Xerox Corp.

Who could have imagined only three years ago you’d be able to access all relevant management information from your printshop by using an app on a smartphone? Or, allow your clients to view, annotate and approve jobs on their iPads?

Twenty of the printing industry’s foremost suppliers have signed on as sponsors for the upcoming Vision 3 Summit to be held Feb. 19-22, 2012, at the Marco Island Marriot in Marco Island, FL. The second-annual executive leadership conference has the theme “Focus Your Vision on Transformation and Growth.”

Starting a Web-based business four years ago has been the right move for New York-based digital printer Best Value Copy, the online division of Red Rose Document Solutions. As many long-time customers began to discontinue their printed jobs as their jobs migrated to the Web and no longer were being produced on paper, founder Robert Stokvis, and his son Mark Stokvis, vice president of sales and marketing, decided to create an Internet printing company, Best Value Copy, to offset the decline in their traditional print-on-paper business.

In a blog post titled “Random Acts of Kindness & Technology Make Simple Wish Come True,” Xerox shares how Color House Graphics and Freeze Frame Publishing recently made Anthony Torrone’s deepest wish come true. Torrone “thinks differently than most people due to a flu-like childhood illness that damaged his brain.”

Braintree Printing recently added a new Rena Mach 5 digital color envelope printer to its variable-data printing fleet, which already included two Xerox iGen4 digital color presses and Océ VarioPrint 6250 and Xerox Nuvera 120 EA black-and-white printers. “We’ve also had an increase in the number of customers asking for index tabs in their marketing manuals and books using variable data printing,” noted owner Jim Corliss.

INTERQUEST  announced a successful sixth annual Digital Printing in Government and Higher Education Forum. The event took place in Washington, DC on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel and drew nearly 100 attendees. Speakers from government and higher education shared innovative applications, opportunities and challenges in their work environments.

Today it is becoming much more common to find printers using more than one printing technology. The trend in the future will be for much of the work to be done using a common workflow and for the output technology to be selected at the time of production.

Nearly three-quarters of the printers surveyed agreed with the statement, “Graphic communications providers will go out of business if they offer only print and distribution.” More than 80 percent reported that digital printing has enabled them to expand their businesses.

Standard Finishing Systems was named Xerox Corp.’s 2010 Partner of the Year in the color finishing category for continued contributions to Xerox, its customers and the printing industry.

Modern marketing means brand extensions, on pack promotions, packaging to tie in with events—all designed to increase sales and enhance relationships with consumers. This provides opportunities to printers that can meet these demands. To date, digital printing has left packaging alone while expanding in publication printing.