Data Drives Digital Print Value

Effective use of data is the holy grail of digital printing. Personalizing a field here and there doesn’t count. Using crazy-expensive digital printing equipment for short-run static jobs certainly doesn’t.

The awful morphing truth about our beloved print industry is that solving customers’ communication needs isn’t nearly enough anymore. We need to use our technologies and capabilities to solve our clients’ business needs. This is how today’s printers create non-replaceable relationship value.

Sure, this is easy to see but hard to do. Getting started is the toughest part because the majority of us can be experts in only a few domain areas. And unfortunately domain expertise is required to crawl inside prospects’ heads to see their world from their vantage point.

However, if you can do this, a solution that differentiates you from everyone else becomes a little easier to see.

An Example
Let me give you an example of data driven value at the intersection of my two worlds; healthcare and commercial printing. I’m currently looking for U.S. digital print partners with solid footprints in healthcare to solve some prickly challenges faced by hospitals and other healthcare providers.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, healthcare providers’ reimbursement rates are threatened for many reasons, two of which are:

• Low patient engagement rates
• High readmission rates

A hospital with a reasonable bed count might receive $100mm a year in CMS reimbursements. An assessed penalty in the 1/2%, 1% or 2% range is ... well, you can do the math. Folks, we’re talking real dinero. If your print solution can help reduce the risk of assessed CMS penalties, then who exactly is your competition? Ahh, nobody.

A drupa Thought
As readers of this blog know, I split my time between healthcare IT and commercial print. Through feeds, codes and intelligent print processes, there are ways to help healthcare providers solve the challenges outlined above.

Here’s an offer: if you’re currently good at selling to hospitals, and will be at drupa, let’s meet. I’m available in Düsseldorf, June 3-5. Contact me at tj@tjtedesco.com.