentum was building for them. According to the CIP4 organization, today about 150 companies are providing JDF-enabled products – more than 180 JDF-enabled products are available, and nearly 4,000 users are working with JDF-enabled products.

Anatomy and Functionality of JDF

JDF is a collection of industry-accepted XML tags. The reason XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is considered the ideal file extension for JDF is its unlimited ability to define tags for information – which in the case with implementing JDF, information that shows up on a traditional job ticket. This information includes but is not limited to – job name, delivery dates, job parameters, customer data, and production info. Basically, any type of information regarding a print job, from the design stage up until postpress, are embedded in the XML tags.

For a JDF workflow to be implemented properly, it needs to be managed. The most common method utilizes a JDF-enabled MIS (Management Information System). While JDF contains all the detailed specifications about a job (i.e. colour space used, number of pages, etc), The MIS handles customer quotation, order entry and creation of job tickets, job scheduling, and any other tasks that ensures the printing job is done at a timely manner. It also serves as a “command center”, controlling all activities that involves the utilization of JDF. It controls the traffic of JDF files between JDF-enabled systems throughout the workflow, telling it where and when it should move from, for example, prepress to print fulfillment, or from a graphics designer to prepress.

Part of the reason why JDF is such a powerful tool is due to the way JDF-enabled systems communicate with each other. There are varying communicating methods and they depend on the sophistication of the workflow. There are various star topology, point-to-point connection, and hybrid configuration systems that are available to choose from. All have their advantages and disadvantages, and each of them may or may not meet the needs of a company and their workflow. The bottom line is that all parties involved use the Job Messaging Format (JMF) and if one party requires a change in the XML data entry tag, that device can be reached on a ‘need to know’ basis.

Pros and Cons of JDF

The biggest advantage with companies using JDF-enabled technology revolves around the concept of automation. Job parameters are transferred and accumulated using a industry-accepted standard, which streamlines communication at every moment of the process, from the entry of a job to final delivery and billing – all being done electronically. Because the technology is a industry-wide standard, those interested in purchasing JDF-enabled products do not have to purchase them from one particular vendor. Printers can purchase certified products, without having to worry about any operating issues with JDF on their machines.

Implementing JDF technology can be a way of saving money for printers. Costs produced by any unnecessary redundancy and human errors can be eliminated with JDF. However, if the cost of a JDF-enabled workflow is greater than the ROI, then implementing JDF is not recommended. Therefore, printers with very limited capital spending are restricted to their existing equipment that are not able to “talk” to the rest of the workflow like the way JDF does.

JDF has its limitations too. Printers cannot just suddenly switch to a JDF-enabled workflow overnight, and they cannot simply add on a JDF-enabled product. Unless their current workflow is compatible with JDF, a complete revamp is required. It does not make sense to have a robust front end prepress system, if a printer’s current system are all analog; data would be rendered useless because the equipment downstream cannot communicate with the rest of the workflow.

Considerations for JDF: Is it for Everybody?

Technically, JDF is within everybody’s reach. Its quality and abilities can benefit all types of workflow, no matter how simple or complex they are. However, it seems that medium- to large-size companies will most likely benefit the most out of using this technology, because they are the ones that have a greater spending capital to invest on JDF; not only in the technology, but also being able to maintain it by hiring IT personnel. Because the ROI with implementing JDF-enabled systems into a workflow can be lengthy, smaller companies that decide on utilizing it may face financial distress. It also depends on the types of job that the printers are using with their JDF workflow. Long-term contract work such as publication printing may see a faster return on investment.

It is not suggested that small companies would not benefit from investing in JDF technology. In fact with careful purchase planning, they can acquire some sort of JDF-enabled workflow that would allow better and efficient data handling. Smaller companies can also benefit against their competitors that do not offer web2print and other automated print solutions.

Thorough planning must be implemented for all stages of a company workflow. According to the publication ‘JDF: A Guide for Managers’, the following questions should be asked before adopting JDF:

• Does integration fit with our business strategy?

• What are our expectations? Are these expectations achievable?

• What is our capital spending plan for the next 5 years? 10 year?

• Do we have the people/resources to make it happen and the commitment to follow through it?

• Do we have buy-in from key decision makers and team members?

• What is our competition doing? Will this help us keep up or set us apart?

• At what point might we have to rethink or rework more of our workflow than makes sense for implementation?

Again, only invest in JDF if your company’s workflow needs it and that you have the capital expenditure to do so. Better yet, money should be spent on maintenance on presses. My contact, Dixon Fan, gave an example regarding that statement: “it would be counter-productive for a printer if they have a perfect ink zone data, but the final print turns out to look horrendous because their rollers were not functioning properly. They could have had the money to replace for new ones, but instead spent on JDF-enabled equipments.”

Conclusion

JDF is here for the long haul, no doubt about it. Because the motivation in conforming towards greater automation in the printing industry is so great, it is just a matter of time before JDF becomes even more recognized. It cannot be stressed enough that, although the benefits with JDF are countless, they do not happen overnight. More importantly, printers should not expect to see a sudden influx of profit from the immediate implementation of JDF. Even if printers cannot conform to a fully JDF-integrated system as their workflow, they can still do partial implementations. Ultimately the printing industry must seek to automate to stay in business.

About Andrew Leung

Andrew is a 4th year student at Ryerson University in Toronto, where he is completing his major in the Graphic Communications Management program, as well as his minor in Marketing.