I recently attended the Canon Solutions America PPS Leadership Forum at its Poing factory on March 18^th & 19^th and took the opportunity to catch up with the Océ team.

Canon Solutions America, formerly Océ, frequently hosts customers, and prospects at its newly redesigned Customer Engagement Center (CEC), an entire hall in its manufacturing complex. The user friendly CEC environment included a coffee bar, tables for small group discussions, a lounge area, meeting rooms, information & hospitality desk, as well as a floor map to aid visitors in finding solutions of interest. The CEC was thoughtfully arranged and included the newest product announcements from Canon Solutions America, the Océ JetStream 5500 and Océ ColorStream 3900s with fast MICR and invisible ink.  .

The agenda included a flexible schedule with industry tracks led by industry analysts & experts. Océ clients and prospects were allowed to select the most appropriate sessions and have deep interactions with both Océ staff and presenters.

Here are a few important take-aways from my visit:

• Canon integration appears complete. Canon’s integration of Océ production printing, especially for North America appears to be successful and complete. I dined with Toyotsugu “Toyo” Kuwamura, president of Canon Solutions America, and he outlined his vision for the future Océ. His plans of continued investment and pursuit of new markets with the combined Canon/Océ solutions will extend the reach of both organizations into new markets.

• Migration to Color Inkjet successful. From virtually zero market share in 2008 in the inkjet market, to the identified market share leader (>35%) in both placements and images, Océ has successfully reinvented its product line to stay ahead of the market demand.

• Continued technology advancements. Canon Solutions America is not content to rest on past successes, and is extending its Océ ColorStream & Océ JetStream product lines to support additional applications. The introduction of new security inks, including MICR, Fugitive and Invisible, extends the toolset for secure document creation already available from Canon Solutions America.

While not new, but still visually impressive, are the clean lines and paper path of the Océ ColorStream 3000 series. During our demonstration, the front doors were left open, and the speed, image quality, and simplicity of the device was readily apparent. An Océ ColorStream prospect present noted “it’s no wonder these are the leading placement devices in its class”. Here is a photo of the inside:

Note the new, refined and slimmer drying unit. By using less water, there is less liquid to evaporate, and therefore no need for industrial strength drying units, and their power consumption and heat byproduct. In fact, Canon Solutions America reports that the Océ ColorStream 3000 series uses up to 1/3 the power consumption of alternative inkjet solutions.

Every single person sees color differently, as does most every single press. That reality presents an ongoing challenge for manufacturers, particularly when asked by customers to quote prices for ink and coverage.

“It’s one of the most important conversations we have with customers,” according to Guy Broadhurst, VP Technology and Client Solution for Canon Solutions America. Guy led a CSA Press Go webinar on February (date), entitled “Ink Coverage and Ink Cost – An Approach to Standardization.”

The very terms – “ink coverage” and “ink cost” – often get mistakenly interchanged, according to Guy. He cited common requests, such as, “Give me a price for 5% coverage or with this media,” or “What’s my cost per copy?”

Good, Better or Best?

There are no stock answers. The influence of paper on ink coverage is the biggest factor in inkjet printing, Guy notes. “We must ask, ‘Do you want good, better or best paper?’”

Interestingly, the cost per impression rises as quality of paper decreases.  Multiply that difference over a 5-year period, and your ink cost rises considerably as quality of paper decreases. 

The Only Option

Guy now injects “an objective component” into what has traditionally been a subjective decision. His new standardized approach uses these criteria:

1. Provide the best fidelity — the paper that offers the greatest color gamut.
2. Print a defined color patch using all colors as a defined percentage of the sheet, and provide the exact cost. This becomes the control for comparing vendor to vendor.
3. Ask for a targeted color and variance allowed, measured by a deltaE. The difference of 1 DeltaE can mean hundreds of thousands in extra costs.

Subjective measurements have skewed the conversation for too long, Guy asserts – much to the customers’ detriment. It’s time introduce objectivity into the equation for measuring print quality.

Last week, Canon hosted a cross-section of prominent companies from the graphic arts, book, direct mail and transaction printing segments in Munich Germany. I was pleased to be invited, along with other expert presenters from Gartner, InfoTrends, InterQuest, IT Strategies, Madison Advisors and NAPL. The  Leadership  Forum was held at Canon’s impressive 14,000 square foot Customer Experience Center where several cutsheet toner presses and a huge array of high-volume, continuous feed inkjet presses were configured as custom application demonstrations. I had ample opportunity to network with attendees and learn what was driving them to update their technology. While not specifically an inkjet event, the majority of attendees at the Leadership Forum were evaluating the transition to inkjet or expanding on an existing inkjet implementation. The top three reasons cited:

• Speed/Time to market requirements;
• Full-color, white paper efficiencies;
• Plans to enter new markets.

My charter was to prepare a wrap-up session on “Preparing Your Business for Inkjet ” along with two customers; Bob Radzis of SG360 (a direct mailer) and Mike McCombs of RevSpring (a transaction printer.) These two gentlemen shared their successes with transitioning to inkjet along with candid feedback on the challenges they faced as early adopters. Dialogue with attendees focused on perceived challenges with inkjet adoption but, there were very few actual barriers cited. Some key take-aways were:

• Inkjet has clearly reached a tipping point among high-volume printers of variable applications;
• Quality is no longer perceived as a barrier to adoption;
• Customers were encouraged by the increasing variety and availability of inkjet papers and seemed confident that the trend would continue;
• Customer seemed to recognize that the right workflow solution was as critical as selecting the right press but were less aware of the critical tradeoffs between paper selection and ink usage;
• The major remaining obstacle to inkjet adoption is production volume. Mid-volume companies often can’t generate the business case for inkjet.

While this was a working trip for me, it was also an opportunity to attend great sessions covering the social, economic and technical factors that are changing the print industry in general, as well as, drill-down sessions on key drivers of change in book printing, direct mail and transaction printing specifically. Whether you are a print provider or a consultant there is constantly more to learn in our industry and the Canon Leadership Forum did a great job of blending business, technical and market related content with product demonstrations and networking opportunities. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Canon’s CEC, or attend a future Leadership Forum I highly recommend the trip.

Elizabeth Gooding is the President of Gooding Communications Group and editor of the Insight Forums blog. She writes and speaks and provides training on trends and opportunities for business communications professionals within regulated vertical industries.

Yesterday, I updated “Digital Printing: Transforming Marketing and Print Management,” my primer on how digital production (toner, inkjet) changes how businesses view and manage their marketing. Every time I do a major update, it’s always interesting to me what portions of the report get updated because it’s like a running history of our industry.

This time, it was all about tweaking for inkjet. Even a year ago, references to high-speed, high-resolution inkjet were made in passing. It was an up-and-coming technology that needed to be acknowledged for the report to be comprehensive, but it wasn’t really having a major impact yet.

This time, inkjet became just another item in discussions and bulleted lists alongside business-class, dry toner, and liquid toner machines.

I also overhauled the section on recyclability concerns. Dye-based inkjet poses challenges for the recycling stream since the particles are so fine that the papers are hard to de-ink. Thus inkjet had posed notable recycling concerns for environmentally conscious marketers. But this new class of high-speed, high-resolution inkjet uses pigment-based inks that can be handled like toner-based print, removing these concerns from the equation.

Dye-based inkjet is still the majority of the overall production inkjet market, but in terms of commercial applications, which are under discussion on these pages, pigment-based inkjet will soon be the default.

Then there is the nod to high-speed, high-resolution sheetfed inkjet. This is no longer a rollfed-only market.

This class of inkjet presses offers expensive machines, so widespread adoption isn’t going to be overnight. But with this report update, what I’m saying is that we’ve passed the early adoption phase, and now — like toner-based digital production replacing smaller format offset presses in the past — it’s just a matter of time and attrition.

We all know that e-readers are everywhere these days and, in only a few years, have become a commonplace way to consumer your favorite literature. But as the title of this blog suggests, an e-reader is not for everyone. Not everyone has the tech-savvy desire or budget for an e-reader and some people just flat out do not want to read books electronically. For some, there is still the allure of being able to physically turn the page of the book he or she is reading. I am one of those people. Even though I’m addicted to my iPhone, iPad, iShuffle and laptop, I still prefer to read my books in print. Perhaps it’s because I am employed by the printing industry, but I like to think it’s the experience of an actual book versus another one of the many tech products we all seem to own now. Maybe I’m just a hipster and like books because they are not the “in” item.

Regardless, books have been around for a long time and they will likely not disappear for good. Therefore, print will continue to play an important role in the book publishing industry, albeit in a somewhat different manner. Most publishers are looking for the ability to print shorter runs and print-on-demand. To do this, offset is not answer; digital printing is. Offset certainly still has its place. But for those of us who did not come up with The Hunger Games or 50 Shade of Grey, it can be hard to justify the high quantities of offset printing. Digital printing offers a flexible solution for printers to be able to print what they want, where they want, when they want, and in whatever quantity they want.

Ultimately, digital printing technology offers numerous benefits for printers. For one, it reduces the risk of having to forecast demand. Printers can now print only what is ordered, thereby eliminating warehousing needs and waste. Digital print also offers blazing fast turnaround times with some book printers being able to fulfill an order within 24 hours of receiving it. Finally, digital print allows for anyone to be a publisher. With no minimums to meet, books can be published in small quantities. Digital also allows for increased creativity through customization and personalization. All while creating a real life book that someone can hold!

The bottom line is that books are not a thing of the past, and by implementing digital printing technology, printers are able to stay in the game and are better equipped to deal with whatever trends may come their way. They can have greater turnover, new revenue opportunities, and improved profitability. And these business benefits are not just limited to book printers! Photo book sellers, self-publishers, non-profits, and corporations can all benefit from the publishing revolution through digital printing technology. The question is… how can you benefit from it?

At a Canon Oce webinar on January 23, InfoTrends Group Director Barbara Pellow presented “2013 Top 10 Trends for the Printing Industry.”

1. Digital Color is King. All bets are on digital color printing. InfoTrends research forecasts an increase from $29.6 to $39.5 billion in the retail value of  U.S. digital color from 2011 through 2016.

2. Digital Wide Format Goes Mainstream. Digital wide format printing evolves into an key component of companies’ marketing strategies, and will continue its 7% CAGR from 2011 through 2016.

3. Inkjet Accelerates Migration from Offset to Digital. New inkjet solutions offer greater speed, quality, substrate flexibility, and finishing –  as well as more  competitive pricing. Major inkjet growth expected from books, direct mail, transpromo and brochure printing.

4. Enhanced Substrates Drive Digital. Digital presses support new, high margin substrates: rugged synthetics; pressure sensitive stocks; specialty media; pre-scored, ready-to-print dimensional stock; new photobook media, and others.

5. Web-to-Print Manages Marketing Supply Chains. Companies spend billions for producing, shipping, storing, and handling literature. PSPs will optimize the marketing supply chain  – offering online print-on-demand collateral catalogues.

6. Content Reigns. Fifty-four percent of B2B firms increase spending on content marketing. PSP’s cultivate “thought leadership” offering content that educates, entertains and motivates.

7. Hyper-Personalization Drives Digital Print. 2013 is the “Year of Hyper-Personalization” – when marketing materials address more relevant, compelling needs of the consumer. Examples: mailers with personalized map directions and printed materials with PURLs linked to pre-approved applications.

8. Trigger-Based Marketing Meets Customer Preferences. Consumers expect real-time, two-way communications, through mobile devices, websites, and social media. PSPs customers will adopt marketing automation technology, e.g., from Market Sprocket, Hubspot, Orange Soda and Hootsuite.

9. Mobile Marketing Changes Communications. PSPs add mobile marketing solutions to the portfolio: mobile codes printed on packaging, POS, and brochures;  “opt-in mobile messaging” to mobile devices; Augmented Reality – digital graphics coded onto physical objects – revealing information or entertainment via mobile devices.

10. Direct Mail and Social Media Converge. PSPs support customers with social media marketing tools from Ducky, Hootsuite, SpreadFast, and others. Campaigns integrating direct mail with social media lift responses for both.

According to a new report from Smithers Pira, “The Future of Variable Data Printing to 2017,” we finally can put some numbers on the overall growth opportunity for variable data printing. These are not hard numbers since Pira does not track the difference between variable and static clicks, but they are “max ceiling” numbers based on total 100% digital + digital preprint/overprint numbers.

Smithers Pira projects the global variable data printing (VDP) market opportunity (not including catalogs and packaging) to be 656,756 million sheets in 2012 or 28% of total output in the areas under review. It forecasts VDP market opportunity to be 853,097 million sheets in 2017 or 34% of total output in the areas under review.

What’s particularly interesting about these numbers is that globally, Pira forecasts traditional print/preprint output to fall by 0.5% CAGR between 2012–17. This tells us that the opportunity for VDP is coming from the overall cannibalization of digital from offset.

Pira forecasts electrophotography, for example, to grow by 1.5% CAGR and inkjet to grow at CAGR of 14.2% on a global basis.  Likewise, 100% digital output is forecast to almost double from 8.2% market share to 14.2%.

In a global print market that is essentially showing stasis or declines in output volumes, these numbers are really striking. We’ve known for a long time that digital is cannibalizing offset, but these forecasts give us some idea of how quickly and to what extent.

As digital market share grows, so does the lure of VDP. Not just for personalization in marketing, but also for process improvement, cost reduction, and efficiency. In fact, these are the areas in which Pira found the opportunities for VDP to be the greatest.

Process improvement is not sexy, but volume is volume, and the more printers start thinking of VDP as a process, not just a marketing approach, the more those opportunities will continue to open up. Plus, process improvement is an easier sell!

Since the advent of high speed color inkjet presses that approach the quality of offset, printers and data centers have begun struggling with the decision of integrating this new technology into their operation.

The decision to move print volume to high speed inkjet is complex and one that does not always have a clear ROI.  Since inkjet brings new and different ways of thinking about everything, you have to implement the system and related changes into your existing operation.

In small-to-midsize printers, this decision will impact nearly every facet of the organization’s processes, including the markets you pursue, how you estimate and price your product, production flow, quality, materials and warehousing, and personnel skills. In many cases, precise navigation these decisions can determine the very survival of the establishment.

But before you get to any of that, first you have to decide if the move to color or monochrome inkjet printing is right for you.  In some cases, modification of your current printing environment is all that is necessary to keep you competitive.  For instance, if you print offset now and have only long runs and little or no variable printing, switching to inkjet most likely will not provided any benefits.  Your efforts should probably be focused on tuning your current production processes.

If you have some of the factors that often make going to inkjet a decent return on investment, that is, you have short runs, need to print variable data, or are overprinting on preprinted material, actually calculating that ROI can be elusive.  Every business case that I have built has been has been completely unique.  Little of any previous analysis was usable. This is mostly because every shop I worked with has accounted for their usage and cost so differently, and each have their own business processes.  Because of that, a single model to capture all of the possible permutations would be so complex that it would lose its value as a template.

And each shop has a different starting point:  Some are all digital already, leveraging the best of the toner technologies, some are all offset, some print variable information on preprinted shells, some carry finished product and some don’t, and some need to meet incredibly tight SLAs.  Some are sheetfed and some are web shops.

Yes, there are common components that remain the same. This includes all the things you may normally think about:  Skilled prepress, press, and finishing labor; Press maintenance and cost of downtime; Plates chemicals and other consumables costs; Toner and click charges; Paper waste and energy costs.  You need to look at ink, paper cost differences, throughput and uptimes, waste, time to produce, cost of shells, and inventory obsolescence. I like to look at some things that you may not consider, like the efficiency gained by consolidating your longer runs to an offset press (if you use offset) and being able to capture business you could not reach in your current state. And if your customers are somewhat flexible, you can add to the business case by demonstrating the efficiencies that minor changes in format or color might give them a marketing advantage or you a cost advantage.

Although you probably have a great handle on your current costs, capturing which of those costs could be eliminated by inkjet, and most importantly, understanding what your new costs REALLY will be, is even more of a challenge. Often, the use of an outside expert could be a very valuable investment. They can help you understand exactly what your new costs will be as you transition to inkjet, model your production with real world data that will give you uptimes for both the printing and finishing environments, help you select and value the new kind of operator labor, and more.

As we speak, I am finishing a round-up of six installations (all but one of which were in 2012) of the current generation of high-resolution, high-speed inkjet devices for the February 2013 issue of Printing Impressions. It’s a follow-up to the one I wrote in the March 2012 issue. It’s always fun to do these sorts of things in back-to-back years to compare how things have changed.

I don’t want to spoil the fun by giving anything away, but here are the top three observations I made while doing the interviews and writing up the article.

1. The companies profiled this year had significant pain points that were solved by high-speed inkjet, but I didn’t sense the level of urgency I heard from last year’s interviewees (which made their installations in late 2010/2011). This year’s crop had pain points that justified early investment, but those pain points weren’t so acute that they couldn’t wait the extra 12 months or so to let the bleeding edge adopters be the guinea pigs.
2. Last year, the installations and integrations had enough challenges and created enough frustration that a number of interviewees were willing to share some of them with me. Those comments weren’t always on the record, but I heard quite a few of them. This year, the overriding answer to, “What surprises did you encounter?” was, “How few surprises there were.”
3. Substrate challenges, including lack of available substrates, was not a significant factor. One interviewee indicated that, at the very high end, the options were still limited, but he expected that to change rapidly enough that he didn’t think it was really worth mentioning.

Overall, these companies found that the biggest challenges were in adjusting to the speed of these presses and the rollfed environment. One company had to make some adjustments just to fit the press into its production facility at all. With the inline finishing, the press was 75 feet long.

Who are these companies, why did they choose the presses they did, and what are the specifics of those installations? Check out Printing Impressions‘ February 2013 issue to find out.

In front of me sits TrendWatch Graphic Arts Publishing  Winter 2001/2002 written by me more than a decade ago. I flipped it open to the business challenges section to see how things had changed. When respondents were asked the question, “In the next 12 months, we must address these major challenges,” it wasn’t what was at the top of the list (the perennial economic conditions, printing costs, and business direction) that were most interesting. It was what was at the bottom.

Here is what publishers were not overly concerned about in 2001/2002.

• Profitably managing shorter deadlines (35% citing this as a top business challenge)
• Putting up their own website (10%)
• developing an Internet strategy (27%)
• Implementing cross-media applications (using the same images, design elements in print, Web, possibly broadcast) (20%)
• Repurposing images/jobs for multiple output formats (15%)
• Fulfillment and distribution issues (14%)
• production for e-books (5%)
• streaming media (5%)
• Competition from Internet sales challens (like Amazon.com) (3%)
• losing sales to e-books (2%)

If I’m not mistaken, don’t these “minor” challenges from 2001/2002 now define the direction of the publishing industry?

If we’re honest, 10 years isn’t that long a time for such radical shifts to take place. Yet the business drivers and production workflows have absolutely turned on their heads in that amount of time.

That bears directly on where the printing industry at large is today. If you think about where we are with social media, full digital production, mobile access and marketing, and e-books now, it’s about the same place all of these other issues were 10 years ago — clearly on the radar and creating pressure, but being pushed to the back burner because they just weren’t bad enough yet. Now what were once back-burner issues are driving the publishing business model.

I’m finishing an update (February 2013 issue) to the high-speed inkjet feature I wrote for Printing Impressions last year. The attitudes, business drivers, and capital investment trends in high-speed inkjet in the publishing, high-volume direct mail, and statement printing verticals reminds me of the early days of toner in commercial printing. In many ways, I feel as if I’m writing the same articles all over again.  New technology, same old cycle.  So it goes with most things, right?

Social media, mobile media, 100% digital production (whether inkjet or toner), and other buzz technologies have long passed the threshold at which they need to be deeply incorporated into our business models. History tells us that, if we’re smart we’ll do it now because that shift is going to happen with or without us anyway.

It should come as no surprise that more and more people are shifting their once offline activities to online activities. This is true for things like shopping, reading newspapers, keeping in touch with friends and family. In fact, you are even reading you are even checking on your industry virtually by reading this online blog. This trend has numerous meanings for the printing industry which affects book printing, magazine printing, creating marketing communications, and… printed bills and statements. Scary stuff for the printing industry! But, is this shift actually as prevalent as we think it is?

According to a massive 2011 InfoTrends study, the shift is taking place slower than anticipated. In fact, only 11% of American consumers receive their bills electronically. While there is a push on the part of billers to move billing and payments online, the vast majority of customers still prefer a printed statement. That is the good news for printers. However, younger generations between the ages of 18-24 seem to have adapted most to online billing and payments, which may suggest that future generations will do the same.

What does this mean for printers? It means that they don’t need to panic yet. But they do need to keep an eye on the future and whether or not this trend of online activity continues to shift. In all likeliness, it will. Unless printers can come up with creative reasons why the printed piece is more powerful. With the increases in variable data printing capabilities, printed statements can act as a personal and impactful touch point with customers that the online experience may not fully provide.  A printed statement can be an opportunity to inform, educate, and promote. This is especially important when considering that, according to InfoTrends, printed statements are still the best way to cut through the clutter of communications.

So don’t give up on the printed statement! Think of it as a challenge to capture emerging generations. Could this be a new resolution for 2013??

Every year, technology allows companies to make more responsible decisions about the environment, and with each passing year, awareness amongst business owners and consumers seems to be rising. The American Forest and Paper Association reported that paper recovery from 2011 was up to 66.8%, which is over twice the conservation compared to 1990. Energy usage is down, Greenhouse gases are down, and all indications show that these trends will continue. What is at the core of these significant industry shifts?

Organizations are taking steps to reduce environmental impact and can make smart decisions about the supplies they do use. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international not-for-profit organization designed to reduce environmental impact. Organizations displaying the FSC logo guarantee that the product comes from responsible sources—environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable.

Additionally, modern print equipment, especially printers with “waste-free” systems and roll-to-roll printing (that starts printing the first page as soon as the roll begins) produce amazing image quality and reduce waste. Digital printing, by nature, is significantly more waste-efficient, as the chemicals and proofing associated with offset printing are reduced.

The video above illustrates the fluid process of quality management with sophisticated digital print machinery, where the documents can also come to a complete stop and restart, without any white pages in between, mid-run without having to restart the process or check and discard proofed documents.

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” was a mantra that was stressed to me at an early age, and responsible printers are doing just that. Printers nationwide can rejoice in the fact that a combination of environmental responsibility and advances in technology are making a difference in the preservation of our natural resources.

As an FSC-certified company, we are not only cognizant of environmental impact, but we are also investing in technology, like the Océ ColorStream® 3500, that emphasizes the importance of waste reduction and how it impacts the sustainability of our environment.

This post provided by Evan Childs, SourceLink blog contributor. 

When it comes to electronics (the newest gadgets on the market), I definitely put myself in the laggard category for adoption. I’m usually never the first guy on my block to have the newest electronic gadgets. I’m the slow and steady guy who likes to think that I can do without many of these gadgets, as I’ve done for my entire life prior to owning one. So suffice it to say that I was a bit shocked to learn that I’m apparently one of the early adopters for a technology that helps me to understand my energy consumption and make smarter energy choices. I am the proud owner of a Nest®.

I first learned of Nest while attending a utility conference in Dallas, TX. It sounded pretty cool, but why would I need that “thing”? I’ve lived without it all these years, so my programmable thermostat is just fine (I thought to myself). Shortly after returning from that conference, my wife had mentioned that our utility bill seemed to be unnecessarily higher than the past. So we did a little investigation…

Our utility bill provides some useful charts and consumption history detail, so identifying the spike in usage was relatively easy. It was clear that the oppressive and seemingly never-ending heat wave of the summer of 2012 had taken its toll on our wallets, via our utility bill. I swear my AC ran non-stop for a week.

A quick review of our spiking electric usage confirmed that we were using more electricity than any prior month this year, and significantly more than the same period last year. So I bit the proverbial bullet and bought a Nest. If you’re not familiar with this little trinket, it’s a very intelligent thermostat to control your AC and heat. What makes this device simply amazing is the fact that it learns your behaviors. It’s a plug-and-go thermostat that literally helps you to make better energy choices. Nest (somehow) knows when you’re not home.

Nest somehow knows when I walk in the door, as it immediately kicks on my AC unit the split second I enter the house. (Still can’t figure out how it knows when I get home… a little creepy, but very awesome). Not to mention that I can control Nest from my iPad (Screenshot above) and have it prepare for my arrivals or vacations!

Utility companies are under increasing pressure from regulators to reduce grid demand for electricity, particularly in peak season (summer in the North East) when demand is at its highest. This becomes critical to many utility companies when excessive heat strikes a region. Demand must be regulated (or in some cases reduced) to avoid stressing the system and causing a blackout. Reducing the demand can happen by force (the utility has to temporarily shut down select customers for short period of time) or by a more preferred method all around – by the utility’s customers voluntarily reducing their demand by making slight adjustments to their usage behaviors.

Technology has made smarter energy consumption choices much easier than in the past. But beyond the technology that is now available, better billing statements are equally critical to this end result of smarter energy consumption and usage.

Had it not been for the usage history charts on my utility’s billing statements, I would have assumed that the rate increase for peak usage periods was the primary cause of the spike in my bill. Thus, from this consumer’s perspective, smarter bills lead to smarter consumers, which leads to smarter energy choices, which leads to a decrease on the demand for energy during peak energy consumption periods.

My wife and I now enjoy receiving our utility bill and watching as the usage charts decrease from month to month as compared to the same period last year. We especially enjoy watching our bill shrink. It has become somewhat of a game in our household. But for the record, it all started with an easy to read utility statement.

As utility companies evaluate the benefits of statement redesign, and making bills easier to read, I propose that they include reduction in demand as a likely outcome to a bill redesign. Had my bill been an old legacy-system generated bill with no usage charts or valuable consumption visuals, I never would have purchased my Nest and my usage behavior probably never would have changed either.

The technology is amazing. But just as amazing to me how important, effective and easy to understand a utility bill can be in driving customers to make smarter choices.

Graph Expo 2012 has officially begun. Months of preparation on the part of exhibitors has paid off to create a lively and stimulating environment. I’m always amazed at how exhibitors transform an enormous hall into a series of inviting showcases. As usual, exhibitors compete with each other to drive traffic to their booths.

Stages are big this year. I remember two years ago when Xerox had the biggest stage. But this year, Océ /Canon and HP clearly take the prize. HP has an impressive stage set up that delivers engaging sales pitches on steroids. But if you are looking for a more enlightening experience, be sure to stop by the Canon Live Theater where Canon and Océ partnered with WhatTheyThink to host informative sessions throughout the show. Topics will include: Affordable Sustainability, Supply Chain Optimization, the Changing Face of Publishing, and What to look for in a business partner. I caught today’s first session on Digital Packaging Trends which featured a real customer speaking about his operations and how digital printing and print-on-demand allowed him to keep up with industry change and manage his printed inventories better. The list of live sessions can be found here including a link to watch everything streaming live. Xerox does have a new idea this year – improv session. I’ll have to check one out Monday. As I walked around the show floor more, I noticed numerous other presentations and mini-stages set up… so it certainly is a popular way to reach show attendees!

Like every other year, posters are also quite popular this year, as evidenced by the crowds of people walking around with poster bags. The leading poster providers seem to be Komori, KBA, and Scodix. Gunther smartly realized that so many people walk around carrying their loot and decided to brand wheeling storage units that people can cart with them. Free stuff galore!

Judging from Day 1, there are a few hot topics this year that numerous exhibitors are demonstrating their capabilities in. Inkjet Printing is big this year and is being covered by live sessions on both the Océ/Canon stage and on the HP stage. Automation and software seem to also be a popular topics as print providers today are striving for more streamlined end-to-end solutions. We’re talking automation at the beginning (with feeders) and automation at the end (like envelope inserting). Print-on-demand is yet another key topic. In-RoomPlus described today in the Digital Packaging Trends session at Canon Live Theater how they are able to quickly reprint catalogs as their prices change and how they can print small batches of product mock-ups to use as aids with customers during the sales process. Print-on-demand is so big now in the publishing world that Océ will help launch Daydream Alchemy Press – a publisher inspired by bringing projects to life using today’s print technologies – during Graph Expo.

All in all, there is a lot to see and do at Graph Expo 2012. It will surely be a busy, yet exciting, few days!

When we talk about the future of digital printing, we talk about variable data and how the future of print marketing is in 1:1 / personalized printing. But does that mean that volumes of data-driven printing are growing? Or if they are, that marketing applications are driving the growth? Not necessarily.

On October 31, Pira is releasing a report “The Future of Variable Data Printing to 2017” that I am currently finishing writing. In it, there are some sobering statistics.  I’m not sure at this point what numbers I can release, so I’ll just speak in generalities for now.

Globally, VDP is forecast to rise only incrementally between 2012-17. In the areas of promotion and marketing, it’s forecast to be down incrementally — something that flies in the face of conventional wisdom.

In this industry, we talk about the value of ROI, real-time tracking, monitoring, metrics, and measurement, personalization and relevance, and so on, as driving growth in the markets. To a certain extent, that’s true. It drives a shift in the ratio between static and personalized printing in some markets. But this isn’t a blanket statement we can make.

VDP is also used for pure production efficiency and serialization, which is something we don’t talk about much but which, according to these global Pira numbers, is a much larger factor in overall market growth than VDP for marketing and promotion.

For a long time, there has been a disconnect between the promise and reality when it comes to the opportunities in VDP for the average printer. The more I fully absorb these Pira statistics, the more I see why. VDP offers growth potential, but it’s in pockets. It’s in certain applications, in certain geographies, and using certain production processes. If you have the right application but wrong process, if you have the right process but wrong geography, it’s no wonder it’s such a tough row to hoe.