Increasingly, marketers are gathering more data. But do they know what to do with it once they have it?

According to a research study by the Aberdeen Group last year (and now being offered a free download by Adobe), best in class marketing organizations are gathering loads of data through techniques like website visitor tracking; tracking, measurement, and reporting on all marketing campaign results; and testing effectiveness of campaign content; but too few are taking the critical, additional steps to understand exactly what these data mean or how to use them.

For example, do CMOs know what these data tell them about the identity, behavior, and potential spend of their prospects and customers? Are they using this data to build unique customer profiles and personas to match specific campaign goals? Do they know who is spending the most money, when, and why?

Not enough of them.

Likewise, too few have campaign dashboards that allow them to coordinate what they know and what they are learning on the ground across their various channels. As the report notes:

As the volume of customer-related data (transactional, behavioral, and unstructured) continues to grow, marketing organizations are in danger of becoming increasingly data-rich but insight-poor.

In other words, it’s great to have data, but if you’re not using it properly, it’s like having a full toolkit but only taking the hammer out of the box.

As service providers, this leads to an interesting question. Are you focused on encouraging customers to gather data? Or are you encouraging them to dig deep to figure out how to use that data once they have it? Finally, are you prepared — really prepared — to help them do that?

This research includes profiles of best-in-class strategies for managing data (including process, technology, knowledge management, organization, and benchmarking performance), along with illustrative case studies. Best of all, it’s free. Check it out.

It truly is a whole new world for book publishing. No matter where you are – at the beach, on an airplane, or in the subway – you will see people with their Kindles or iPads. There are headlines in every magazine and newspaper about Google’s Publishing platform, tools from Apple that threaten the text book market, Amazon’s success with ebooks, and predictions of the demise of the publishing industry as we know it.

While the transition to digital is not moving at the same rate for all publishing segments (Trade, K–12, Higher Education, Professional, and Scholarly), it is generally believed that ebook sales will account for a substantial portion of trade revenues within the next five years. Just a few years ago, traditional companies were more frightened of this transformation than excited about the opportunity. Today, this has reversed. Printers, publishers, booksellers, distributors, and agents have embraced the new technologies and are retooling their businesses to accommodate a world of digital and printed books.

The Good News… Book Sales Are Up!
In August 2011, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) released the U.S. BookStats. This is considered one of the most comprehensive statistical surveys conducted in the modern publishing industry. It is focused on capturing size, scope, revenue, and expansion across multi-platform content and sales distribution channels. Net sales for publishers increased to $27.94 billion in 2010, representing a 5.6% increase over 2008. Publishers sold 2.57 billion net units in 2010, marking a 5.6% increase over 2008. Growth hit all segments. Higher education was up 18.7%, with sales reaching $4.55 billion in 2010.Sale of trade books grew 5.8% to $13.9 billion, partly fueled by ebooks. One of the strongest growth areas was adult fiction, which saw a revenue increase of 8.8%. While ebooks represented only .6% of the total market in 2008, this share had risen to 6.4% by 2010. A September 2011 Harris Poll indicates that one in six Americans (15%) currently uses an eReader, while another 15% plan to purchase one in the next six months. At the same time, however, this also implies that 70% of the market does not own an eReader and has no near-term plans to acquire one.

The key message is that eReaders are definitely here to stay, so the printing and publishing worlds must change with the times. There will always be a place for hardcover and paperback books, but recent developments will demand a huge transition for book printers and publishers alike. How businesses adapt will determine who is left standing five years from now.

Check back next week for Part 2 of this post!

Spectra Integration (Columbia, SC) is a full-service incentives, marketing, print, and fulfillment company that is focused on integrating strategies and technologies to help its clients grow their businesses. The company’s mantra is Outsource to the OneSource. Spectra Integration provides clients with a comprehensive offering of integrated services, including the ability to tailor campaigns, increase response rates, and provide a true 1:1 experience.

President Walter Kohn notes, “I’ve been in the printing industry for more than thirty years. Initially, I was part of a family-held traditional printing company with 40″ offset presses. I realized that the market was changing and that I wanted to be part of an organization that was focused and nimble. Spectra Integration became that company.”

Spectra, which offers an array of digital printing equipment, produces full variable data content in monochrome as well as color. The Océ VarioPrint® 6000 has proven to be a real “workhorse” for digital monochrome applications. According to Kohn, “We have naturally evolved our business. We started out doing short run digital print applications. Our next major initiative was web portals for online print ordering.”

Spectra Integration has created a unique, secure, online e-business for clients and their authorized users to process pricing requests, order print, transfer files, review status updates, and more via web-to-print portals created with PTI’s FusionPro. “These capabilities are available 24/7 through standard Internet browsers. It makes the entire print buying process easier, reduces response time, and accelerates production,” Kohn explains.

Spectra Integration combines its web-based tool set with its fulfillment programs to provide clients with a highly efficient and cost-effective method to design, manufacture, store, manage, and distribute all of their marketing kit materials on demand.

The company’s web-oriented fulfillment capabilities ultimately led it into the loyalty incentive business. Kohn notes that the move into this market began with an existing client. He recalls, “We responded to an Ariba bid process for the printing and fulfillment work of a large automotive distributor. We won the deal and began printing and fulfilling the auto distributor’s marketing materials, point-of-purchase communications, and signage. When this client told us that they were unhappy with their existing rewards and incentives program for their dealer network, we saw a new opportunity and took action.”

Spectra has since formed Spectra Incentives, LLC. It has become a one-stop shop for creation, online management, and marketing of incentive and reward programs for dealer and distributor networks. While a key element of all these programs is print and fulfillment, Spectra Incentives also created a network of partners to provide IT infrastructure, as well as a rewards program that features over 15 million products in its online catalog. These include dealer incentives for everything from trips to Tahiti to television sets.

Kohn is passionate about his business. He concludes, “It has been a journey and an evolution. Five years ago, 95% of our business was print-related and 5% was fulfillment. We have totally transformed the company since that time, and our revenue distribution is now 50% print, 25% mailing and fulfillment, and 25% incentives and loyalty programs. We have clearly become a marketing services provider.”

You can read more customer highlight stories by downloading the monthly WOW at Work newsletters here!

In mid-March, a new LinkedIn Group — Digital Postal Mail and e-Postal Cloud Solutions — popped up. The first question posed to the group was, “With Doxo, Zumbox, Intuit’s Mint, PageOnce, Pitney Bowes’s Volly, and Manilla leading the way, what demographic is likely to be the first to adopt?”

So who are these new digital folks and what are they offering. Here’s a quick rundown.

Doxo Provides free cloud storage and easy retrieval for bills, statements, and important documents. To participate, the user adds accounts selected from the doxo directory to create folders in which to store documents. Doxo incorporates pay documents with amount due and due date, review documents, receipt documents, and generic documents.

Manilla gathers all of the information needed to manage bills and accounts and puts it in one secure place, available 24/7. With automatic reminders, Manilla lets users know when important bills are almost due, or when rewards points are about to expire. Manilla includes free storage, custom alerts, reminders, and 24/7 access. Manilla has automated access to more than 1,200 service providers in the U.S., such as cell phone, cable or satellite, bank, credit card and other companies.

Pitney Bowes’s Volly  is a customer-based digital platform that consolidates bills, statements, coupons and other mailed content in a single, secure online application. By enabling the use of both physical and digital mail, Volly enables users to connect with customers in the way they prefer. Chuck Cordray, president of Volly says, “Right now, Pitney Bowes is working with mailers and service bureaus to meet the demand for change in the industry, while still maintaining the brand integrity of their customers and confidence of consumers that modernizing their interactions with businesses can be done easily, effectively and, best of all, for free.”

Zumbox works with mailers to deliver a digital version of the mail they already send to your digital postal mail account. Sign up is free, by providing your name and street address. Zumbox then automatically matches consumers with companies that mail to the consumer’s address and which support igital postal mail.

So, to address the question, who will adopt first? The LinkedIn discussion was lively. Matt Swain, associate director at InfoTrends, reported that “The consumer is in control and will expect access to the document through a number of channels – print, biller direct, consolidators, digital mailbox (digital postal mail), mobile app, etc. It is the job of the businesses to ensure that they are providing a strong consumer experience.”

Personally, I’m betting the adopters will be people who:

1. Are part of the big move to mobile and pad devices;

2. Feel comfortable with online financial transactions;

3. Have embraced social media and have zero concern about “putting it all out there;”;

4. Are desperate to somehow manage, with technology, a life made overly complex by technology itself.

In short, like it or not, I’m expecting widespread consumer acceptance … and I’m betting it will happen in 2014. You?

The other day, as I was renting the latest blockbuster hit from the bright red video kiosk beside my pharmacy, my wife called from her vehicle to me about how she wished there was a candy machine beside the video rental device. I related to her that this is the basis of transpromotional marketing! She was unimpressed. This instance got me thinking, “why don’t more businesses take advantage of the captive audience at their hands?”

For example, with data and research, a snack and soda machine attached to this video rental station could use my selection to provide pertinent recommendations based on my film choice. If I rented “The Fast and the Furious,” the machine may suggest an energy drink and some pork rinds; for “The Artist” it might recommend truffles and Perrier; “Toy Story 3″ would come packaged with a case of juice boxes and some Skittles. You get the idea.

The point I am getting to is with the consumer data that companies already have at their fingertips, very sophisticated cross-promotional opportunities exist. Utility companies can analyze usage and print energy saving tips or a coupon for fluorescent light bulbs directly on the side-panel of a monthly statement. A bank might be able to advertise upcoming offerings for overdraft protection based on customers that have bounced a check, or a referral program routed through social media (and gather more data in the meantime). Every industry that sends printed statements or business mailings has the opportunity to maximize every inch of their mailing with modern print technology and a provider than can handle the data.

Perhaps we are not too far away from days where my copy of “Animal House” comes complete with a six-pack and a bag of marshmallows (if you’ve seen the movie, you get the reference), but until then, businesses take note! The technology is available, the data is there, the audience is already identified, so take advantage of it!

This post was provided by Matt Haskell who writes for the SourceLink blog. Check it out!

The last drupa international print fair and the upcoming one have both been characterized as the “inkjet drupa.” This seems appropriate especially given how inkjet technology has steadily advanced and become buzz-worthy in recent years. This year, high-speed inkjet manufacturers will be out in full force to display their newest and greatest inkjet solutions at drupa 2012.

Pat Henry of WhatTheyThink recently spoke with Roland Stasiczek, Director of Marketing, Continuous Feed Printers, Océ Printing Systems to discuss the Océ briefing presented in Munich. Roland also previews what to expect from Océ at drupa 2012 including the newest addition of the ColorStream 3700 inkjet press.

Sticking with the inkjet trend, Océ predicts that digital printing will account for %14 of global printing revenues by 2014. Roland sites three main factors driving this growth including:

1. Increasing media fragmentation.
2. Information supply and demand which drives on-demand printing.
3. Increase of personalized and targeted communications.

For more detail, check out the interview video.

With the growing trend of printer’s desire to have “one-stop-shop” printing systems, one wonders if we will also see an increase in finishing solutions and options at this year’s drupa. It seems logical given the shift to providing complete and customizable end-to-end solutions. Printers are looking for finishing systems that will fit seamlessly into their digital technology production lines that will further automate the printing process.

So what will we see at drupa 2012??? Stay tuned for a post-conference recap webinar coming in June 2012!

Do you know which stock is the top performer of the past 25 years? Guess again. (You said Apple, didn’t you?) After you’ve exhausted your list of high-tech guesses, I will point you in the opposite direction. Think nuts and bolts. Fastenal, a hardware supplier founded in 1967, is up a staggering 38,565 percent since the market crash of 1987. Lagging far behind at 9,906% and 5,542% respectively, are Microsoft and Apple.

So why, in The Digital Nirvana, am I talking about a hardware company? Like the printing companies and mailers of all sizes striving to become “marketing services providers”, Fastenal’s products are not in the least bit exciting, but are necessary, just as printing and mailing are still important components of marketing communications strategies. Unlike many of those printers and mailers, Fastenal, with its low-tech products, is consistently growing revenue and is consistently, respectably, profitable – the stock market does not respond with such enthusiasm to “just okay” companies.

For printers and mailers challenged to transition to being marketing services providers, presumably requiring less big hardware, (and square footage), and more robust software technology and new skills, here is a very successful company to examine and compare to.

If you are unfamiliar with Fastenal, as I was, much of what we believe we know about successful businesses today would compel us to make some assumptions. Surely it is internet-based with strategically placed warehouses and sophisticated inventory and distribution management software and systems, right? The reality is the opposite, at least the “internet-based” part; we’re talking serious brick and mortar – stores in all 50 states and internationally, and several manufacturing sites around the country. The company focuses on the customer, and being close to them. Its innovations, quality, and process improvement efforts are customer-centric. It has enjoyed consistent revenue and profit growth and is as efficient as it’s ever been. The robust continuous improvement culture even includes providing process mapping and process improvement support to customers, as well as being a key part of internal operations.

So, do printers and mailers have to completely abandon their roots in favor of new marketing communication channels in order to be relevant in this age of declining paper-based communications? It would seem not – nuts and bolts are not sexy. But this example would suggest that there must be a continuous commitment to understanding what the customer needs, a vision of solutions to meet those needs, investment in appropriate technology, and a structured ongoing process improvement effort to achieve the necessary efficiencies to be cost competitive and profitable over the long haul.

There are certainly no big surprises here, but it’s good to be reminded that there is no silver bullet, and a successful company is the sum of many parts. Being a process person myself, I was very happy to see how important and integral process improvement appears to be for this company. Process improvement drives efficiency, eliminates waste, streamlines operations, and supports effective integration of new systems and technology, resulting in lower costs. It can be an integral component of greater success for the companies that embrace and commit to it.

Two years later – have you gotten up to speed?

Almost two years ago American Printer published an article titled “Get up to Speed”, written by Kenneth Rizzo at PIA.  This article contained some information that really challenged the status quo within our industry.  What have we learned over the last two years, and where are we today?  I’d like to share some thoughts upon re-reading the article.

Technology and productive innovation have continued to accelerate and are often still perceived or presented as the solution. Operations are still too often treated as process siloes, with metrics based on faulty assumptions or poor data collection and analysis.   In some cases, there are no actionable metrics at all.   The most knowledgeable staff members have dwindled with attempts at cost reduction through downsizing or attrition, and the ones remaining are fighting more fires than ever.  The staff is still often the focus for problem resolution “we’ve gotten more aggressive on writing people up”, is a phrase we heard recently from a manager at the end of his rope.

Mr. Rizzo puts forth several valuable recommendations on skills that printing management must learn to employ to optimize their business performance, which can be found in the article.  My take away from these is that as members of the print industry, we need to optimize the whole process and all the steps involved, from content creation to format to production through delivery in order to have the most efficient and effective offering, versus optimizing the around and for the most expensive technology or an individual function or activity.  The key principles of Business Process Improvement provide a way for each enterprise to analyze, prioritize, and implement process and organizational change, to “Get up to Speed” and be competitive within the industry delivering customer-focused solutions.  When you read this article, what are your thoughts about what has happened in the last two years, your own company’s progress, and where do you need help?  The following link will take you to the original article.

Richard J Losch
Partner, R3D2 Consulting LLC

Cause marketing is a well-minded marketing initiative that connects the cause of non-profit organizations with the reach and audience of businesses to create a mutually beneficial relationship. The strength in this approach is the business’ ability to provide greater visibility to the non-profit and to capitalize on people’s point of purchase decisions. Non-profits benefit from cause marketing through the ability to share their message with larger audiences and to solicit donations and support from these audiences. The business benefits from a positive brand reputation through the association with a non-profit organization. It’s a win-win situation.

Cause marketing can take a few different forms. Think of pink Yoplait’s “Save Lids and Save Lives” program that benefits the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Another popular campaign is Project Red at the Gap where proceeds from sales benefit The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis & Malaria. While these are all highly successful and integrated campaigns, others are not quite so innovative.

When checking out at the grocery store, I’ve been offered tickets to donate $1, $3, or $5 to help feed a child. Maybe I’m just an evil person because I know this is a great cause, but nothing about the offer compels me make this donation. It’s just another way in which people are constantly asked for money. Another example are the tear-off pieces of paper that you can write your name on and post on a wall in return for a $1 donation to some specific cause. While I like the idea of showing solidarity in support through the arrangement of papers on the wall – this is still not something that really inspires me or moves me to act. Yes, it’s easy (and that’s part of the success with point-of-purchase cause marketing), but it’s not compelling.

This is where I can envision an opportunity for print excellence to excite the world of cause marketing. Marketing service providers and print shops are so skilled at creating promotional items that you want to pick up and immerse yourself in. Why not tap into this excellence to promote the non-profit world?

Here’s what I’m thinking… Imagine waiting in line at the grocery store and instead of leafing through a tabloid magazine, you pick up a perfectly bound book complete with full color photos on fresh, glossy paper illustrating the plight of Tigers in Eastern Asia or a struggling village in Libya. Would you be motivated to add $1 to your grocery bill to help this cause? I imagine this book would move you to act much more than a paper-wrapped can or a simple graphic tear-off paper begging your donation. (Of course, the grocery store would want to secure the photo book to the check out area, but I’m sure that is possible).

Or what if when you donated to a cause, instead of receiving a tear-off paper, you received a glossy postcard with an image of those tigers or village residents? The donor could then mail this postcard to a friend or relative and essentially say, “I just donated to XYZ cause at XYZ store. Stop by XYZ so you can support this cause, too! Or visit www.XYZ.com for more information and to activate your support.” Now, not only has this postcard effectively solicited a donation, it has also communicated the cause to another individual, hopefully prompting their visit to the store and ultimate donation.

Personally, I love the idea of cause marketing. Maybe this post is optimistic, but I’d love to see more creative tactics and I know print can help create more impactful communications. In the end, it’s all about reaching customers in just a way to compel their support of the non-profit and I’m positive that print creativity can do just that.

A recent InfoTrends study entitled The Evolution of the Cross-Media and Marketing Services Provider reveals 58% of the 280 print service providers surveyed are offering cross-media services. There’s no doubt that the cross-media market is dynamic, growth-oriented, and a major contributor to the future of the printing industry.

The marketing executive is the key decision-maker in cross-media services. These marketers are facing a number of challenges in the transition to cross-channel marketing, from strategy to design and deployment to tracking and measurement. The sheer scope of the cross-channel marketing model, and the new innovations that continue to appear, make it difficult for marketers to keep up.

The opportunity is that marketers are reaching out to their traditional print service provider and agency partners for assistance. During an October 2010 study entitled Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, InfoTrends surveyed more than 500 marketers to find out answers to questions such as: What selection criteria are essential to the marketer? How does that service provider move to the top of the list so they can participate in the more lucrative marketing value chain and the incremental digital print revenue associated with cross-media services?

You can download the full white paper for free here. (Click in the bottom, left corner). Find out the answers to what Marketers are looking for and how YOU can participate in the lucrative cross-media revenue stream!

As we reach the end of a year, we typically take time to reflect on the past year and make plans for the New Year approaching. In reading several interesting year-end reflection articles, I observed common themes regardless of the industry or location. These themes bear consideration for us in the Printing Industry as we enter into 2012.

Any year has its share of passings, but 2011 seemed to hit Americans defined by their creativeness, competitiveness, and strong individuality particularly hard. Betty Ford and Maggie Daley, two women whose bravery and openness in fighting cancer while driving their causes saved countless lives. In the technology world 2011 saw the loss of Ken Olsen from Data General, Michael Hart, the father of the e-book and founder of the Gutenberg Project in 1971, and of course Steve Jobs, whose impact is undeniable.

American Politics had its usual share of “won’t they ever learn moments”, including the ‘Super Committee” failure to find savings to sufficiently reduce the debt, and the terrible mess with the US Postal Service which it seems is more politics than business. Financially, the economy continues to struggle in efforts to recover, and we find the term “jobless recovery” popping up all over. Perhaps no industry is more troubled by the economic woes than the Print Industry which continues to contract and struggle with customers shifting to digital and multi-channel communication.

We continue to see the expansion of the volumes and uses for data, and the real question is, how will we use all this data and convert it into useful information in running our businesses? Will we be able to find the right data, and will it help us to just get a bit better or can we generate meaningful change and new opportunities?

Macro trends with direct impact on our industry include:

• Mobile communication is here to stay with 5.1 billion people owning a cell phone according to Mobile Marketing Association. Consumer time being spent on mobile devices is rising faster than all other media. Integrating mobile into our customer communication campaigns to inform, engage and entertain customers must be a priority for all business and consumer communication companies.
• Companies seeking to secure current customers and attract new ones are putting the customer relationship first. They are looking to connect more deeply and more often, putting customers at the center of their efforts to remain relevant to them despite fast changing preferences and demands.
• Marrying communication design and technology is mandatory. We have to get smarter about how we plan and develop the customer communication experience. As budgets shrink and options increase we must adopt a design once and deploy frequently approach. How to integrate the multi-channel options for the most impact across the geo-demographic base is a major challenge.

All of these themes are intertwined and related. Taking steps to understand how they have impacted us and how we will react is important in how we go forward into 2012. As for me, I believe that eliminating silos and taking an end-to-end view of business improvement is critical to continue to increase productivity and competitive success. What is your most pressing need in 2012 and how can others help?

My first reaction after listening to Dr. Joe Webb’s economic webinar last week was to go out and slit my wrists. The forecast for the economy in general continues to be poor and for print there seems to be no hope.

• GDP is still sluggish
• 2012 unemployment to “improve” – for the wrong reasons
• CPI “moderating” – but prices too high when real wages keep falling
• 2011 Inflation Adjusted Print and Print Services Shipments continue to be at or below 2010 and lowest in 5 years
• Forecast for US Commercial Print Shipments from 2011 to 2017 by WTT ERC drops from $85 B to $ 52 B

However, when I thought about many of the companies I know in the industry, they continue to actually thrive and not just survive, so what is their secret and how do we increase the number of companies being successful in the industry?

We all need to realize that continuous change is going to be a part of the way we do business for the near term, and will be required for long term survival. We depend on technology, and the equipment and software rate of change continues to increase. Channels and methods of communicating are expanding, and customers’ preferences evolving, and after all, we are really in the communication business.

Think about the conservative banking industry, which took a long time to move from personal banking to ATM’s and online services, and now have gone mobile, allowing checks to be deposited from a smart phone by taking a picture. Balances can be checked, and even transfers from account to account take place any time and from anywhere. The successful companies I know and read about are listening to their customers and are open to modifying their business models to accommodate customer demands. This is not a surefire solution and certainly not easy, as it means moving from our areas of comfort and experience.

What I think the industry needs more than anything now is to find ways to help each other make the industry strong, and to establish networks and resources to accelerate change. Companies should focus on customer service, putting the customer needs first, and find ways to diversify and differentiate themselves as partners in selective service areas complementing their core offerings. Companies and owners need to choose an area of expertise, and then utilize all the resources available including supplier expertise, associations, and consultants to fill in gaps and build upon their own expertise. Organizations need to resist the temptation to do everything themselves and build partnership relationships with other service providers in providing a complete solution set.

As we end this year we should not view the position as hopeless but rather recommit ourselves to working together and to embracing the change around us. Let us each and every one commit ourselves to staying relevant to the changing needs of our customer base. As General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army said “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

 Looking to grow your print business? Visit MyPressGo for your personalized business development program created by and for digital printers.

Since being launched in 1995, digital production presses have continued to evolve with improved speed, image quality, and lower cost of operation. Digital printing has become integrated into commercial print shops and in-plant environments for small runs and on-demand printing. In addition, Web-enabled printing and new finishing capabilities have created a number of new business opportunities directly linked to substrates. These emerging and profitable applications include labels and packaging, photo books, personal publishing, point-of-purchase signage, and an array of creative direct mail pieces.

The range of substrates that can run through the digital press needs to be a key consideration in making the digital decision. Marketers view the paper as one opportunity for their target audience to hold the firm’s identity in their hands. This rare and intimate occasion can vastly influence the recipient’s perception of the organization – is the firm a “discount” provider with basic materials or a “high quality” marketer with rich paper stocks and vivid colors?

The Canon imagePRESS Series is about versatility with paper selection. The Canon imagePRESS Series lets commercial and in-plant printers offer customers the right stock for the job. The system can print on lightweight, coated, uncoated, and specialty media with weights from 60 to 325 gsm and sizes from 13″ x 19.2″. Automatic duplexing is supported on all stocks. Users can produce full-bleed booklets, thicker business cards and postcards, and forms or inlays on thinner lighter stock.

The Canon imagePRESS Series also comes with a wide range of finishing options so that the commercial printer or in-plant can take on more jobs. Documents can be stacked for flat or offline finishing. In addition, there are in-line options that include the ability to print and create perfect-bound books with up to 200 sheets. The press can create tabbed, hole-punched training materials and catalogs. The use of an integrated saddle stitcher can produce full-bleed, three-side trimmed booklets of up to 100 pages that lay perfectly flat. Print facilities can also saddle-stitch jobs printed on custom-size paper and mixed media.

The range of paper stocks and finishing capabilities can make a big difference in the bottom line, optimizing the return on investment for the commercial or in-plant printer. The Canon imagePRESS Series has the ability to drive high-value and more complex applications that clients request, including brochures, books, magazines, photo specialty products, promotional fliers, and personalized direct mail. With this new system, print providers can enter the lucrative digital color print market or expand their existing capabilities.

Visit OceWow.com to view the Canon imagePRESS Series demo video!

Adobe has been making waves with its series of acquisitions over the past few years, including Web analytics provider Omniture and content management provider Day Software. More recently, Adobe acquired web font specialist Typekit, electronic signature provider EchoSign, and video enhancement software provider Iridas Technology.

At a financial analyst briefing in November, Adobe made a number of announcements about what it is doing with those acquisitions, and more broadly, the direction in which the company is headed. Most of the news coverage in the tech community that surrounded this briefing was Adobe’s intention to stop any future development of its Flash for mobile platform. Instead, the company is opting to focus on leveraging HTML5 and other standard Web technologies in the mobile arena. Adobe is also putting more emphasis on these technologies in general, as showcased by some of its concept products it has released for testing, including Muse (aimed at helping users design and publish HTML websites without the need to write code) and Edge (an application that is meant to help people create animated Web content using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript).

Some noted the scaling back of Flash as a posthumous win for the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was adamantly opposed to putting Flash on Apple’s iDevices because of what he felt were flaws that made Flash inferior in the mobile realm. What was substantially under-reported in the tech world was Adobe’s clear shift in direction, as highlighted by a reorganization that re-targets the company to focus on two main areas: digital media and digital marketing.

The company is also pushing its users to get out of a perpetual licensing model of buying and upgrading its Creative Suite product line to a cloud-based subscription pricing model that lets users pay for access to Creative Suite tools on a monthly basis. To do this, Adobe has developed the Creative Cloud, a Web-based community and portal for users to manage their Creative Suite applications and connect with other creative professionals. While the company will continue to sell perpetual licenses in the near future, it has very clear plans to fully migrate 100% of Creative Suite users to the Creative Cloud over time.

With the Creative Cloud on the Digital Media side, there is also Adobe’s cloud-based Digital Marketing Suite, which is geared toward the company’s solutions for digital marketing, including Web and social analytics, content management, digital asset management, eCommerce, display advertising, e-mail marketing, and customer relationship management. Adobe’s goal is to provide a suite of solutions for marketing professionals that can help them compete effectively in the online channel.

Furthermore, Adobe is shifting its business strategy from simply being a technology provider to a company that also provides services to help businesses with things like content monetization. In this sense, Adobe’s transformation pushes it closer to competing with some of its customers and partners; it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the near future. Just weeks after its financial analyst briefing, the company announced the acquisition of Efficient Frontier, a provider of digital ad buying and performance management solutions. This acquisition is further proof that Adobe is intent on not just providing tools to create content, but that it fully wants to provide solutions to help its customer monetize the content they are creating.

All in all, Adobe’s changes are much more substantial than no longer developing Flash for mobile; the company is totally revamping its strategy to focus on digital media and digital marketing, and expanding its scope to offer companies help with content monetization. As an unfortunate by-product of this reorganization, Adobe is also laying off about 750 people, or around 7% of its workforce. Layoffs aside, the company is, of course, painting a compelling future for itself, as well as digital media and marketing in general. With the marketing and media landscapes still undergoing a high degree of transformation, it may not be a bad bet.

What do you think of Adobe’s recent moves? Can it refocus its business while maintaining trust and good relationships with its long-standing customer base? Have you already moved from a perpetual licensing model to a monthly subscription via the Creative Cloud? We’d love to hear your thoughts.