EARLIER THIS year, The Industry Measure, an industry research firm, sent uncomfortable ripples throughout the printing industry when it released a report stating that adoption of Web-to-print had stalled among print providers. While clearly, Web-to-print has not stalled among corporate users—in fact, adoption in this marketplace is accelerating—the fact that the momentum has largely (if not entirely) switched sides has raised a lot of questions. According to “Web-to-Print: A Service Provider’s Perspective” (The Industry Measure, 2007), approximately one-quarter of print providers now offer some kind of Web-to-print solution, whether as a static online store, for creating customized/personalized documents, or for creation and dissemination
CROSS-MEDIA services go hand-in-hand with digital printing and variable data. Two companies with lengthy digital printing experience, as well as two newer adopters, illustrate that point. To be a cross-media company means bringing in IT expertise or training internally. It means convincing customers that the company is capable of services beyond print. And, above all, it means consultative selling and “walking the talk” with cross-media marketing campaigns that show customers the power of this approach. Serge Grichmanoff, vice president of research and development at Avant Imaging & Information Management (AIIM), tells how in the early 1990s the company’s founders took the job of creating
AT LAST month’s Graph Expo in Chicago, thousands of printers walked the show floor to learn what was new in technology and how it could impact their businesses moving forward. If you didn’t attend, hopefully you will read the post-show coverage in this issue. Graph Expo attendees heard about the “Must See ’Ems” awards, which identify innovative products in various categories that are worth looking at. These are judged by a 16-member panel of experts who also identify key commercial printing survival technologies—the most critical and fundamental technologies a commercial printer must have to survive profitably. Not too surprisingly, MIS was identified as the
MY LAME anxiety about the time remaining on my 65-year-old actuarial table got some welcome news this week. I had checked the U.S. government mortality tables for males age 65 and learned that I’ve got another 16.3 years. I’m gonna raise some kind of hell during that .3.
Then I had a big longevity breakthrough! First, researchers announced that people who laugh frequently live seven years more than folks who rarely manage a smile.
Whew!
Good news for me! I’m a laughing fool. Constantly. In the car. In the tub. In the shower.
Mine is a rumbling, belly-shaking laugh that begins deep somewhere down around my pancreas and
BUZZ WORDS come and go, especially at Graph Expo, where they’re here one year and gone the next. “Sustainability” is not a buzz word. It’s a commitment—and it’s here to stay. While printers and vendors alike were talking all things “green” at the show, much of the excitement was coming from paper and ink manufacturers, who have been at the head of the eco movement, having spent the past several years investing heavily in R&D on new lines of environmentally friendly products. Now, many of these suppliers have become pioneers and leaders in the ever-growing sustainability campaign. The following is a sampling of some
PITTSBURGH—Printing industry profits increased slightly over the past year, back to the rates of the mid to late 1990s, according to the recently completed 2007 PIA/GATF Ratios Survey. The average printer’s before-tax profit on sales was 3.4 percent for the typical Ratios participant over this past year. This was an increase compared to 2.7 percent for 2006. It also is within the 3.0–3.4 percent range experienced from 1995–2001. Profit leaders, printers in the top 25 percent of profitability, saw profits decrease slightly to 10.1 percent, as compared to 10.3 percent in 2006. Despite this small decrease, profit as a percentage of sales for profit leaders remained
LADIES AND gentlemen, your attention please. Printing Impressions magazine is about to announce it has anointed a state as the printing capital of the United States. This decision was not arrived at easily. In determining which of our 50 was deserving of such rich accolades, we compiled a cracker jack team of experts: Sales and M&A guru Harris DeWese pored over 10 years’ worth of financial statements and cross-checked them using various sorting criteria. Chris Colville, a recently retired Consolidated Graphics senior executive, provided full analysis based on company balance sheets. The research team was a Who’s Who of the printing industry. Jim
Pantone Inc.’s announcement of the new PANTONE Goe Color Specification System was for some the most exciting announcement at Graph Expo 2007. The PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM (PMS) was introduced 45 years ago. Goe is the company’s first new color specification system since, and is expected to eventually be as ubiquitous. At its Graph Expo press conference, Pantone stressed that the Goe system is not intended to replace PMS, but rather is a complementary system that accommodates today’s printing equipment, processes and workflows. It was inspired to create Goe from designers’ requests for more color choices that would enable them to differentiate their work from
ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, CA—A new report looks at print buyers’ interests in and experiences with e-procurement offerings, and how companies are saving money with e-procurement solutions. Titled “The Print e-Procurement Marketplace: 2007 Print Buyer Survey Results,” the report results from the EDSF research grant and mentor program. Among the findings: • Thirty-eight percent of large and very large companies report print procurement savings between 10 and 25 percent, while another 13 percent report saving more than 25 percent on the cost of print when an e-procurement solution is used. • Companies currently using an e-procurement solution undertake more centralized procurement than companies currently
UHF RFID is of interest in the printing of electronics because the antennas are often printed with silver ink today, either by gravure, flexo or screen printing and the logic will be printed one day - all to save cost. It is one of the fastest growing types of RFID because it can sometimes give longer range, better multi-tag reading and so on but it is a long way from being the most popular RFID frequency by money spent and it is the only frequency at which the tag makers typically lose money. This is because they are pricing for high volumes which have
