In Demand
Looking back on some of the research Weymouth, Massachusetts-based Infotrends has produced, the company’s work has, on occasion, concisely predicted the future. Take a 2003 consumer report on digital cameras, which predicted the devices would eclipse nondisposable film cameras by 2008. Fourteen years ago, the company’s foresight was just as sharp, even in the relatively new digital print market. Partnering with Questex, the company which eventually acquired Infotrends in 2006, the group conceived of a show for a niche segment still hashing out its place in the market.
When Charles A. Pesko, president of Infotrends, initially embarked on the project, he was reminded that Graph Expo offered space to the digital market, as well. “[T]he significance is focus,” Pesko explained. “Fourteen years ago, how many graphic arts shows were there in the U.S.? Lots. There were regional shows, there were specialty shows, [and] a lot of graphic arts shows. To be honest with you, today, there [are] two major events: one’s Graph Expo and one’s the On Demand show.”
Back then, even Infotrends couldn’t have predicted what the digital marketplace would look like in 2007. Then again, the Expo itself looks a lot different these days than it [did back] in the mid-’90s. The Boston conference’s agenda makes this clear: now, business remodeling is just as important as staying on top of technology, and packaging products and services are the industry’s future, if not its present. Conference topics include maximizing workflow, marketing, resources for small printers, Web-to-print business solutions, hiring and the effectiveness of added value—not to mention Pesko’s own keynote speech, titled “Opportunities in a Fragmented Marketplace.” Pesko stressed the need to incorporate other aspects of the business, “like software, professional services, the hardware, the feeding and finishing,” to hone in on new, customized areas of the marketplace. “So, we’re looking now at packaging those products to be very effective in various application markets, rather than a generalized engine that will print at ‘x’ cost per page,” he continued.
Pesko also considered industry consolidation when he discussed the market’s fragmented nature. “We’ve probably already lost 20 [or] 25 percent of all the players in the commercial printer business,” he said. “Not that they’ve gone out of business, but we’ve certainly consolidated a lot of them. When you look at the magnitude of the transformation we’re going through, we could lose up to 50 percent of the entire industry over the next five years or, I should say, the rest of the 50 percent over the next five years.” The remaining players must find ways to revitalize their profits in areas other than straight print jobs. Very high-end players, he added, are infusing themselves in the maintenance of clients’ campaigns to redirect revenue streams and offer new services.
With the change in focus for print providers, so go the exhibitors. Pesko noted “some of the key vendors [are] offering a lot more business development tools for their customers, because they realize it’s not just selling them a box, because now [they] don’t know what to do with a box. Well, here’s the application; here’s the market you go after; here’s the value proposition. They train on the whole business development cycle, because it’s a different business model than selling offset.”
Xerox, for one, is not only making product announcements throughout the Expo this year, but also highlighting tools from business modeling to profit measuring, commented Barbara Anselm, vice president of marketing communications for Xerox Corporation. “[W]e have things ranging from modeling tools to profit, so you can look at things and look at what the payback on your investment [would be] if you were to invest in digital print, [and] what would be the break-even points for different jobs between offset and digital,” Anselm mentioned. “But, there are also things like how [to] hire and train and manage a digital sales force ... [and] ... how [to] showcase your new capabilities to the world and even engage the press where it’s appropriate.”
She added, “[W]e actually have a tool where customers can use it with their salesperson, and identify if you’re going to focus on three things this year ... what would be the top three that would really have the biggest impact for your business.”
Both Pesko and Anselm see super-efficiency as another key industry direction for 2007 in the print-on-demand space. Improved roll speed capabilities will up the market’s efficiency. “[O]ur Nuvera 288 is a twin-engine product,” Anselm said, “to add speed and begin to move... things like short-run books or reprint books, ... where you can run loads of pages, but the run lengths themselves are short. And, the economics now let people move those very effectively to digital print, so you’ll see movement there at the higher end.”
Pesko agreed. “I think our numbers show that the higher speed ... pages are growing at about 43 percent per year over the next five years. ... But, even for a lot of the Japanese types of light-production products, [they start at about] 40 pages a minute. Plus, its quality is adequate for 80 [or] 90 percent of the work that’s out there. [T]he big news, once we get to that quality threshold, is prices continue to come down dramatically, and the lower they get in cost-per-page, obviously, the more potential they have to take more pages from the offset world.”
Furthermore, he stressed the tremendous growth in the color side of the business, and thought inkjet would have a profound presence this year. “[T]here’s a tremendous amount of investment being made [in inkjet], certainly from people like Kodak, who have had inkjet for a while at the very high end of the market. But a number of the Japanese players are coming in and investing in inkjet big-time.” Anselm commented, “I know there are companies working to provide new capabilities with inkjet in virtually all of the market spaces. ... I know a lot of companies are hoping that inkjet is the path—I think it’ll be one of the paths.”
And, while attendees’ agendas are obviously business-focused, On Demand and the tandem AIIM Conference & Expo manage to include charity programs in the show, too. “This year, we are partnering with ... Boston’s Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; Datacap for the Lance Armstrong Foundation; and Xerox Corporation’s ‘Let’s Say Thanks’ program,” said Questex’s group director Christina Condos. “Xerox Corporation’s ‘Let’s Say Thanks’ program will allow event attendees to visit the designated ‘Let’s Say Thanks’ table to sign printed postcards for the hundreds of thousands of troops stationed overseas.”
Times have changed, and expos and printers have come and gone. While the landscape of On Demand and the print-on-demand marketplace changes, however, both entities are still blazing trails.
Related story: Q&A With On Demand Keynote Speaker Stephen J. Dubner
- Companies:
- Datacap
- Eastman Kodak Co.
- Xerox Corp.
- Places:
- Weymouth, Massachusetts