Several years ago, Rob Carter, CIO of FedEx, looked out at the web of mind-numbingly complex systems around the company, and knew they were not sustainable. Some came from mergers and acquisitions, some were developed internally, and all were “necessary” to various business silos around the company. He knew it would be a tough job to demonstrate the seriousness of the problem, gain the support of business executives, and create urgency. In a “Mastermind” interview at last week’s Gartner Symposium ITxpo, Mr. Carter spoke about the transformation of IT at FedEx.

The difficult challenge he faced captured my attention, especially his comment that “I’m a big fan of ugly pictures”, to explain complex problems. From experience, I am a big proponent of mapping processes, (which generally results in a pretty ugly picture), as a basis for identifying and prioritizing opportunities for business improvement, as well as being a catalyst for generating creative solutions and high-level support for resources. Would the “ugly pictures” help Mr. Carter to show all the business executives at this very large organization the ramifications and future consequences of continuing down their silo’d paths?

The “ugly pictures” he created were maps of the spaghetti bowl of the entire FedEx IT infrastructure, including the total counts of all the applications, platforms, databases, HR systems, interfaces, tracking entities . . . you get the idea. He used the attention-getting ugly pictures and compelling stories behind them to get agreement and support from the top that a lot of time and money were necessary investments to avoid the time bomb lurking in the increasing system complexity.

FedEx proceeded to create a completely new IT strategy by “. . . decomposing the business into foundational services. Who is a customer? What is an address?” All the businesses had their ideas of an “address”, and had their own address databases, so instead of “knocking heads” trying to choose which of the existing systems is best, the company started over. They identified and solved for 22 core services, such as label services, address services, and location services, that really matter to the “simple” business of “picking them up and putting them down”, as Mr. Carter described their transportation business. Over time, interfaces fell away, some apps were no longer necessary, and a simpler, services-focused IT infrastructure resulted.

Have you or someone in your company created your own “ugly pictures” to help to re-focus, and simplify systems or processes? What did you focus on? What were the results?

Back in August, I published an article on the main WhatTheyThink site that highlighted my top five software trends to watch at Graph Expo. In general, this year’s show was an indication that solutions are just as (if not more) important as speeds and feeds, and software is top-of-mind for print businesses looking to succeed in the face of still-challenging times. Now that Graph Expo is over and I’ve had some time to reflect, I’d like to revisit the trends I outlined and see how they matched up with what was at the show.

1. Integration, Automation for Print and Beyond

As Cary Sherburne reported in her Graph Expo retrospective, production automation is a critical technology that will help drive efficiency and scalability in print businesses. Collaboration among different vendors to help their customers meet their goals is happening at a greater rate than in the past, as evidenced by many of the larger OEM vendors showcasing partner solutions and integrations at their booths. Hybrid Software, which specializes in providing software technology that integrates disparate information and production systems, had a consistently packed booth. Enfocus also generated a lot of interest with the new release of its Switch automation tool. Regarding the “beyond” part of this trend, the inaugural marketing pavilion that featured a variety of marketing-related solution vendors exhibiting also generated a significant amount of traffic despite its somewhat undesirable location toward the back of the show floor.

2. The Next Wave of Web Enablement

There were a number of developments and even some new entrants at Graph Expo related to the Web services space. As I mentioned in my original post, I was anticipating the launch of a new print eCommerce solution from Keen Systems. I was able to grab a pre-show briefing/demo, and the solution definitely has some potential; it also won a “Worth-a-look” award, which is great for a first-time exhibitor. Another company that has been around for a few years but just started exhibiting again was PrintNow, which offers three easy-to-understand software packages that service providers can leverage. Aleyant Systems, creators of the Pressero system, debuted their updated online interactive design tool, which was rebuilt on HTML5 instead of Adobe Flex/Flash for broader device support. EFI also previewed the latest version of its Digital StoreFront product, which included a revamped interface and ordering workflow. All in all, the future of Web enablement is shaping up quite nicely, and was on display at Graph Expo 2011.

3. Taking a Fresh Look at Print MIS

While production automation was one of the critical technologies outlined in Cary’s piece, MIS was the top critical technology, and there was plenty of activity related to MIS at Graph Expo this year. While EFI’s dominance in this space was certainly apparent, there were plenty of developments from other players. Heidelberg highlighted its Prinect Business Manager based on its CERM acquisition; the company plans to begin initial implementations of the solution in October or November. Technique received a great deal of attention at the show because of its new mobile application (iTechnique), which provides sales reps and managers with access to information such as customer profiles, active jobs, and the ability to submit new proposals. Avanti Systems highlighted its recent integration with Ultimate Impostrip, as well as its Customer Relationship Management capabilities. Finally, the very recent merger of vendors printLEADER and PrintPoint resulted in shared booth space and a showcase of how their products work together. With a renewed focus on operational optimization, MIS continues to be a key enabler, and printers are taking note.

4. Harnessing the Cloud

As I mentioned in my last post, utilizing the cloud results in easier implementations, reduction in software costs, and provides scalability as needs change. For print businesses to be more agile and make changes or shift directions as the market requires, flexibility and scalability are key factors. Many vendors were offering different flavors of cloud computing at Graph Expo. We already mentioned Keen, which is a true multi-tenant, cloud-based service. Many other vendors are taking the approach of leveraging virtualization, enabling customers to deploy software with less hardware footprint and greater efficiency. Kodak mentioned that it enabled virtualization with its Prinergy workflow suite earlier this year, and many customers have taken the opportunity to optimize their deployments.

5. Getting Serious About Mobile

While this trend was listed as number five on my list, I really think that mobile made a huge splash at Graph Expo and the issue of mobility will become a focal point for both vendors and service providers in the near future. I counted at least a dozen different mobile-related product announcements and features at Graph Expo, and I fully expect more to take shape between now and drupa. Some of these developments are around mobile marketing, including the ability to make print more interactive. Other developments are around the concept of mobile production management. My colleague, Barb Pellow, went into many of these announcements in further detail in one of her recent articles. It will be interesting to see how these applications are adopted by service providers and what benefits they provide.

Overall, Graph Expo was pretty great this year, and I think many of the software trends I highlighted were fairly prominent themes at the show. These are just my own views, though. What did you see at Graph Expo that really stood out to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Note: This is Part 9 of a 9-Part series based on the book “Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry”

Since I first started writing the book Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry, things sure have changed a bit in the worlds of marketing, communications, and technology.

For one thing, social networks such as Google+ have come into play and quickly added tens of millions of users. Apps such as Instagram and Postagram have arisen and are given new life to photos taken with mobile phones and to postcards, accordingly. Also, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in the amount of people that are carrying around smartphones and tablets.

No matter what your role in business might be — as an owner, sales rep, marketer, IT personnel, consultant, etc. — shifts in communications and technology can be intimidating. But if you are in the printing or marketing industries, these shifts should also be seen as something else: as opportunities.

Service providers have opportunities to help businesses maximize their presence on new channels. Many companies today face the same challenges: how to get more people to their website; how to build up their following on social networks; how to measure what’s working. Service providers can help their clients to identify solutions to those problems. But along with simply providing the consulting services, many print, mail, and fulfillment service providers are in the position to do more than that! Many have the resources to actually build, manage, execute, and measure the marketing initiatives that their clients need. This may include print, email, landing pages, mobile, and more. Yes, many now have the opportunity to truly offer full marketing services.

But as the worlds of communications and technology continue to change, how can you keep up? Here are a few suggestions:

• Be a Practitioner: The easiest way to learn how a marketing channel or tool could help one of your clients is to use it yourself. The same applies to keeping an eye on new trends. If you are committed to doing whatever you can to promote your business, then you will take steps to devote time and energy to find out what’s next. The only way that we can keep up is to make it a priority. And when we have a stake in keeping up for ourselves, it will be a lot easier to do so.
• Invest in Technology:  As a printer, we may certainly become frustrated if a potential prospect turns down our solutions to go with an online-only solution (i.e. rather than print the book, they tell you that they’re simply going to offer a version for eReaders) . However, rather than simply become frustrated at those moments, we should find ways to put ourselves in their shoes.

One way to do that is to invest in the same technology that they may be using. If you don’t have a smartphone, you need one! If possible, acquire a tablet as well. Take the time to experience what it is like to browse, search, find, and consume information on those devices. For one, you may start to realize some of the benefits those devices provide. But it may also help you to identify possible solutions that you can offer to your clients the merge the online and offline worlds together! For example, perhaps you can encourage a client to use QR Codes to make their brochure interactive. By adding QR Codes, the client may be pleased that they get to incorporate their online content “into” their printed materials. Also, this may give you as the service provider the opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of the items that they do continue to print.

Of course, there are other ways that we can stay on top of emerging trends. We can subscribe to the right eNewsletters. We can join Groups in LinkedIn that have forward-thinkers. We can start following people and brands in the worlds of marketing and technology that are freely sharing information on social networks. And of course, we can attend offline events, conferences, and meetings that are covering topics that we want to learn more about.

No matter what our preferred method might be, the bottom line is that we will need to be committed to keeping up! Yes, some of these trends may fizzle out before they have the chance to mature. But if we are willing to invest the time to see how new technologies and trends can help our business, we will find ways to grow faster than some of our competitors.

Moving Forward

This is the final installment of my summary series regarding my book, Business Transformation: A New Path to Profit for the Printing Industry. I hope that you enjoyed it and found the information helpful!

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the book, please visit http://NewPathToProfit.com.

Consider the following desirable equation:
New projects ≤ Projects completed

 Do you find that for yourself and your organization the number of projects added is at a rate disproportionate to the number of projects completed? Why is that?

Organizations place a high value on project management skills, which are critical for successful project completion on time and on budget. There are numerous classes and certifications in project management and major software programs dedicated to providing discipline and consistency to the project management process. The importance of managing project resources and scheduling the project timing is well understood. Time and effort is devoted to identifying the tasks and understanding the inputs and outputs of each task for completing the project. The tasks are sequenced and dependencies and end points of each element of the project are identified.

So, why is it that so many projects fall short of their goals?

I submit that the main reason is that we don’t apply the same effort and discipline to compiling and managing the list of projects itself. A few companies have created Project Management Offices, but their scope is often limited to projects in one department or function such as IT. Every company and department has a project list that seems to continually grow. Is the list complete? Does it include projects or activities which are required to keep the business going, such as audits? Is there a way to track all of the efforts underway in our organizations and what resources are assigned? To manage the project activity going on in our organizations, we need a disciplined approach.

Projects should support the corporate or department Strategic and Business Plans. The objectives supporting these plans should represent “filters” that each proposed project should be evaluated against before it is started. Does the new proposed project help us meet a defined strategic or business objective? All too often a project is conceived and started without ever considering the overall impact it will have on other efforts underway. Once filters are applied and priorities are established, resource requirements can be addressed.

Understanding resource requirements and availability is critical before proceeding to launch projects. What staff or other resources are needed for a project? Simply adding projects to resources that already have full plates will guarantee that current projects as well as the new ones will experience delays. Projects with overburdened resources will suffer starts and stops while resources bounce from one hot project to another. This causes inefficiencies and increases the risk of errors in critical project steps.

Another part of the project management process that should be applied to managing the project queue is determining the sequence for project implementation. An assessment of the organization’s project list could reveal that completing one project first will make other projects simpler and easier to complete. Consideration should also be given to breaking major projects into smaller ones, allowing a quicker return on the efforts and creating a sense of accomplishment. With the reductions in the workforce over the last several years, a growing sense of frustration exists as to having too much to do and never accomplishing anything.

The overall process of managing the organization’s activities and projects is really simple:
• Apply filters to the list and set priorities
• Assure necessary resources are available and have adequate band width before starting
• Avoid the mega project that goes on and on from inception by breaking it into shorter term achievable efforts

The process to manage the project efforts for maximum efficiency and results is easy, but implementing it is hard and must be supported at the top. With many pressures in all companies today, management generally tends to continue to distribute new important projects, unknowingly creating unsupportable goals. Limited resources cannot complete an ever-increasing project list. The final challenge in controlling projects comes in creating a culture that allows the people involved in a project to push back and seek some relief when the number and complexity of their projects gets to the point that nothing is getting completed. Without that culture, neither the company nor the employee wins.

So, what kind of company or department is yours?
New projects ≤ Projects completed, or
New projects ≥ Projects completed

Check out webinars that could help you along the way!

When do two seemingly similar-sounding service offerings present completely different business models? When comparing Managed Print Services to Print Management Services. These sound the same, and in a certain situations can be used interchangeably, however the industry definitions are quite distinct and different.

Managed Print Services (aka; MPS), Managed Document Services, Enterprise Printing Services, or any other variation on this theme refers to the active management of fleets or groups of hardcopy output devices and by extension the digital output, capture and/or dissemination of data and/or images which are a by-product of such technology, all of which should be a strategic component of an organization’s (enterprise) document management strategy.

Of the many goals this service represents, that of cost-effectively controlling how, when and where organizationally necessary enterprise printing is accomplished rises to the top of the heap. This is closely followed by operational efficiency, productivity, storage, retrieval and security.

Depending on the model employed, this can either be a boon or a disaster waiting to happen for an organization with a widely distributed fleet of desktop laser or inkjet printers, faxes, scanners and small-to medium MFPs (or MFDs) where the task at hand is deemed unmanageable.

The premise of MPS is that through an initial discovery phase, an entity, either internal or external to the organization can root out every localized ineffective, underutilized or overutilized print culprit, assess their individual efficiencies or inefficiencies, and implement wholesale positive change in the way the organization manages how they print on an enterprise level. This is accomplished through mandates, decommission and installation of appropriate devices, actively monitoring usage, and in some cases, outsourcing or shifting higher-quantity work to devices or outsourced facilities utilizing appropriate cost and time-effective technology.

That’s the simple explanation and it sounds great in theory, however in practice the promise may not ring so true. Just about every OEM and/or their regional resellers offer one flavor or another of this kind of service. They all tout amazing savings with the ability for the organization to concentrate on their core business activities without having to worry about managing documents. Their profit motive should be seriously considered with a cost-benefit analysis. Quite frankly in some cases it makes sense.

For the organization that does not consider enterprise document management to be strategic to their core mission, the out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach MPS provides may seem perfect. After all, the provider of this service will always do what’s in the best interest of the organization, right?

This wholesale technology alignment/replacement strategy can even extend to in-house services where “copy” centers are present organizationally or departmentally. An adept MPS provider can be very convincing, again where enterprise document management is not considered mission-critical, with reasons why they should outsource this service.

Quite frankly, this may be true where an organization doesn’t have (or anecdotally doesn’t believe they have) the economy of scale to dedicate staff to research, identify, negotiate and implement the best solution for the best interests of the enterprise, or where little or no fiscal oversight or responsibility is required or deemed to be necessary for this segment of the organization’s business for whatever reason. What a perfect customer to have! On the other hand, a well managed operation will always know where their true, fully budgeted costs are for all facets of their hard-copy output needs, and this extends to knowing what is best printed when, and where.

Depending on the complexity of the enterprise this could be all encompassing enough to include micro-run desktop-applicable printing (both monochrome and color) where local office printers or MFPs are appropriate technologies, to medium-to-large production runs (also either monochrome and/or color) where CRDs (central reproduction departments aka copy centers) are more appropriate for given run lengths, to print runs which have no business being run locally and are outsourced by the individual department or the enterprise to either an in-plant possessing the appropriate technology or to an appropriate outsourced facility.

This is where Print Management Services (which for some reason I’ve never seen the complete acronym used for, so we’ll just call it PM Services) comes in to the picture. Now not only does the enterprise have the opportunity to “control” costs through either internal or external service providers for their enterprise document needs, but they can extend this process, again either internally or externally to encompass all printed material including digital printing, offset printing, wide format, apparel, specialty, novelty, etc.

PM Services, like MPS, can be implemented by an external service provider who purports to have the resources necessary to answer any need within a certain scope of work, or by an internal (in-plant) resource, without the organization necessarily having the ability to produce everything in-house while keeping the faith to serve the organization’s core mission.

In either case the PM Services provided for should be in the best interests of the organization. Not based on the service the provider has available. The question then comes down to how the enterprise decides what is best for their needs. It is only in rare cases that an outsource vendor can provide all of the services most medium-to-large enterprises require, so multiple service providers are the usual order of the day.

The best approach however is to integrate all the document needs of the organization under one roof, even if it means outsourcing some services while retaining others. True MPS on the one hand, which can include printer and MFP fleets, CRDs and print centers, and PM Services which can encompass high-speed digital, conventional sheet-fed and web offset, and all of the other print-mediums out there, in a perfect world should be centrally controlled from a cost-and-operational efficiency procurement standpoint with capable internal enterprise-level oversight and expertise in place.

It is only then that the organization, whether we’re talking about you specifically, or your customer, can effectively manage (or have you help manage with integrity and trust) what arguably should be considered a strategic, core, mission-critical business activity.

Production Solutions in Vienna, VA, did something interesting. They took a current mail piece and calculated how much it would have cost to produce the same piece a decade ago (in 2001).

Guess what?

The cost to mail a test package today appears to have fallen 17% below the cost to mail the same package ten years ago. Why? Because savings inherent in data processing, personalization, and mailshop fees offset rising costs in every other area of operations.

Observations:

• Technology has saved us some dollars and definitely enabled more personal, targeted, effective marketing.

• In the days ahead, ratios will shift adversely if the cost of manufactured materials goes up (paper, ink, window patch material, labels).

• Rising postage costs would squeeze margins, possibly out of existence. What will mitigate that? Can technology improvements and controlled labor costs offset the trend? So far, no … but technology delivers exponential surprises every day, so let’s not give up.

• For now, the real budget killer appears to be energy, gasoline in particular. Business owners also must deal with the rising and fixed energy costs inherent in plant operations. Again, innovations in technology may help us deal with super-charged gasoline and electricity prices. On the other hand, water could prove to be a problem most haven’t thought about.

• And then there’s the cost of labor. As states across the country try to regulate and repress wages and benefits for millions of American workers, the cost (and availability) of labor becomes vastly uncertain. Enter the influence of trends in the world economy, import/export practices, and even climate change (think paper production, for example): more uncertainty.

Whether or not one or more of these particular expenses skyrockets or plummets depends on a range of macro influences. Unforeseen technology advances and innovations in the areas of manufacturing, printing, lettershop, and even marketing itself could make us all rich (well, okay.. prosperous). In 2001, none of us really understood how huge email marketing and online shopping would be ten years later. We didn’t even know about QR codes or smart phones back then. So what will the world look like in 2021?

Perplexing, yes? ….. Perhaps direct mail production and marketing operations would benefit from a “Crazy Day brainstorming session” to encourage employees to “imagine the future” … leading maybe to some long-range thinking and planning focused on staying nimble, quick, responsive, and open to the coming deluge of change. I’d love to hear from readers!

In the meantime, thanks to Production Solutions for its thought-provoking article.

Last week, I attended the 2011 Xplor International Conference & Vendor Forum, which hosted a number of educational sessions on transactional documents, such as bills and statements, and the infrastructure that enables output and delivery of these mission-critical applications. Not only do these types of documents need to reach 100% of recipients consistently every cycle; many contain sensitive information about each recipient like credit card transactions, investment performance, utility usage, and much more. Considering the applications that are discussed at Xplor, it was no surprise that the recent data breach by database and e-mail marketing firm Epsilon came up in the discussion mix a number of times throughout the conference.

You may have heard about the Epsilon breach through the news, or you may have received an e-mail from one of the major brands affected by the breach like the ones here (courtesy of TDN editor Elizabeth Gooding; click to enlarge):

Depending on peoples’ relationships with these brands, they may have received anywhere from one to six or more of these types of e-mails about the information breach. Those brands affected include some of the biggest in the world, including Citigroup, Chase, Ritz-Carlton, TiVo, and more. In terms of the information that was accessed by attackers, it was limited to names and e-mail addresses associated with those brands. Of course, that’s just enough information to be dangerous for the attackers and whatever intentions they have with use of that data. For the affected, be on the lookout for suspicious-looking e-mails well into the future trying to collect additional information to further their efforts in malicious activity. According to a recent report, Epsilon and its parent company, Alliance Data Systems, face over $100 million in costs and lost sales due to the breach.

Epsilon is not the only service provider that has faced data security troubles in recent years. In December 2010, another e-mail marketing provider, Silverpop Systems, faced a significant data breach and made away with similar details like names, e-mail addresses, and even birth dates from customers linked to brands such as McDonald’s. A few years back, attackers obtained credit card information for over 90 million accounts from retailer TJX Corporation due to weak security standards implemented at their TJ Maxx stores. That breach ended up costing the company over $160 million.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, these types of customer data breaches have a series of negative consequences that go beyond having sensitive information get into the wrong hands:

• Consumers are more susceptible to disguised attacks that collect their information for further misdeeds.
• Brands themselves lose credibility with customers for the misuse of their data.
• Companies of all sizes lose faith and trust in using third-party service providers, including marketing service providers and cloud-based services.
• The federal government is prompted to take a much closer look at data security practices, as well data-driven marketing applications. Expect tighter regulations in the future.

As print service providers across the industry continue to offer more personalized marketing services, they are becoming responsible for their clients’ customer data to help execute those campaigns. Furthermore, to execute cross-media campaigns, many providers are leveraging hosted, third-party solutions that retain customer data. Now that customer data breaches are grabbing headlines again, service providers need to be prepared to answer questions about how data is used in applications, who has access to it, how and where it is stored, and what type of security is protecting that data.

Now would be as good a time as any to do a thorough audit of your company’s own data security practices. If you don’t have any security practices but are handling your clients’ customer data, that should raise many red flags. Even if you don’t deal with the world’s major brands, clients of all sizes from all markets expect their data to be protected when in the hands of a third party. In addition, talk with your vendors and partners about the types of data security that they offer (vendors and partners: you also better have a good answer to those asking questions).

Building trust with clients regarding the use of data is often be a long process, but can end up with great relationships, applications, and results when executed well. That trust can be destroyed in a nanosecond if data is not stored and managed securely, and can end up costing companies big time. In light of these recent breaches, take the time to audit your practices and reassure your clients that their information is being handled in a sound, secure way.

“Right message, right time, right medium” is the mantra that we’ve been hearing regarding the need to make communications more relevant, personalized, and tailored to a person’s interests and preferences. One area where we’ve seen increased focus on applying this concept is in the area of customer communications, which encompasses informational, transactional, and promotional communications that are sent from an organization to its customers across a variety of mediums. More and more, those three applications of customer communication are converging, all while organizations are striving to deliver better overall customer experiences across every touchpoint with those customers.

While working to achieve higher relevance  with customer communications can have effective results, aligning both business strategy and technology continues to be challenging. Walls need to be broken down between key departments like IT, marketing, public relations, and customer service to have uniform understanding of goals with customer communication, as well as to open up information sharing. At the same time, technology also needs to be aligned, integrated, and leveraged to meet customer communications goals, and needs to be user-friendly enough for business users to easily utilize it. Aligning the right business units with each other can ensure the right technologies are used for the right application and valuable information is driving those applications.

The customer communications technology landscape itself continues to evolve as companies continue to strive for better ways to execute on their communications strategies. Overall customer experience and engagement has become one of the pillars of the business technology IT stack, and communications is a big part of that. From call center management to CRM tools and content management systems, technology is being aligned to deliver consistent, relevant, and ultimately satisfying customer experiences.

This technology stack also includes tools that enable increasingly multi-channel output, including print, e-mail, text messages, and even Web presentation. We would traditionally categorize these tools as “document composition,” although over the past five years, many of these systems have greatly expanded in scope to manage and output communications across a variety of channels. In addition, as large, enterprise IT vendors have continued to help transform customer communications for their clients, they’ve needed to leverage document composition technology to manage the “last mile” of communications output to the customer.

Because of this need, we’ve seen a spate of acquisitions of document composition technology providers by enterprise-scale vendors:

• 2004: Pitney Bowes acquires Group1 Software
  
• 2008: EMC acquires Document Sciences
• 2008: Oracle acquires Skywire Software
• 2008: HP acquires Exstream Software
• 2009: FIS acquires Metavante
• 2010: OpenText acquires StreamServe

In general, these acquisitions serve as a way to support broader objectives of enabling businesses to execute customer communications in a more seamless way. Even those vendors that remain independent maintain partnerships with large-scale vendors and have worked to ensure that their technology can integrate with a wide variety of third-party systems.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that no single technology is going to be able to enable communications that achieve the concept of “right person, right time, right medium”. Enterprise IT vendors have realized this, and have grabbed many key output technology players to integrate that component with other systems in a modular way. Businesses need to be thinking the same way: leverage the right technology where appropriate and make sure it aligns with an overarching customer communications strategy. Achieving relevance and value through delivering a great end-to-end customer experience is more attainable than ever, but it requires goal-driven business and technology alignment to realize.

 “This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. Think about that for a while.”

 Quote from Tim Robbins as Nuke Laloosh in Bull Durham (1988)

 Some analysts seem to think that composition tools are pretty simple to sum up too:  “You put stuff in, you format stuff, you send stuff out. Sometimes you print it, sometimes you post it, and sometimes you just store it. Think about that for awhile, hmmm.”

When analyzing composition or document management tools, consider that each of the questions below could spawn about 20 sub-topics:

• What are you going to use it for?
• Who is going to use it?
• Will it replace something you are already using?
• What will it have to interact with?
• What happens if it rains? (just kidding)

It is a complex decision tree with multiple products serving each branch. But if your sales guy sounds like Nuke Laloosh, well, just swing away.

Editors Note: I actually wrote this piece on baseball and composition back in 2006 but the analysts keep throwing the same pitches – even though the game has gotten a lot more complicated.  Swing battah battah swing!

In my last post I talked about the impact of workflow on in-plants and how it can help them stay relevant to the organizations they support. Now, as we shift our focus to the commercial print environment, there’s a temptation to focus on the similarities. Both serve customers, both aim to grow volumes and both are under pressure to offer more services, improve efficiency and compete more effectively. That’s where the similarities end.

While in-plants are under the gun to justify their value-add to the enterprise and prevent defection to external providers – those same external providers are wrestling with their own set of challenges.  Not the least of which is relentless pressure to deliver a profit month after month. In addition they must combat print suppression efforts,  satisfy the diverse requirements of more knowledgeable and demanding customers and make the transition from purveyor of ink to integrated service provider. All this at a time when core commercial print applications are under siege by alternate communication channels, the commercial print market is consolidating, volumes are declining and business in general remains stuck in an aimless recessionary grind.

Amidst this potent brew of challenges, digital print is increasingly seen as a requirement for survival, one that opens up new applications, opportunities and sources of revenue. Despite overall decline, the total print opportunity for 2011 is estimated to be an astounding 10 trillion pages. Of that number 2.1% or 216 billion pages are digital print – a number that’s expected to nearly double to 3.9% by 2014.

So if you’re a commercial printer looking to get your share of the growing digital opportunity, what’s workflow got to do with it? A lot, as it turns out. In fact, workflow can mean the difference between a print operation that’s rooted in the dark ages and one equipped to satisfy the expectations of 21^st century customers. Can streamlined digital workflow help commercial printers survive – or better yet, thrive – in the second decade of the new millennium? Yes -and here’s how:

1. As commercial print shops invest in digital print production, through workflow, they can expand their product offerings and expand into new markets that were originally out of market, becoming a true marketing services provider.
2. Software opens up the potential for commercial printers to handle multiple file formats and sizes, which allows for greater flexibility in the number of applications supported.
3. With a digital workflow, commercial print shops can store jobs electronically and print them digitally on demand. This, in turn, eliminates the need for longer runs and warehousing printed inventory.
4. With the ability to store files electronically, commercial print shops can turn jobs around quickly with minimal labor and processing, enabling a just-in-time production process.
5. As access to information increases and marketing messages become more targeted, a digital workflow that supports variable data and marketing messages enables commercial print shops to produce targeted, relevant communications that generate a better return on investment.
6. To meet demand for faster turnaround, shorter runs and variable data requirements, commercial print shops can implement web-to-print solutions that will offer the benefits of an online ordering system.
7. With digital workflow products that enable variable data document composition or streamlined make-ready, commercial print shops can diversify their product portfolios with value-added products and services.
8. With web-to-print and variable data solutions and increased application flexibility, commercial print shops can further strengthen customer relationships.
9. Overall, with digital workflow solutions that seamlessly route applications to digital print engines, commercial print shops can reduce production costs and improve efficiency.

In summary, an efficient digital workflow can facilitate the transition to integrated services provider, improve productivity and efficiency, enhance customer relationships and position commercial print shops to capture new opportunities. Want to weigh in? I’m interested to hear your take on the impact of a digital workflow on commercial print shops.

In case you hadn’t figured it out, I’m a software guy. Don’t get me wrong; I like checking out the latest and greatest digital printers and I’ve had the privilege to run various types of presses to give me a true perspective on end-to-end print workflow. Nonetheless, these days you really can’t afford to have one without the other, as software is a key enabler across all print operation types. Whether you’re trying to integrate and automate disparate components of your workflow or making a foray into marketing services, software is critical to accomplishing a wide variety of tasks.

In late 2009, our software group and InfoTrends started an annual research initiative that looks at software investment trends in the printing industry. It was probably a bad year to start, considering how rough 2009 turned out to be. Still, it set a baseline for us to see what types of investments print service providers are making in software. The research helps vendors with their software development road maps, and gives printers a sense of where the industry is headed with the software they are leveraging.

In November 2010, we launched our new survey, and we are just wrapping up compiling the results. I wanted to share a few highlights from these results as we get ready to publish the study to our clients (if you are interested in buying the full report, please drop me an e-mail).

We attempt to survey around 200 printers each year with similar distributions in company size and operation type year-over-year (in 2010, we ended up with 196 qualified respondents). I should note that we focus on the Graphic Arts market with this research, so these results will be most relevant to that constituency.

• General Revenue Outlook: Revenue affects a business’ ability to not only invest in new software, but to maintain existing solutions through upgrades and support. 2010 shaped up to be a much better year than 2009 for print businesses. 54% of respondents indicated an increase in revenue for 2010, versus only 18% in 2009. Growth was modest, with most respondents indicating single-digit increases.
• Service Mix: The types of services print businesses currently offer and plan to offer in the future can help point to where software will be needed to support those endeavors. Interest in offering both B2B and B2C online storefronts for print ordering continues to grow. Additionally, the transition from print service provider to “marketing service provider” is truly afoot. There was an overall increase in printers offering print and non-print marketing services from 2009 to 2010. Printers plan to continue diversify the mix of services they offer to clients.
• Software Ownership: From 2009 to 2010, the software segments that showed significant increases in ownership include variable data publishing, Web-to-Print, Digital Asset Management, and multi-channel/cross-media marketing. This increase parallels areas of growth in our production software forecast, and also strengthens the point about service diversification. In addition, there was a significant increase in future investment consideration for print-centric Management Information Systems (MIS), which may signal an increased focus by printers on operational efficiency and effectiveness going into 2011.
• Software-as-a-Service: There has been a lot of hype in the software world at large about the cloud and subscribing to software via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Has this hype actually materialized into adoption? According to our survey results, it has. 31% of respondents indicated that they currently use software through a SaaS model, and another 25% are considering utilizing SaaS in the next 12 months. That is significant adoption, which we expect to grow as printers attempt to quicken their time-to-market and scale instantaneously as their needs change.

All-in-all, printers expect to have modest increases in their software investment spend as they shift from survival mode to growth mode. This growth will largely be driven by expansion of core services, as well as the need to streamline production processes to remain competitive.

Obviously, choosing a specific software product and making the investment is only the beginning. Implementation, training, and a whole host of other activities are required to successfully leverage software and ultimately get a return on your investment. What type of software investment is your company looking at for 2011, and how will you utilize that software to meet your goals?

In an earlier post “The Next Generation of Print –Evolve or Die!” I discussed the changing landscape of today’s Print Service Provider and the need for evolution. I made the point that in order to achieve success you have to identify the new dynamics associated with the new solution. I also noted that many companies acquiring new solutions fail to develop a comprehensive plan before going to market. They go right from training on the solution into the field (or onto the floor) with exactly the same approach that they used for their traditional offerings. This is a doomed approach.

With that in mind let’s discuss the new skills for new services that are required for success with a new solution.

First of all, the skills needed will depend on the new solution that you are bringing to market. If the solution is an extension of your existing print services, many skills you currently possess will not change radically. But if you are moving into a new area of opportunity like Integrated Marketing Services there will be some new skills required for success.

Let’s review some of the technical knowledge required for success:

• The ability to populate and share content in social media and online communities
• Internet media channels
• Mobile messaging
• QR codes
• Google ad words and PPC (Pay Per Click)
• Print as part of an Integrated Marketing Campaign

Now let’s take a look at  how each functional area of the business may be impacted. Each group will need a number of important skills before working with customers and prospects. Here’s a short list to get you thinking:

SALES

• Sales training on the overall value proposition, how to “approach” and “present” to the customer and how to    engage the customer/prospects with the solution meeting their needs
• Technical training on the various use cases to meet different customer need
• Proof cases on different implementations for success
• Development of new decision maker contacts

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

• Solution training on all of the functional capabilities
• Best practices for campaign success
• Typical design and customer campaign configurations
• How to discuss current customer needs as it relates to new projects

PRE-PRESS and PRODUCTION

• It depends on how deep these groups will be involved in the actual creation of campaign versus pure production of the campaigns
• At minimum, the key elements of a campaign and best practice personalized elements of finished goods
• How the data base is appended for campaigns
• Advanced functionality like Personalized QR Codes versus standard QR Codes

CREATIVE SERVICES

• Comprehensive technical training on how to create and deliver campaigns
• Advanced design elements for special campaign needs
• Best Practice use case methodologies
• Advanced functionality training for varying needs

OPERATIONS

• New pricing parameters for Integrated Marketing Services
• Each campaign is unique – so is the pricing
• Sales compensation changes – more profit
• SOW requirements and associated processes
• Payment upfront (50%) to start project – balance due at campaign launch (50%)

As I mentioned earlier this is simply a short list to get you thinking but it clearly demonstrates the need for effective planning, training and execution across the entire organization.

I would also suggest that you can’t do it alone. You are running a full time business in a changing environment. You need to have a partner to help you make the transformation. The good news is that there are many resources available to you in this area. The even better news is that hundreds of service providers just like you have made the journey successfully.

If you need more information on the options available to you please do not hesitate to ask for help.

For this post, I’m offering my own unscientific perspectives based on a unique window I get to peek into through – my experience actively consulting with or for organizations of all sizes and in all sectors of the industry. This includes everyone from pulp and paper mills to paper merchants to printers to print brokers and finally, print buyers.

My travels take me from coast to coast and north to south here in North America working with over 100 clients in 200 locations per year. From ten-employee in-plants to billion dollar corporations, there are common themes that seem from my perspective to permeate every facet of the paper and print-space.

Necessity may be the Mother of invention, but it’s also the Mother of reduction, the Mother of consolidation and ultimately, the Mother of efficiency. The past few years of recessionary behavior has proven to be a Petri dish of sorts that prove this hypothesis.

Common to every nearly enterprise is the realization that certain functions have had to be reduced or eliminated in order to survive. On the M&A level this means economy of scale and centralization of management, marketing, accounting and human resource functions. Within the same organization, lower level elimination of redundant or non-value added positions has become the norm. I’ve walked in the door of many a facility where “ring the bell/buzzer/phone” for front desk service is now in force where before, the duty of the receptionist was just that; to receive.

If there is a front desk person it is frequently a CSR or AR/AP employee whose new workspace happens to be visibly at the front door of the establishment. The same goes with many other positions where value is perceived as being intangible and can therefore be eliminated and delegated internally to the wearers of many hats who are any enterprise’s new survivor class.

The other trend I’ve seen is that along with staff reduction coinciding with the amount of work coming through the door, where say a full 3 shift operation has been forced down to 2, a new and interesting problem has arisen. When the workload is steady, which is a lowered expectation these days, the available labor pool is being tailored to be able to handle the volume, however now there seems to be more of an optimistic trend among print buyers and advertisers.

It’s what I call the “loosening of the purse-strings syndrome.” As the economy and consumer confidence levels elevate slightly, print buyers are a bit more confident and optimistic. Over the past six to twelve months, my clients, generically now have the problem of not having labor available for those spikes in volume when they occur. In a way this is a good problem to have, since they now feel like they have weathered the economic storm and are now emerging as a more efficient enterprise through all their tribulations.

In some markets an interesting phenomenon is taking place. Where similar facilities with similar capabilities and equipment have either survived or failed, there is a glut of skilled labor. In some cases these spikes are handled by employees working for more than one company-  not that this hasn’t always happened to some degree. It just seems that now there are a lot more skilled operators willing and/or able to be engaged on-call. The problem here is that this is usually more of a mature labor pool, so with regard to longevity, an arrangement such as this is not self-sustaining. No one seems to want to be so optimistic as to ramp back up to former levels, so this conundrum will continue for the foreseeable future.

I don’t pretend to be an economist. I’ll leave that job to Dr. Joe. That said, I do ask the same basic questions wherever I go. How’s business? Have you had layoffs or reductions in the past year and if so, by how much? Have things stabilized? Are you bringing staff back on? Are your customers a bit more optimistic? Are you?

Of course the answers vary, but on average they are: tolerable; yes; yes; yes; yes; yes. It is encouraging if anything, that there is a pervasive optimism out there. In my book optimism equals confidence. Confidence equals risk-taking, albeit cautiously, risk-taking equals spending. Spending of course raises the economic tide overall, and a rising tide lifts all boats.

So ultimately in the printing industry, especially in the areas of growth such as digital printing and integrated media, I’d like to believe that because of all this spending on infrastructure, equipment and new labor, i.e. emerging skill sets, are about to take a quantum leap based on the demand for printing in our brave new world. A renaissance if you will.

To move forward and be the cause of change, mills, merchants, printers and brokers must again refocus their marketing efforts on a now more optimistic print-buying public, who will have a bit more money to spend as long as they are convinced of the ROI once they have been educated, again, by their vendors of the benefits of print.

So, in the end, you can talk about GDP, unemployment, print shipments and the calculated risks of either doing or not doing something to change the game all day long. All I’m saying to sum this all up is that anecdotally, we seem to collectively be climbing out of a casualty-ridden hole, a bit wiser, a bit stronger, but non-the-less gun-shy. In many cases the casualties have been necessary. It got rid of some of the low-ballers to hopefully create a more level playing field where the survivors can compete fairly on a level playing field, charge a fair price and continue to continue on now that the ball is rolling again.

What do you think?

In my last post I talked about the impact of workflow on production environments – especially transactional environments – not just as the connective tissue that links people, processes and technology – but a means to reducing costs, boosting productivity and improving quality.

Production print service providers face many challenges today, but in-plant operations arguably face even more. These guys are dealing with squeezed budgets and simultaneous pressure to grow print volumes, improve service levels, increase productivity and offer an ever-expanding suite of services like producing tabs, binding, transaction printing, fulfillment, direct mail, booklets, and security printing. If they can’t meet the corporate need, they don’t just have a bad year – they get lifted right out of the enterprise.

Survival depends on being able to respond to changing customer needs, turn jobs around faster, reduce costs, improve quality and make it easier for internal customers to place orders and track and deliver jobs — all while fending off threats from outside competitors. Which leads to the biggest challenge in-plants face: staying relevant at a time when economic turmoil makes them especially vulnerable to cost-cutting initiatives. For better or worse, the pressure is on to become an indispensable resource. As a result, success is often directly correlated to the efficiency of the workflow. For in-plants looking to boost process efficiency, drive down costs, speed turnaround and satisfy customers, workflow automation is a must.

Here are 10 ways that workflow can help transform a print operation from a cost center to a profit center:

1. Connecting the print center to the corporate network
2. Simplifying job submission, tracking and management
3. Automating pre-print services like scanning, editing and composing documents
4. Selecting and directing jobs to the best-fit device
5. Converting proprietary files to open PDF format
6. Automating finishing
7. Archiving jobs and publishing them to CDs, DVDs
8. Providing customers with easy web-based viewing and reprint ordering
9. Offering customers a portable, fully searchable, and indexed archive
10. Giving corporate customers visibility into what you do and how you do it

Workflow solutions can improve the way that work gets done and make the benefits  of the services that in-plants offer visible across the organization. Workflow archive and audit features provide a baseline to measure against when the “outsourcing option” is discussed.

Let’s face it, in-plant shops are often in the basement or located far, far away from headquarters. They may be a “black box” as far as many of their best clients are concerned. Helping customers understand what has to happen to get their job out the door, and allowing them to participate in success can make your group less of a “plant” and more of a partner.

There has been a lot written recently about changes in printing technology and the transformation of the printing industry, but I have seen little written about one of the other key drivers impacting our industry – software, and more specifically, SAAS or Software-as-a-Service.

As print technology has gotten “better, faster and cheaper” it has caused a shift in the types of companies that are offering specific services along the Marketing Services Value Chain.  Service providers are trying to both demonstrate value to customers through broader offerings and also want to get more volume onto new, more flexible print equipment. Many times, new software is considered when purchasing new printing equipment – perhaps composition software or content management software or web-2-print technology- but, even after acquiring the printer and the software, you still have to invest time and money to develop applications on the new platform – or do you?

There are many SAAS solutions available on the market today specifically geared to getting new print applications up and running fast, without direct investment in the underlying software. While many service providers have jumped on the SAAS band-wagon for delivering white-labeled e-presentment or archiving solutions, few have leveraged SAAS to broaden their print capabilities or offer Transpromo solutions. Below are just a few of the independent  SAAS solutions available on the market today:

• Prospectus and Proxies: Publishing Data Management Inc. 
• Production Print Management: Mimeo (offered to third parties independent of their own store-front) 
• Insurance Policy and Contract Management and various statement applications: NEPS http://www.neps.com/
• Asset  Management Reporting: Client Communication Factory

There are also hosted solutions for fulfillment management, various vertical market statement and confirmation applications and integrated marketing solutions available. The applications and software represented by these platforms would cost a million, or many millions, to replicate – but are typically offered at a very reasonable monthly subscription cost that grows with the number of applications and volume of production used.

In many cases, the key benefit of these solutions to service providers trying to transition to new markets is that they offer the ability to tap into expertise and services as opposed to simply software. Having great power tools (particularly rented ones) doesn’t make you a master carpenter any more than having the top software makes you a programmer – or a vertical business expert. Access to proven platforms, customizable applications ready-to-run, expert consulting support and a price based on actual usage seems like a great way to broaden services without breaking the bank.

If you haven’t considered SAAS yet, why not? If you have, what has your experience been?