As we saw in part three of this interview, Océ’s history in both toner-based and inkjet printing gives it good credibility as it rolls out its new inkjet systems. Still, for most print service providers, having equipment with a lot of capacity is only part of the equation. That capacity needs filling and profitability is still a basic business requirement. So, I asked Mr. Baboyian, what does Océ do to build capacity and help print providers get a bigger share of their customers’ wallets?

NW: OK. This is all good, and many printers I talk with see inkjet as having a lot of potential. But the thing they all say concerns them is being able to fill up a significant portion of the capacity of these machines. How is Océ addressing this and helping customers make the transition into inkjet?

MB: That’s a great question, and it really all comes down to applications and the importance of printers understanding their customers. When we first introduce a customer to the JetStream line we learn about all the applications they are running, who their customers are, and look for all the applications that make the most sense to print on a JetStream. For example, we know there are many jobs, especially in direct mail and transactional shops, that require preprinted forms. We’ve done the math, so we know that simply shifting these forms to inkjet adds a lot of volume to the press and will save the printer’s customer a lot of money. But as you know, that can a difficult conversation for some printers to have with their customer. So we provide the support our customers need when they introduce JetStream to their customers. We can help to explain the technology, answer questions, and show them, based on their current printing costs, how eliminating pre-printed forms can make a substantial difference in their business.
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In the second part of this interview we heard more details about Océ’s new JetStream 1000 inkjet press, how it fits into the market, and about print quality on inkjet systems. In today’s installment, Mal Baboyian talks about how Océ, with its legacy of toner-based printing is making the transition and commitment to inkjet.

NW: Mal, most people probably don’t think of Océ as having a history in inkjet printing, yet you’ve introduced several models of the JetStream family in a bit over a year and a half. But you haven’t done this on your own. Tell me about the alliance with Miyakoshi that has led to the JetStream line.

MB: Let me answer that in a couple of steps. First, Océ actually has developed a lot of inkjet technology and provided innovation and industry leadership in a number of markets. Our first inkjet products came to market almost 15 years ago. The wide format side of the company has been very successful and has the leading market share in some segments of wide and superwide format printing. Some machines, like the Arizona line of flatbed printers that can also print roll-to-roll, have won awards for innovation and quality. Last year at drupa I’m sure you saw our CrystalPoint solid toner technology which can be jetted onto a wide variety of substrates. At GraphExpo 2008, the Océ Colorwave 600 with Océ CrystalPoint technology won a Must See ‘Em award and this product has been recognized once again for PRINT 09 with a Must See ‘Em Encore award. Océ R&D developed and we manufacture these products. Of course, these wide format machines address a different market and at lower speeds than a production press, but the underlying knowledge of inkjet technology, chemistry, color, and material science has been very instrumental as we developed the JetStream family.

Second, our relationship with Miyakoshi is very much a strategic alliance that draws on the strength of both companies. Miyakoshi is a well-known offset press manufacturer that was developing an inkjet technology. We’ve brought our expertise in inkjet, color management, controllers, security, and error recovery systems for high-speed, high-volume digital printing. The win-win is that JetStream is built like a press for heavy duty use, our SRA MP [Massively Parallel] front-end can handle every aspect of the data in full color, and can be easily integrated into any PRISMA-based system as just another print engine.
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By Nicholas Barzelay

The question, “What is the best programming language for VDP?” seems to be a persistently unanswered issue for those developing or contemplating VDP development. There are very many programming languages these days. Some are more suitable for handling textual and numeric data than others. This is one consideration, but beyond functionality, execution method may be a more relevant first step in making a selection.

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By Nicholas Barzelay

Simple File Structure

A file is composed of records, which may or may not beuniquely identified with a record key.  Records may also be identified by a physical mechanism in the filecalled an inter-record gap (IRG).  A program reads a record until it comes to a new key or the IRG.  At the new key, it logically(programmatically) comprehends that it is now reading a new record.  At the IRG, the program spaces over theIt and logically concludes that it is reading a new record.

Records are composed of data elements or fields.  The fields are in a set sequence andcontain text or numeric data – for instance, address, name, or quantity fields.  A program may also know when it comesto a new record when the field sequence starts over – it has againencountered the first field in the sequence.

XML

Data elements in XML are identified by start and end tags,which reflect the content of the element, for instance “<last_name>Smithers</last_name>”.  An XML file of repeating data isessentially a set of records where the tagged elements occur in a set sequence.  Therefore any time a program reads thefirst tagged element in a sequence, it knows that it has started a new XMLgroup – a new record for all practical purposes.

Since XML is hierarchical, there may be a repeating tagset (start and end tags) that serves as a container for a set of tagged dataelements – essentially a record container.  The tag name of the container for a sequence of XML dataelements, for example, may conceivably be “<record>” as the start tag and“</record>” as the end tag.

Processing

Consequently, simple file processing (the sequential readof data elements within a sequential set of records) is feasible for XML files,based on the use of tag names as record and data identifiers.  The XML file can be processedprocedurally with simple reads and without the nuanced processing associatedwith XML object model processing.

Content and structural changes can be made to very largefiles of repeating XML data very quickly using a scripting language such asPerl or Ruby.  This gives the VDP developeradditional data handling alternatives, if true XML support in the form of XSLT (extensiblestyle sheet language transforms) is not available.

As another processing option when serious programmaticsupport is limited and where data changes are repetitive across the entire dataset, use of simple “find and replace” logic common in most text editor and wordprocessor applications can be effective.

Conclusion

Many applications and technologies today containconsiderably more functionality than what is required for common use.  It is not necessary to know how to useevery capability a technology offers – only the ones needed to get thejob done.

There is usually more than one way to get the jobdone.  For instance, setting up anXML data stream can be done using an XML capability (XSLT), processing the XMLas XML using a program, processing the XML as a text file with a program, orprocessing the XML as a text file using a word processor’s “search and replace”functions.

From the perspective of skill sets, this means that thereis considerable flexibility in finding a workable productive combination oftools and resident  (or potentiallyresident) skills that can efficiently and effectively do the needed work.

Once again, what facilitates such flexibility is a fundamentalset of tools and workflow that allows iterative, recursive, and retrogressive tasksduring the design and development steps of the VDP document prior to sendingthe generated job stream to press.

This is part 2 of a series exploring the current state of variable data printing. Part 1, Insights on VDP

By Nicholas Barzelay

Key Features

The key feature of a desktop database is the capability to see both the structure of the data and the data itself.  This view is like a spreadsheet, but provides processing functions similar to a more robust DBMS (including use of SQL – Structured Query Language).  Beyond data visualization, other key features are point and click and drag and drop functionality.

Desktop databases can hold considerable amounts of data (over a terabyte) spread across multiple storage disks.  They also include the functionality to programmatically manipulate large amounts of data.  Data manipulation includes the ability to manipulate data structures, rework data content, and transform data (via exports) into simple file formats, spreadsheets, or XML (extensible markup language).

Rationale

While there is a potential performance downside in using a desktop database, the work production rate remains favorable.  Any potential production impact is substantially counterbalanced by advantages from working in a visual environment. This makes it very adequate for preparing VDP data streams.  Such preparation tasks include data cleansing, data content adaptation, and near-ready file exports for XML workflows.
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Editor’s Note Nicholas Barzelay is a recent graduate of RIT School of Print Media’s graduate program. Mr. Barzelay’s research area was variable data printing. He is the co-author of Upstream Database and Digital Asset Management in Variable Data Printing (Executive Summary available here). Mr. Barzelay is working on two books on the subjects of data management and Variable Data Printing. He is sharing some of his work to get industry feedback.

Insights on VDP

By Nicholas Barzelay

Early VDP

What we now call “transactional” variable data printing has its origins in the earliest accounting and financial programs: Accounts Receivable, Invoicing and Billing, Accounts Payable, Demand Deposit Accounting, Financial Asset Reporting, and Explanation of Benefits for insurance.

Initially these kinds of program applications were run on mainframe computers.  Later they were modified to run on mini computers.  Eventually they were migrated to multi-tier enterprise scale client-server applications.

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On June 8 the Governor of California announced that the state would no longer purchase K -12 textbooks. On June 10, Adam Dewitz started a thread at Print Ceo Blog that has attracted 21 responses as of Sunday morning, June 14 . Clearly this is an interesting topic in our print centric world.

While many reactions will be more End of Print blabla, I would like to share a path that allows printers to benefit from the deep troubles in the textbook industry.

On the most theoretical level, the idea is to connect Print to Video to create a possibly new communication media. As a robust global distribute and print network becomes operational, there will be the scale to make this media channel interesting to global marketers.

When I was teaching at design school, they always told me it was better to show than to tell. So in that spirit, I ask you to consider the following clickable postcard. The same principle works for clickable A4s, printed in MFPs in school districts and clickable posters, signage and packaging, which are already being used extensively in Asia.

The Front of the Postcard

GOP Activist Makes Controversial Remarks:
Written by Robin Hinson
Saturday, 13 June 2009 22:48

Friday’s gorilla escape at Riverbanks Zoo prompted a prominent Republican to make some controversial remarks about First Lady Michelle Obama.

In an article posted on the website, www.fitsnews.com, Rusty Depass, a former chair of the State Election Commission, commented on the gorilla escape on www.facebook.com.

The post says quote, “I’m sure it (referring to the ape), is just one of Michelle’s ancestors…probably harmless.”

ABC Columbia News attempted to contact Depass, but he did not return our phone calls.

The Back of the Postcard

http://tinyurl.com/qgfwe

created at QR code generator

The video

There are more examples of how this could work at my blog at Clickable Print + Printernet Publishing.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been encouraging marketers (and printers to encourage their clients) to respond to a survey asking why they may not have used personalized URLs. I wanted to get to 100 responses before releasing the results, but I haven’t been able to generate the responses I’d hoped.

What follows are the results to date — 34 responses. The survey is still open. If you are a marketer and have not yet completed the survey, please do so. If you are a printer, please encourage any clients who have not yet used personalized URLs to take the survey. If the results are significantly different in a week or so, I’ll repost the results.

Here are the results as of January 26, unembellished:

Don’t fully understand the benefits.    24.20%

We do understand the benefits, but don’t think they outweigh the costs.    24.20%

We don’t have the databases necessary to deploy the campaign.    21.20%

Concerned about conflicts between all of the teams involved, such as marketing, creative, production, and IT.    3.00%

PURL campaigns are too difficult / time-consuming to set up.    18.20%

Concern about technical snafus.    12.10%

Don’t know how to design the creative.    3.00%

Too expensive / costly to test.     6.10%

We are concerned that they will negatively impact our campaign response rates.    0.00%

We just haven’t found the right service provider.    3.00%

No budget for it.    9.10%

We intend to do so, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.    21.20%

Just too lazy.    6.10%

Other    30.30%

“Other” was the largest category, and it’s very interesting to see the wide variety of responses provided here. One response is from a vendor, not a marketer, and was not included:

There are cheaper/easier options which provide much better data/conversion.

Long development time and extensive use of resources to produce and follow on completion

Consumers want an organization to know them, not to ask them to go to a website and tell them who they are and what they like. When was the last time the average person used a PURL?

Security issues

Just haven’t really considered it, would like more information.

Don’t know the costs.

You need to start with a marketing-friendly e-commerce site that was set up to begin with to capture useful information.

If extremely poor choices were made when the site was set up, it becomes too prohibitive to go back and start from scratch.

There are a lot of misconceptions here, so it will be interesting to see the comments these will provoke.

In the meantime, if you are among those looking for more information on personalized URLs, you may want to consider “Personalized URLs: Beyond the Hype,” a marketer’s primer & printer’s training tool from Digital Printing Reports.

The survey is still open. If you have not yet taken the survey (marketers only) or if you’d still like to encourage your customers to take the survey (printers, marketing firms), please do! If there are significant changes to the data, I’ll repost.

Take the Survey

There is a lot of hype surrounding Personalized URLs these days, but what’s the reality behind the hype? Do these applications deliver on the promise? “Personalized URLs: Beyond the Hype,” the fourth in Heidi Tolliver-Nigro’s Marketer’s Primer Series, addresses this question.

Personalized URL applications have a wide variety of uses, including sales prospecting, customer surveying, event registrations, information dissemination, and obtaining customer and user feedback. But while these applications have generated a lot of success, they have generated a lot of disappointment, too—primarily because of a lack of realistic expectations.

This reports provides a no-nonsense look at the role of personalized URLs and 1:1 printing in increasing the effectiveness of companies’ marketing programs. It looks at key application categories, “best in class” case studies, lessons learned over time, and best practices for optimizing their use.

The report’s author argues that one of the reasons that many personalized URL applications have struggled is that personalized URLs (including PURLs, RURLs, and other -URLs) need to be seen as merely a vehicle for response. These campaigns must adhere to the best practices for all 1:1 (personalized) printing campaigns rather than relying on the personalized URL, itself, as the primary motivator of response.

The report includes analysis of nearly a decade of personalized URL case studies from around the industry, with a list of best practices drawn from common denominators among the most successful programs.  Notable were the use of multiple media to reinforce the message and the utilization of additional elements, such as over-sized postcards or lumpy mail, to drive response—even more than we tend to see in non-personalized URL 1:1 (personalization) programs.

For more information on this and the other Marketer’s Primer Series Reports, visit the Digital Printing Reports website. Other reports in the series include “Digital Printing: Transforming Business and Marketing Models,” “1:1 (Personalized Printing): Boosting Profits Through Relevance,” and “Web-to-Print: Transforming Document Management and Marketing Models.”

“In a difficult economy like this marketing budgets are tight. The only projects that get funded are the ones that can prove strong ROI. That’s why you need a way to prove to clients that your solutions will deliver.”

This quote came from a November 18 press release from Caslon & Company promoting a PODi Webinar, “Promoting the Value of Your Solution.” The seminar is designed to promote Caslon & Company’s Value Calculators, a tool for determining ROI projections from 1:1 printing jobs, which I think is a terrific idea.

But the thing that struck me in reading this was the spate of discussions I’ve had recently in which it’s become clear that proving value for a 1:1 printing campaign is the all-important first step, but it’s not enough by itself. Even the most successful 1:1 applications — in which the results are measured and recorded — are often not repeated. This is something that has proven to be extremely frustrating even for the most proactive 1:1 printing / marketing solutions providers.

Recently, I’ve been posting this question in various areas of LinkedIn. Here are some of the interesting and insightful reasons that have been shared with me.

• Clients do not follow up and verify results.

(Which leads to the question: Are printers following up to find out why clients may not be repeating? If it’s a matter of too much time and effort, are these printers letting their customers mistakenly think that repeat applications take the same time commitment as the initial deployment—and if so . . . why?

• Despite the results, the projects just take too long and are too time-consuming. Marketers like the results but just don’t want to put that much work in again.
• The sales cycle is so long that, once a project is completed, the original marketing team or individual at the company who spearheaded the project has moved on and the printer’s salesperson must start from scratch.

And thanks to Peter Wann, industry consultant, for bringing up this very overlooked but critical disconnect in the process:

• Clients may track response rates, but they don’t track conversion rates. If the client isn’t tracking the conversion rate, the results may not be tracking back to the original campaign.

This insight is particularly thought-provoking and may be one of the dark underbellies of the 1:1 (personalized) printing sales process. As with all challenges facing this marketplace, the solutions won’t be simple or easy, but they start with acknowledgement of the problem, followed by frank and open discussion.

Have your insights or experience to share? Comment on this post or log into my profile on LinkedIn and click on the Answers link and share them!

I’m used to looking at the case studies from digital press and personalization software suppliers for the marketing effectiveness of 1:1 printing, but as “green” continues to gather steam as a hot marketing angle, I’m starting to rethink how I position this information.

This morning, I repositioned a case study from AutoNation and DME that many in this industry may already be familiar with.

In this study, DME overhauled its 1:1 printing workflow to enable AutoNation to eliminate its need to inventory and warehouse pre-printed offset shells that were subsequently personalized using black-and-white overprinting. Using XMPie’s PersonalEffect software, DME changed its workflow so that each campaign is single project, even though each campaign involves multiple brands and dealers. The business rules for composing the individualized offers are programmed independent of the design. All elements become data-driven variable objects instead of static fields. Thus, instead of using pre-printed stock, AutoNation’s campaigns are now printed, as needed, using plain, unprinted paper. The results were impressive. Responses to its direct mail pieces went up 35%. Revenues were up 65%.

But in this environment — so hot for green — these may not end up being the most compelling results. Consider the “green” impact of this switch. AutoNation no longer must warehouse pre-printed stock for different dealerships and brands.

Consequently, it also saves …

• the carbon footprint and resources used to pre-print each set of shells
• the carbon footprint and cost of warehousing those shells
• the fuel costs of transporting them.

Click here for the permanent archive containing the full article.

Is digital printing a production technology? Or a marketing strategy? “Digital Printing: Transforming Business and Marketing Models,” part of Heidi Tolliver-Nigro’s Marketer’s Primer Series, argues for the latter. It presents digital production not as technology in the domain of print buyers and production managers but as the foundation of a comprehensive strategy for changing the way marketers look at document management and marketing.

This report is broken down into five sections.

Section 1: What digital printing is, along with its benefits and drawbacks from a marketing perspective. Examines traditional “sticking points,” including binding and finishing and the availability of substrates. How these characteristics drive key marketing applications.

Section 2: A closer look at each of these applications. Each discussion includes a series of short case studies in each of eight marketing classifications that provide key insights into how these applications are used in the real world.

Section 3: New ways of evaluating cost critical to digital printing success, including cost per piece, cost per lead, and ROI. Hypotheticals are used to drive the points home.

Section 4: Five “critical success factors” that enable marketers to take maximum advantage of digital printing technology. Includes key insights into helping marketers choose the right service provider.

Section 5: Final conclusions and additional resources as a next step.

The goal of the report is for marketers to be left with the understanding that the importance of digital printing has nothing to do with the technology—its costs, its output capabilities, or the applications it can produce, although many of them are discussed. It’s about transforming how they think about marketing.

The important thing is not digital printing technology itself, but the way it can be combined with other technologies (particularly databases, email, wireless, and the Internet) to create broader solutions that make a real difference in how business market their products, as well as how they communicate with customers on a short-term and long-term basis and present their brands.

The information is presented both from the perspective of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), as well as large corporate marketers.

Single-user versions of the report can be purchased from the What They Think store, as well as from the Digital Printing Reports website. Licensed versions for internal and external distribution can be purchased from Research and Markets and Market Research, as well as from the Digital Printing Reports website.

“Digital Printing: Transforming Business and Marketing Models” is part of Heidi Tolliver-Nigro’s Marketer’s Primer Series, which also includes “1:1 (Personalized) Printing: Boosting Profits Through Relevance” and “Web-to-Print: Transforming Document Management and Marketing Models.” All three primers are designed both as authoritative primers for marketers and as internal training tools for printers.

Hansa Direct a business unit of Hansaprint Group has been very successful at helping their customers leverage TransPromo and Multi-channel Communications.

Jouko Haapamaki, Business Development Manager for Hansa Direct sat down with WhatTheyThink.com’s Cary Sherburne to create two video case studies on these topics.

How Hansa Direct Uses Transpromo

Leading Print Customers to Multi-Channel

According to an article I recently read by InfoTrends, 63% of customers prefer promotional pieces over purely transactional documents. For this reason, “incorporating promotional messaging in transaction documents can both boost the appeal of a transactional document and generate a higher read rate for the marketing message.”

When I read this, I had to stop and think about that again. Putting a promotional message on a transactional document can “generate a higher read rate for the marketing message.” On the surface, this makes sense. Use something people like more (promotional messages) to boost readership of something people like less (transactional documents).

But as usual, I had to re-think it in a contrarian way. You are hitching the more desirable (the marketing message) to the less desirable (the transactional document). In some ways, you could argue that, by doing so, it’s like putting flat tires on a sports car. Of course, you could argue the other way, too, and that’s what is being done here. Bills have nearly a 100% open rate. You can’t say that about most direct mail, even highly personalized direct mail. By attaching the marketing message to the transactional document, you are increasing the chance of eyeball exposure.

I guess what struck me was its over-simplicity. As analysts and consultants, we are prone to blithe and pithy statements that make great pull quotes. But we need to be careful not to over-simplify.

I mean, another way to put this is that, if you’re talking about transpromo credit card statements, for example, and if credit card statements irritate people (which they do), you’re hoping that your marketing message catches the coattails of something that people fundamentally don’t like and that irritates them. Those marketing messages better be cheap to add!

It’s just another way to look at it. I’ll be available for tomato throwing later

InfoTrends recently reported “both the business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) environments, audiences prefer personalized and relevant content in business and marketing communications. In a world where the average consumer is bombarded by some 3,000 marketing messages daily, targeted and personalized printed communications can significantly improve audience response and enhance the overall fulfillment of business objectives.” These findings come from a new report released by InfoTrends on Entry-Level VDP. According to InfoTrends, “Entry-Level VDP provides a definition of entry-level variable data printing and identifies the market opportunity for print service providers. It discusses the needs of document owners in the In-Plant/CRD and Commercial market segments, and outlines the opportunity for print service providers. It also provides examples of variable data applications and a representative listing of entry-level variable data solutions.”