All About Technology

As a PSP, the odds are good that many of your clients aren’t just looking to create a one-off piece that stands alone. Rather, they are probably producing a wide range of pieces, all designed to work together in harmony, as part of a greater campaign designed to reach a wide and varied audience. To meet that demand, and to position yourself as a valued partner, having the right tools and technologies in place is key.

At PRINT 17 this year, there are more than 350 vendors that will have solutions on display. If your goal is to find products that will help you serve this type of print buyer, here are a few categories you should focus on.

“The first key element is a print management system,” stresses Joe Kern, Sales Manager, DocketManager (Booth 240). “Providing the best and most cost-effective service to the brand manager requires the printer to be organized, efficient, and profitable. Print providers that harness these traits are almost always on the forefront of technology and trends. Organization, efficiency, and profitably is almost impossible to achieve without a MIS.”

Dmitry Sevostyanov, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Aurigma (Booth 251), notes that the next step should be looking for a web-to-print solution that will be robust enough to handle whatever the brand can throw at it. “Adopting web-to-print technology is one of the biggest things printers should be doing in order to better serve brands,” he says. “Naturally, brands will look for another provider if they can get greater efficiency at a lower cost. Implementing a web-to-print solution is not as challenging as it used to be, and it will not take long for printers to see the benefits for themselves.”

But that doesn’t mean coming to the show looking to overhaul your entire system, says Kevin Goeminne, CEO of CHILI
Publish (Booth 257). “Web-to-print is not a standalone service—it’s the sum of many solutions. Look into a DAM or PIM system to make better use of the existing metadata you may have on file of your existing customer base.”

Another technology to check out is all about color. “Color consultancy is a major part of brand and messaging consistency,” says Kurt Konow, Creative Director of Marketing Communications, Commercial & Industrial Printing Business Group, Ricoh USA, Inc. (Booth 2022). “Brands need to keep an eye on consistency of message and consistency of delivery, which can be tricky with the different needs and limitations of the varied channels. Printers can help their end clients address this by offering themselves as consultants, leveraging their expertise in delivering (and creating) consistent, effective messaging.”

A good print management system, a web-to-print solution, and the ability to accurately produce the same color on every press and every substrate, every time, are all key technologies to have on hand when working with brands. If you want to increase your penetration in these organizations, and become an indispensable partner to the brand managers, these are the technologies you’ll want to have on your list while you walk this year’s show floor.