DIGITAL digest
HP Indigo Press Users Get the Scoop
TAMPA, FL—There were no signs of the terrible twos or growing pains at the 2007 Dscoop Annual Conference, just the second users meeting for this group of HP Indigo press owners. Total registration was nearly double that of the inaugural event last year. A greater focus on the packaging and label printing market segments contributed to a spike in attendance to around 750 people.
The keynote address by NFL Hall of Fame Coach Marv Levy kicked off the conference sessions. Levy used anecdotes from his coaching days to relate his philosophies on people management and motivation.
Following that, more than 50 sessions over the course of two days explored a range of topics in three tracks—business & sales, technical and label & packaging.
Designer Chris Hyde of Cipher Creative Group teamed up with his digital printing supplier, Todd Kalagher of Finlay in Bloomfield, CT, to offer an interesting take on “Agencies and Designers: Why Are They Afraid?” According to Hyde, dealing with the database side of variable printing work can be intimidating for designers. They may find it uncomfortable to ask clients about their customer databases and be scared to deal with NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and security/privacy concerns.
“This can cause them to fall back on static printing,” the designer said.
Designers Thrown a Curve
Kalagher believes designers on the whole are five years behind printers in terms of their knowledge of, and experience with, variable data. He advised printers to be selective in choosing which designers to go after, but said it’s worth investing the time and effort to bring the right ones up to speed because they can, in effect, become salespeople for a digital print provider.
Fronting postage for clients was the subject that prompted the most commentary in the “Ready for Mail Fulfillment at Your Shop?” session. The panelists and audience members agreed that it wasn’t a good idea, but all conceded they already have or might make an exception for a good client.
That discussion prompted a related question about accepting credit cards for postage. Panelist George Stewart, owner of Spectrum Printing in Tucson, AZ, indicated he was seeing more requests to do that and noted the company charges all fees back to the client. Jim Albany, president of Annex Printing and Mailing in Denver, added a cautionary not that the legalities in charging back such fees can vary by state.
“Building a Sales Compensation Plan That Inspires” was a lively session. The benefits and tradeoffs in paying salaries, commissions and bonuses were well understood by all, but the opposite was true for how best to deal with the Web-to-print sales wrinkle.
Everyone seemed to still be grappling with what’s a fair and effective compensation strategy for Web-to-print services. On the front end there is the longer selling cycle, but that is balanced by not wanting to endlessly pay commissions to salespeople for doing practically nothing once a solution is in place.
The consensus best idea going for Web-to-print sales was to pay lower commission rates for each subsequent year’s sales, while rewarding increases in volume.
David Mastervich, direct mail strategist at the U.S. Postal Service, championed the appeal and effectiveness of mail in “The Mail Moment” session. Mastervich backed up his assertion with findings from a variety of research, much of it commissioned by the USPS and available at www.usps.com/directmail/research.htm.
Speaking for the postal service as a whole, Mastervich encouraged audience members to learn about and take advantage of the capabilities afforded by the new One Code/four-state barcode. He recommended the USPS Website and joining the Postal Customer Council as good places to start.
In “The Digital Color Printing Market Opportunity” session, Charlie Corr of InfoTrends gave an overview of the results from an independent (although sponsored by HP) market study his research firm conducted. Corr said the key take-away is that running an optimized digital printing workflow can dramatically increase the run length range over which digital is more cost-effective than offset printing.
Not having to touch a job at all is the ultimate goal in optimizing the digital printing workflow, Corr added. Implementing a Web-to-print solution with automated preflighting and direct interface to an MIS are components of such a workflow.
InfoTrends’ research has identified an under-served market for direct mail services in the 1-99 employee business segment. On a percentage of revenues basis, these firms buy significantly less printing (3.3 percent versus 4.7 percent) than those with 1,000+ employees.
“Direct mail is the key variable,” the researcher asserted. “No one services the direct mail needs of these companies. They can’t afford an agency and don’t have the internal resources required.”
A Word from the Sponsors
Attendees were offered personalized educaton in the Solutions Showcase that featured diplays from the 50 partner companies.
The meeting was put together by and for users, but HP was also well represented. Executives reported on the company’s business results and shared digital printing market data.
Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo Div., closed out a special HP session by reporting the company is on track to deliver the new light cyan and light magenta inks in the middle of 2007, and he said there will be a greater focus on training through MyHPIndigo.com going forward.
PODi Event Is Just the Ticket
ANAHEIM, CA—PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, billed its 5th annual Application Forum as the “Hottest Ticket in Town,” a play on its meeting location south of Hollywood and directly across the street from Disneyland in the Anaheim Hilton. Held February 12-14, the event featured a day of intensive pre-conference sessions and two days of seminars for some 380 attendees looking for the ticket to digital printing success.
Pricing strategies, how to calculate an ROI for a customer, and solutions selling were the hot topics. Many of the attendees were veteran digital printers who already run variable data jobs and were looking for sophisticated approaches. Interestingly, the consensus among speakers and participants was that many traditional sales reps will not make the transition to selling solutions.
In his keynote—“Anatomy of a Solution”—Rab Govil, PODi president, noted that the group added 140 new service provider and enterprise members this year. “We are finding that service providers and enterprises are engaged in a good dialogue. They see that they can create value on both sides,” he noted.
In reporting on PODi activities, Govil announced the new release of the Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML 2.2), which is said to increase interoperability across the components of a digital printing workflow, including those using JDF. He also noted that Pageflex, a division of Bitstream Inc., is the first company to successfully complete PPML Producer Certification, which validates the ability to generate interoperable files.
Finding a Solution
Since PODi stresses solution selling and value pricing, Govil cited what he sees as mistakes that printers make in their approach to becoming a solutions provider using digital printing and variable data programs:
• “Not understanding the customer’s business at a detailed enough level.”
• “Not getting paid for additional value.”
• “Not training your sales force.”
• “Neglecting your current non-solutions business.”
Success stories were highlighted in the two Wednesday keynotes.
In the morning session, Tyler Jeffrey, senior vice president of World’s Finest Chocolates, described how relevant personalization of its products has enabled the company to grow existing business and add a new product line. He also explained the crucial role his print provider, Vision Integrated Graphics in Chicago, plays in all of these efforts.
Barb Pellow, principal, Pellow and Partners, led off the afternoon by interviewing Mike Panaggio, founder and CEO of Direct Mail Express, Daytona Beach, FL. Since founding the company in 1982, Panaggio has grown the business to nearly $100 million in sales with 700 employees. DME, which is converting its volume of black-and-white variable messaging on preprinted offset shells to full color digital printing, is now running four Xerox iGen3s and two Xeikon 5000 digital color presses.
Among the most popular sessions was the presentation of the PODi Best Practices Awards that recognize and analyze outstanding examples of digital printing and variable data strategies. For the first time there were honorable mentions and a “People’s Choice” award voted on by attendees.
Listed by category, the top winners and their printing or creative partners were: Business-to-Business—Disney Destinations/Royal Impressions, New York; Business-to-Consumer and People’s Choice—Tiffin University/Metzgers, Toledo, OH; Relevant Marketing—Agfa Graphics/Magicomm, Amesbury, MA; and Web-to-Print—Glasgow Solicitors Property Centre, Glasgow, Scotland.
Among the other highlights was a vendor fair featuring 36 sponsoring companies. In addition, Gold Level sponsors Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Quark, Xeikon and Xerox offered early risers breakfast programs. And, in a sweet goodbye, Adobe Systems saw to it that each attendee went home with a personalized World’s Finest Chocolate bar.
Get Educated At On Demand
BOSTON—Plans continue to be finalized for the inaugural run of the On Demand Conference and Expo at the Boston Convention & Exposition Center from April 16-19. Since the show’s producer, Questrex, merged with InfoTrends last fall, the consulting and research firm’s staff is playing a key role in putting together the conference program.
InfoTrends’ involvement will start with a keynote address on Tuesday, April 17, led by Charles Pesko, president, who will address the topic “What’s New at On Demand?” The firm’s analysts will present a sneak preview of the new products and services that are being showcased by vendors in the exhibit hall.
The following day, a panel will present the “Is Ink-jet the Technology Story for 2007?” keynote. This session will review the current and potential impact of page printing with ink-jet imaging and provide insight on what could be the year this technology begins to take substantial market share.
More than 40 sessions will be offered, covering topics such as new market opportunities, value-added services, Web-to-print, production technologies, pricing strategies and more. Also in the offing are a slate of pre-conference tutorials, a series of special interest days and roundtable discussions with industry experts addressing three areas—technology, sales & marketing and workflow & software.
Xeikon Extends Its Product Family
LIER, BELGIUM—Xeikon recently held an international press briefing to roll out two new digital color printing presses. Both feature the company’s One-Pass-Duplex technology, have a maximum print speed of 130 ppm, use the new Xeikon FA (form adapted) toner for enhanced print quality and are driven by the X-800 modular front end.
The new Xeikon 4000 is designed for affordable printing on roll media from 19.7˝ to 20˝ wide. The Xeikon 5000plus is an enhanced version of its predecessor now based on the company’s current platform and featuring a variable web input module that provides greater format (12.6˝ to 20˝ wide) and substrate flexibility. It can be upgraded to the higher performance Xeikon 6000 that has a maximum print speed of 160 ppm.
JDF Parc Planned for DRUPA
DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY—Messe Düsseldorf and CIP4 announced the return of the JDF Experience Parc at DRUPA 2008. This exhibit area highlighting JDF (Job Definition Format) solutions will be incorporated into the Innovation Parc, which will take up most of Hall 7 at the fairgrounds.
Some 30 or more companies are expected to exhibit in the JDF Experience Parc, which will also feature a JDF Experience Theater offering seminars and case studies. More info: www.mdna.com or www.drupa.de.
digital bytes
MORTSEL, BELGIUM—Agfa Graphics reports that more than 3,000 of its customers worldwide are now connected to the IntellSyst remote diagnostic system for its ApogeeX workflow software and other products. Tech Valley Printing in Water- vliet, NY, was the landmark 3,000th installation site.
TAMPA, FL—HP announced at Dscoop that it is expanding its North American HP Indigo Capture program by adding a new Affiliate Program that provides free shipping and discounted prices for customers who purchase other company products, including computers, networking solutions and more through the HP online store.
NEW YORK—HudsonYards, a provider of premedia services, has opened a new production facility in San Francisco. The company is seeking to establish its brand on the West Coast and broaden its target market.
SEWICKLEY, PA—PIA/GATF has launched Let’s Talk Print (www.letstalkprint.com), a new online community for everything related to print. The forum has been designated as the central place for PIA/GATF experts and members to exchange ideas, information and the latest news. It is being launched in conjunction with the DPC Forum moderated by the Digital Printing Council.
