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At drupa, I caught up with industry analyst and all-around good guy Andreas Weber who is working with the German Association of Communications Agencies to increase awareness of digital printing. He made the point that colleges and universities need to do more to educate young marketing students as well as future communications professionals about new capabilities of digital printing technology. As a Chief Marketing Officer it’s a topic that is top of mind. Because there’s a real opportunity for companies like mine and others to make stronger connections with all the stakeholders involved in the changing world of graphic communications.
That means spending more time with advertising, design and production experts who play a key role in the printing value chain – long before anything hits the press.
Many people think of drupa as a printing show. It’s even billed as “The Olympics of the Printing Industry”. That may be true, but I can tell you Xerox isn’t at drupa to be in a printing competition. We’re there to win the gold medal in Communications.
Why do I say that? Because the real prize isn’t given to the company who does the best job of putting ink on paper. It’s awarded to the company that knows how to help partners and end users profit from high-impact marketing and communications.
Printing is one of the enablers. But as a CMO, it’s not my top priority.
My job is to create a superior brand experience, to communicate our message, to influence customer behavior and ultimately to grow revenue. We do that through “Big brand” and “little brand” strategies. Earlier this year, we launched a good example of a “Big brand” initiative when we re-launched our corporate identity. It was in full view at drupa. But more marketers need to realize that “little brand” experiences are equally important. That means leveraging everyday documents like bills, statements, and manuals to convey your brand image and market your offerings.
Because when we use “little brand” touchpoints to communicate in more relevant ways, we convey a “Big Brand” message. That message says: We’re listening to you … We understand who you are … And we want to earn your loyalty.
And that’s worth a gold medal any day. To hear the podcast of our conversation, click here or on the podcast link at the top of the page.
Mike Mac Donald
Chief Marketing Officer
Xerox Corporation
Before the start of drupa the event was being referred to by many as the Inkjet drupa. I have to say I may have been the person who started this phrase after the end of drupa 2004. I did however moderate my wording earlier this year when I stated that perhaps drupa 2012 would be the real inkjet drupa. My reasons for saying this were that from what I was seeing I felt that inkjet would not be competing with xerographic (electrophotographic) approaches using powder or liquid toners in challenging four-color offset for print quality. What I was seeing were new high-speed continuous feed print engines that were setting new standards for printing color at speed, but where the quality was not comparable to that from most of the xerographic printers. let alone the best ones. What we were seeing was improved business color. Business color is the term created to define the color produced by the Kodak (then Scitex) Versamark high-speed inkjet printers that been the sole players in producing color at high speed before 2006.
The new high-speed color presses, both inkjet and the toner based Xerox 490/980 Continuous Feed Color System were in the fore at drupa, and were producing a range of interesting samples. We had really excellent newspaper printing on proper newsprint paper from HP, Océ and Screen. Agfa even sold a Dotrix system to a Portuguese newspaper for newspaper printing. We saw good looking transactional print samples, and both Xerox and HP showed great examples of taking the print into a finishing system for adding value with inserting the data into marketing envelopes.
None of these high-speed continuous feed color systems that were available to purchase or would be available within a year, showed anything like real offset quality. Kodak's STREAM Concept Press, a press unlikely to be available in my opinion until at least 2011, (although Kodak is stating 2010), showed the potential of quality comparable to that of most xerographic sheet fed presses.
We saw the start of a new type of digital color press, this being the B2 sheet fed presses. There were three such presses at drupa, two of them from Fujifilm and Dainippon Screen were using inkjet technology, and the third from Hong Kong based Jadason used xerography. The potential quality from these inkjet presses looked good but I am not sure if it matched the best of the xerographic presses. Also only Screen expects to ship within one year, although Jadason is ready to ship. I liked the potential of the Jadason QPress but all these three presses did not appear to be competitive against good xerographic technology presses. This was because of their lack of being able to print duplex automatically, of not being able to run more than one substrate at a time, and having no potential for inline finishing.
So what did we see in xerographic or electrophotgraphic presses. We saw a further move forward in quality and functionality. HP Indigo introduced its 3rd generation of presses with the new HP Indigo 7000, and previews of the new HP Indigo WS6000 label press and HP Indigo W7200 continuous feed press. The new 7000 had number of new features but the main development of this and the other two new engines was a doubling of imaging speed. This makes the new HP Indigo 7000 a real competitor for the Xerox iGen4. Kodak showed enhancements to its Nexpress S3000 to create the S3500 that will print at 120 pages/min that will be available in 2009. There was a great demonstration of the use of the Nexpress fifth print station to print a texture onto the substrate and this was demonstrated with a picture of oranges. The print felt like an orange and I wonder if Kodak will add a six print station to print a smelly toner next. If that was the case I'm sure we would have been eating this print sample! Xeikon's new 8000 press sets the speed standard for offset quality xerographic presses with really good quality at 230 pages/min. This will be challenged next year when the production version of the Xerox Concept 220 using iGen4 engines and the HP Indigo W7200 become available. Xerox's new iGen4 I felt was a significant development as it cleared one of two of the limitations of the iGen3 in printing of certain very high quality jobs. It also showed how to build the press of the future by largely eliminating the need for a skilled operator, or even an ordinary operator.
So was it the inkjet drupa? No not really as other technologies were showing that there are still real alternatives to inkjet particularly if real quality color is needed. There was also the problem that was identified of possible environmental problems with inkjet printed papers where they are seen by some organizations as an ecological dead end as the dyes in water based inks pollute the whole deinking process of recycling paper. I expect that the inkjet suppliers that use aqueous inks will get around this problem. I think however I will go back to my earlier statement in saying that drupa 2012 will be the real inkjet drupa. We will see offset quality printing at speed from a range of inkjet products. We will also see new technology inkjet products, such as Xerox's gel inks, that will open up new markets in industrial printing for inkjet.
So there we are, and may I be the first to make the prediction. 2012 will be the inkjet drupa!
Andrew Tribute
Managing Partner
Attributes Associates
I may have discovered the most loyal Xerox customer on the planet at a reception the other night. Martin Rosenbaum, director commercial of Buenos Aires, Argentina-based Copygraph said his company was a user of the first Xerox product, the 914 copier, and now has a fleet that includes two Xerox DocuColor 8000 Digital Color Presses. Since getting that first 914 in the early 1960s, he said, “We have never bought any equipment but Xerox.”
He was at drupa to look at the new Xerox iGen4 Digital Production Press and to learn about transpromo and one-to-one marketing applications. “We’re trying to be the leader in transpromo and one-to-one marketing,” he said. “We’re just beginning now, and some banks are doing it. We came here to learn more.”
That’s why he attended the Xerox Graphic Arts Premier Partners learning and networking session in Dortmund, Germany, the day before drupa opened. “It was a very good experience for us,” he said of the meeting.
Will Copygraph be the first company to migrate from a 914 all the way to an iGen4 press? “We are fascinated by the iGen press. But I’m not sure our market is prepared for it.”
He was far more definitive about his relationship with Xerox. “We are the most loyal client of Xerox that Xerox has ever had.”
Shelley Sweeney
Vice President, Data Processing Service Bureau and Direct Mail Segment for the Worldwide Graphic Communications Business, Xerox Corporation
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Martin Rosenbaum of Copygraph and his wife, Christina.
One thing I noticed really taking off at drupa 2008 is the ability of the exhibitors to frame their solutions not from the perspective of the speeds and feeds of the big iron—though clearly there was lots of big iron there!—but rather in the context of a business problem the print service provider can offer its customers. More specifically, these are being portrayed as specific applications. Many are running those applications live on the show floor, and provide materials that help visitors understand what infrastructure—hardware, software, media, etc.—is required to successfully produce each application.
This is a critical business approach that should be adopted by print service providers as they work with their customers. Hanging out a sign that says “We Do Print” is just not cutting it anymore. And adding “Value-Added Services”, while a start, is not the answer either. Customers don’t necessarily think in terms of mailing or fulfillment or web-to-print. They think in terms of getting orders to their customer quickly, or making materials available for easy access by franchisees, remote sales personnel or agents. And they are always looking for new, different and better ways of getting their work done.
From a truth-in-lending perspective, I need to disclose that I spent ten years at Xerox, and was lucky enough to be involved as a sales person in Silicon Valley when the DocuTech was launched in 1990. One thing the company did very well with that product was to position it in the context of the applications it could produce more efficiently, or new applications that could not have been produced until the advent of the technology. Being in Silicon Valley, I—and my customers—benefited from the work behind defining the best way to execute print-on-demand manuals. By the time I moved, on, we had installed some 150 DocuTechs running about a half a billion pages of tech-doc on demand each year! We solved a business problem for these companies, and they ate the dogfood, big time!
At drupa, I saw that Xerox had taken this concept to a new level. The stand was organized around 50 real customer applications. Not only were they showing HOW they were produced, but they provided a nice spiral bound booklet where each page identified the goals the customer was trying to achieve, the workflow that was used to produce the application, production notes, sales tips and green advantages. These 50 applications were divided into several application areas: Books and Manuals, Collateral, Digital & Offset Together, TransPromo and New Business Applications. This made it easy for visitors to quickly migrate to the area of most interest to them for their business. And each area was equipped with a comfortable Conversation Station where visitors could speak one-on-one with experts to get their questions answered. I spent time in the Books and Manuals area and spoke with John Conley, who ran the books on demand operation for RR Donnelley prior to coming to Xerox. So these were truly experts!
I am pleased to see suppliers to the industry making this shift, and congratulations to Xerox on its benchmark performance at drupa!
Cary Sherburne
Whattheythink.com
Sherburne & Associates
www.SherburneAssociates.com
While most of the attention at drupa was on both the new high-speed continuous feed color printers and the new sheetfed electrophotographic and inkjet products, there were also a significant amount of announcements in the field of industrial printing. Industrial printing is printing in areas other than on sheets or reels of paper. It is an area of printing where flexo and screen printing has been the principal technology, but is now one where different digital technologies are now coming to the fore. In fact the preview of future Xerox inkjet technologies show technologies that are predominantly destined to be for industrial printing applications and packaging. The following are a few of the interesting announcements I found during the drupa show.
Plastic bucket printing - One interesting announcement that shows the size of a segment of the market came from Xeikon. Jokey Plastik GmbH, a world leader in the manufacturing of plastic containers, has purchased no less than seven Xeikon digital color presses. The company took its first Xeikon press into production in September last year. This press is currently being used at full capacity, operating three shifts per day and seven days per week. An additional six presses will provide the capacity required to meet the sharp increase in demand for short runs of printed plastic containers. These plastic containers, often called buckets, are used for among other industries the paint trade and are used for holding industrial paints. The Xeikon presses print adhesive transfers for putting around the containers. Jokey Plastics employs 1,200 employees at 12 production plants in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Canada, serving customers worldwide. This order only covers a small proportion of the sites so no doubt if this is successful Xeikon can expect many more orders in future.
Xennia and Industrial Inkjet - Xennia is a UK organization specializing in the implementation of inkjet technologies mainly on an OEM basis. At drupa they were showing two developments using the new Xaar 1001 print heads built into substrate width arrays. The first of these was the XenJet X-plore 8000 single pass inkjet narrow web printer. This provides photo quality images for narrow web applications such as packaging labels and product decoration. The printer is supplied as a self contained unit comprising printhead module, re-circulating ink management system, control electronics, PC and software. The printhead module can be supplied with up to 16 printheads to print with an apparent resolution of over 1,000 dpi in widths up to 280 mm. The total system was be shown as the EcoJet by ALS Engineering from Germany and is offered mainly for label printing with ALS developed finishing equipment for laser cutting allowing labels, business cards, booklets, boxes etc to be produced.
A further product development from Xennia is their XenJet X-treme 9000 printer. This is high performance single pass wide print array product with a print width up to 1120 mm (44 inches) and with a speed of 24 meters/min at 360 dpi resolution. This is widest single pass print array I have yet seen. The print engine is designed for product and packaging decoration and manufacturing applications. The first implementation of this print engine is now entering production from Xennia's partner Creta Print a leading manufacturer of ceramic tile printing equipment.
Material Deposition - One of the most interesting areas for inkjet technology is material deposition and one example of this is in printed electronics. In this systems are very different and are designed to operate in clean room environments. A printer in this market is usually built around state of the art motion stages with solid granite bases, high performance air bearings and linear motors guaranteeing repeatability down to +/- one micron. Again Xennia is a player in this area using piezo printheads from Xaar and Dimatix. Dimatix were showing the first implementations of their new Samba inkjet platform. At drupa these heads were used in the Fujifilm JetPress 720 B2 format inkjet press. Dimatix indicated that these new heads are also being aimed at the materials deposition markets and they anticipate that in 2009 they will be able to image drop sizes as small as 0.1 picoliters. Today the smallest drops one sees from any printhead are around 1.5 picoliters.
FFEI Emblaze - Another inkjet product being shown at drupa came from the UK company FFEI and was being shown by Fujifilm. This is the Emblaze UV coater. This product uses the Xaar 1001 printhead in a 28 inch wide array and is used to spot or flood UV coat printed sheets. This system can also print a textured image. This could be the first of a range of such coaters and I would anticipate that Xaar could easily make a version to fit the B3 format digital presses such as the Xerox iGen3, iGen4 and Docucolor products. It takes a digital file to define the coating area and this can easily match the printed image. It also does not need an extraction system as the UV flood coater on the Xerox iGen3 requires.
Industrial printing is an area that does not draw the attention of major suppliers in the same way that both sheet and continuous feed color digital printing does. This area however has been a very good one for HP Indigo with its 4500 label press that now dominates the digital label printing market. It is a major area for growth and many of the inkjet companies are seeing it as one of the major business areas to concentrate upon.
Andrew Tribute
Managing Partner
Attributes Associates
Truro, UK.
The doors have closed at drupa now, and the last trains are leaving the station. As I've noted previously, this show has been about many things. But from the presentations I've listened to and the technologies I've seen, drupa 08 is really about how virtually all types of printing are becoming more closely integrated and that applications will continue to drive the choice of press, while increasing the scope of what can be done.
As my colleague Cary Sherburne noted on WhatTheyThink.com, applications have been everywhere at drupa, showing what can actually be done with the latest technology rather than just talking about potential and leaving the "how to do it" up to the imagination. This approach has been growing over the past few years and goes a long way towards helping print providers see how they can get a return on the substantial investment most modern digital presses require. After all, people buy what products do, and what a digital print engine is supposed to do is make money for a printer and help him or her grow their business.
The type of device on which the applications shown at drupa will be run is another matter. For the time being it's still going to be predominantly toner and there is nothing the proponents of inkjet can do about that. With only Kodak, InfoPrint, Océ, and Screen actually having production-class products available in the market, and there being numerous concerns and skepticism about exactly where inkjet fits for all but a handful of applications, IJ has a ways to go before it is widely accepted as a real alternative to electrophotography. This is okay, because it is a new technology, and just as EP took a while to get going, IJ will take a while to gain traction. Just remember one thing: no printing process is perfect and each has its strengths and weaknesses.
Meanwhile, a couple of industry pundits have been bickering over which one first dubbed this the "inkjet drupa," as if it matters. The fact is, to my mind drupa 08 is many things, but the lighthouse show for inkjet it is not. Sure, inkjet machines littered many stands, but even in large format where IJ is the de facto standard, some machines were smoke and mirrors and not even running. In almost every case at drupa, the IJ boxes getting the most hype won't be available until sometime next year and even then will be going to a very limited number of customers.
There are those who say the inkjet train has left the station while others, like me, say it is still loading --and that some of the passengers are missing their luggage. And moreover, inkjet will not become this magical replacement for offset that some claim it will be. This is not to imply that inkjet won't become an important printing technology, but no printer should bet the farm on inkjet anytime soon. Although a technology can be an enabler, it is the application ultimately drives how something is printed, not the other way around. The print providers who are successful five and ten years from now are going to be the ones who use an intelligent mix of offset, EP and IJ systems and do so based on the applications they need to run. What this drupa showed beyond all doubt is that the digital printing train has left the station and among the cars and engines being added at each stop are inkjet printers that will ultimately help the train go faster and be able to do more.
Noel Ward
WhatTheyThink.com
Brimstone Hill Associates
Every time I come to Drupa I like first to take the overall sense. I mean, despite seeing specific questions I try to realize what is beyond the whole set of machines and technologies exposed in the show.
This Drupa reflects what we see in the world today in terms of the printing markets.
In one hand we could see a strong visitation and expositors coming from the emerging markets where the questions about volume are still updated. On the other hand the search for value added and lean and automated manufacturing coming from the mature markets visitors.
Both markets reflecting the competition today where emerging markets are growing faster while the mature markets are declining in real terms.
Anyway, for both markets the same reality: printing industry is definitively depending on IT solutions. All workflows, MIS, CIM, processes integrations, etc. are on that way. This is the IT era. This is the IT Drupa. Not a surprise at all. The surprise is still seeing printers being surprised.
Hamilton Terni Costa
AN Consulting
I normally don’t cover the digital print engines in my work with WhatTheyThink, preferring to focus on the front end stuff, which I generally find more interesting. But at drupa, I did spend some time looking at inkjet offerings. Well, after all, it was supposed to be the inkjet drupa. What’s a girl supposed to do?
There certainly was inkjet everywhere you looked. Even Heidelberg is bringing an inkjet offering to market! Screen was showing the prototype of a sheetfed inkjet press that looks to be pretty interesting, perhaps an easier way for sheetfed printers to take advantage of this approaching freight train of a trend. But what I found most interesting were the inks various suppliers were touting, from HP’s Latex inks to Océ’s CrystalPoint technology with TonerPearls, to Xerox’ toner gel technology demo.
One of the issues with water-based inkjet inks is the need to remove water from the inks in a drying process, and the substrate limitations due to potential wicking and image spread because of the water. Latex inks get around that, but still perform better on specially treated (read: more expensive) papers, according to HP. HP Latex inks are water-based, and require curing with heat inside the printer. During this process, latex particles coalesce into a durable film and prints are dry and ready to use upon exit.
Océ’s Crystal point melts Toner Pearls, which are about the size of a marble. This means the ink sits on top of the media, rather than wicking in, and widens the range of substrates that can be used, including less expensive office papers on one end of the spectrum and plastics on the other. The initial implementation was developed by the Venlo group that develops engineering printers, so was designed to print low-ink-coverage architectural, engineering and construction type documents. But putting that type of technology in the hands of users is naturally going to lead them to using the printers to print high coverage posters and other materials, which is exactly what early installs are doing. My biggest concern about this initial implementation on the part of Océ is the ink delivery system. The ColorWave 600 has four plastic cartridges that hold TonerPearls. They are easily visible, mounted on the top of the machine, and made of clear plastic so they can easily be removed, replaced and inspected to see what color is where, in case you want to know. But they are not user refillable, nor can they be exchanged for filled cartridges. Instead, users are instructed to send them to various designated recycling points where they will be recycled with other plastics. Recycling is good, but reuse is better for the environment. And it seems to me that these cartridges would have to be changed frequently when in use with heavy coverage applications. This means the user needs to store a bunch of those cartridges, and they will take up a lot of space. It must also be expensive for Océ to operate this way, and those costs will have to be passed on to the user. I certainly hope the company reevaluates this delivery mechanism in future product executions of this technology.
At this point, it is too early to say what Xerox specifically plans to do, since its toner gel technology was only shown as a technology demonstration. In this implementation, the company has developed a gel that is semi-solid at room temperature but has a low melting point allowing the substance to easily be ejected as a liquid from the inkjet heads. I had the impression the development is fairly well along, and perhaps we might see the first products using it by sometime next year. Xerox is using the industrial-strength stainless steel printheads that have been so successful with is Phaser products, a technology that was acquired several years ago when it picked up Portland-based Tektronics. The toner gel will give a more offset-like appearance than the wax used in Phaser solid inks. But like Phaser, it will be able to be used with a wide range of substrates, because it sits on top of—yet adheres to—the substrate. The company is also exploring other applications of this technology, including the creation of 3D models, a time-consuming process but less expensive than other approaches to making small models. This is done by applying many layers of ink to build the model over several hours, depending on the size of the model. Xerox showed some examples. I don’t pretend to understand exactly how it is done, but it is fascinating.
The upshot of all of this is that inkjet is here, and we will see a range of new and innovative approaches being implemented by suppliers to the market. Print service providers should keep their eye on this ball, and jump in early. The key to success—not much different from other technologies we have seen in our industry, including color electrophotographic products—is to understand the potential of the technology and begin talking to customers with those potentials in mind. When you find a match, and the cost justification looks good for you and the customer, jump on it, early and hard. Innovative market differentiation is the key to success in this highly competitive market and the uncertain economic times we find ourselves in.
A good way to differentiate yourself is to adopt promising technologies early and take your customers with you as you march into the future. Whoever you choose as your “inkjet” partner, make sure they stand ready to support you in developing new applications and business models. That will benefit everyone in the ecosystem—you, your customer, the supplier, and the rest of the market. As you stretch the limits of the technology, the supplier will stretch the limits of theirs. A win/win for everyone.
Cary Sherburne
Whattheythink.com
Sherburne & Associates
I had the honor — and pleasant responsibility — of hosting the Public Printer of the United States and his small entourage at the Xerox stand on one afternoon of drupa — and again that evening at a reception for North American members of the Xerox Graphic Arts Premier Partners.
Robert Tapella became the nation’s 25th Public Printer last fall, overseeing one of the largest print buying operations in the world, ordering as many as 1,000 printing jobs a day from private vendors, on behalf of federal agencies. At drupa, his agenda includes investigating the latest digital printing solutions and sustainability initiatives to support his vision for the U.S. Government Printing Office of the future.
We had plenty to show him. One of our longer sessions in the stand was a demonstration of our new web-fed color and black-and-white devices (the Xerox 490/980™ Color Continuous Feed Printing System and the Xerox 650/1300™ Continuous Feed Printing System, respectively) that are good candidates for the books that are his primary product. We had another good conversations in the innovation area, where some of our future technologies are on display.
That evening, his team joined us for drinks and dinner at the Hotel Schnellenburg, a pleasant setting overlooking the Rhine River. About 75 of our top North American customers were there, and many told me they were absolutely thrilled to meet him.
The irony wasn’t lost on us, that our top North American print providers were meeting with one of the leading print buyers in the United States — in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Tom Wetjen
Vice President, Worldwide Graphic Communications Business
Xerox Corporation
Robert Tapella, the Public Printer of the United States, right, and Tom Wetjen of Xerox at the Xerox Premier Partners reception at the Hotel Schnellenburg during drupa.
During my visit to the Xerox booth at drupa I stopped by the Xerox Business Development Seminar center where Xerox was hosting eight daily sessions on digital business opportunities.
In between sessions I had a chance to speak with Andreas Weber, one of Xerox's Business Development Seminar speakers. Andreas is principal of Andreas Weber Global Communication GmbH, CEO of Mainz, Germany based magazine VALUE Verlag AG and founder of German-based digital printing online community Digital Druck Forum.
Andreas shared with me his white paper on Smart Communication: Reaching Engaging Communication Beyond Ourselves. In the paper Andreas states "Communication in this age should be easier. Technology abounds to ease the process of communication. But as in other areas of technology, the various systems are not completely integrated for seamless use." Andreas suggests tools need to be developed to facilitate the search for information, and facilitate peer-to-peer transparent discussions.
The concepts Andreas presents in his white paper follow the "mega trends" Xerox has been speaking to for a few years: Personalization - the ME generation; Collaboration - about us working with each other; and Digitization - the realization of it all coming together.
Adam Dewitz
WhatTheyThink.com
Print CEO Blog
A group of executives from Stevens Printing of Portland, Ore., came to drupa to investigate digital photo specialty products applications for their Xerox iGen3® 90 Digital Production Press. In just one afternoon, they found much of what they needed in three stations at the Xerox stand.
Their afternoon began with an hour-long presentation, “Digital Photos: how to break into the digital photo products market and take advantage of a $2B opportunity,” by Chris Jordan of Jordan & Jordan (to listen-in click the podcast button at the top of the page.) It's one of eight sessions in the Xerox Business Development Seminar series that runs throughout drupa, offering insights on key business opportunities.
In his talk, Jordan referenced a Xerox business tool that helps print providers initiate a photo products business, with a sample marketing plan and sample applications, templates and source files. Stop No. 2 for the Stevens entourage: the station where that Xerox ProfitAcccelerator Picture Me Profitable Kit was on display.
Their third and final stop was the photo specialty products section of the stand, where they saw the binding equipment and electronic creation and ordering systems they would need.
In the course of just a few hours, the Stevens team learned from an expert about the photo books opportunity, saw the equipment they would need to build a solution and perused the support tools that would help them establish the business.
Their mission to build a profitable new application was off to a smooth start.
Gina Testa
Vice President, Channel and Customer Business Development
Production Systems Group
Xerox Corporation
It’s great to see all the conversation about sustainability at drupa. But as a marketer, I think we have a lot more work to do to “green up” the way we present our offerings and communicate our brand value propositions. Xerox issued a news release today that summarizes some of what we’re trying to do. And we put together a factsheet that talks about how we tried to build our stand in an eco-friendly way.
It involves everything from the materials we use in our exhibit, to the lighting, collaterals and carpet – all the things that surround our products and services (which themselves are pretty green.) We also showed a video talking about sustainability through the eyes of the next generation of Xerox people. Check out the green gene here.
As proud as we are of the efforts we made to design a green booth, they are small steps that need to turn into greater leaps moving forward. In a related blog post, Andy Tribute pointed out similar efforts by many other leading printing companies at drupa. But more needs to be done. The International Consumer Electronics Show is America’s largest annual trade show of any kind. This year, CES made an effort to produce a carbon neutral show, working with CarbonFund.org to invest in energy efficiency, renewable energy and reforestation projects to offset the emissions created by every inch of CES space. The printing industry has spent a lot of time focusing on creating sustainable technology and services. And that’s the right place to start. Now we have to put additional focus on sustainable marketing. That means working with creative agency partners and printing partners – every link in the value chain – to ensure that we are marketing our offerings in ever-more sustainable ways. There’s no doubt that the next drupa will be even greener. And even though I’m barely over the jet lag from this year’s show, I can’t wait for 2012.
Ed Gala
Vice President
Corporate Marketing Services
Xerox Corporation
Note: to listen-in on Andy Tribute's comments on the "greening" of the print industry, click on the videos link to hear more.
Xerox's Shelley Sweeney gives a case study example of Staples - the North American-based office superstore about the value of building customer relationships through targeted, 1:1 marketing.
Listen-in on the conversation and click the podcast button at the top of the page.
Family-Owned Cadillo Comunicación Gráfica of Lima, Peru, produces direct marketing about real-estate investments that requires great trust from customers, because of the confidential nature of tax and property data. So when Cadillo tries something new with their clients, they document their case as well as possible.
That’s why they were so impressed by the detailed cost and benefits included in the Xerox 1:1 Lab case studies I presented at the Xerox Graphic Arts Premier Partner meeting in Dortmund, Germany - as part of Xerox's drupa activities. The meeting was for members of the Premier Partners — leading Xerox-equipped print providers — from developing markets.
The 1:1 Lab runs controlled tests to generate apples-to-apples comparisons of one-to-one marketing campaigns and traditional solicitations. The lab’s case histories include line-item costs and quantitative results, including return on investment.
For a business whose success is based upon the reputation it has built over two generations, having access to this type of hard data is extremely valuable. So much so, that brothers Elio and Percy Cadillo tracked me down at drupa the next day to get my presentation. I assured them it would be posted on the Premier Partners Web site within the next few days.
But that wasn’t good enough. They wanted it now. I paused. Then I grabbed my laptop, copied the files to a thumb drive, and waited while they transferred the material to their computer.
I understand. When something’s that valuable, you want to be able to go home with it.
Shelley Sweeney
Vice President, Data Processing Service Bureau and Direct Mail Segment for the Worldwide Graphic Communications Business, Xerox Corporation
Shelley Sweeney (below) presents to Premier Partners during drupa activities.
Xerox is certainly making a lot of news at this edition of drupa. I think one of our earlier announcements could wind up being one of our most enduring -- our move into printing digital packaging.
In the run-up to the show, Xerox and Stora Enso announced a packaging solution that uses our iGen3® 110 Digital Production Press to print variable data cartons and other packaging in short runs for the pharmaceutical market. It consists of an Epic CTi-635 varnishing unit with both aqueous and UV-coating options from Xerox, a KAMA die cutter with 580 x 400 mm sheet size and a stacker-conveyer unit from Stora Enso. That system is on display in the stand.
The system will help drug companies get new medicines to market faster and boost profits. Also on display - other packaging solutions, from boxes for contact lenses to chewing gum packages. Such applications point to a growing revenue opportunity for digital print providers. Why are these applications appealing?
First, they make a strong impression. Consumers are pleasantly surprised to see their name on a chewing gum pack or special targeted information about their prescription on a box.
Secondly, on-demand printing allows packing to be printed when needed, eliminating the need to keep large and costly inventories. And variable data can print individualized batch codes and other information allowing for an extra level of security for applications that require it.
Watch this space for more developments to come!
Tom Wetjen
Vice President, Worldwide Graphic Communications Industry
Production Systems Group
Xerox Corporation
 Patricia Pasadas of Publidisa (see photos below) came to the Xerox Graphic Arts Premier Partners meeting in Dortmund, Germany, as part of drupa, to tell the story of her company’s success in meeting the needs of publishers and authors.
She left with more than a dozen potential business partners. That’s what happens when you ask a room full of 75 leading digital print providers to be partners in an innovative, international business.
Publidisa, based in Seville, Spain, and with additional presence in Mexico and Argentina, provides a unique collection of publishing offerings: digital book manufacturing, e-book file generation and e-commerce outsourcing. “No one was offering solutions in these areas, so we went for it,” Pasadas said. The result: rapid growth the last few years.
Pasadas described three paths of future growth for the company: expanding its regional reach for publishing in Spanish, building a capability for publishing in English, and then taking on the rest of the world’. The firm’s preferred approach: growth through local partnerships. In the face of rapidly escalating energy costs, she said, “We want an international network to produce books close to the point of need, and avoid high shipping costs and delays.”
That’s when she gave an open invitation to attendees — Xerox Premier Partners from developing markets, such as Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East — to explore becoming a partner of Publidisa. By evening, she had business cards from 14 companies.
The Xerox Premier Partners — a global network of 727 leading, Xerox-equipped print providers — is dedicated to developing new business opportunities through knowledge sharing, networking and business sharing.
At the meeting in Dortmund, Publidisa had the trifecta.
Randy Swope
Developing Markets Organization Premier Partner Coordinator
Xerox Corporation
Patricia Pasadas of Publidisa during and after her speech at the Premier Partner Event in Dortmund on May 28, 2008.
One of the key themes at drupa has been the environment. Almost every supplier has a green or sustainability approach and all have a document outlining what they are doing. This is a real difference from drupa 2004 where the green issue was hardly covered.
The following shows some of the things that are happening in this area at drupa. On June 5, 2008, World Environment Day, Heidelberger offset the environmental effects of all print products created in the course of the day at drupa. This included prepress, press, and postpress. All CO2 emissions generated indirectly on that day were offset by investing in a climate protection project complying with the internationally recognized Gold Standard through the Swiss charitable foundation myclimate. This will ensure that unavoidable emissions are offset by climate protection measures elsewhere. In concrete terms, in a region of India, electricity and heat will be generated from biomass that was previously burned on the fields as waste. This will benefit the environment and boost the income of local farmers.
The level of CO2 emissions calculated on World Environment Day was based on the amount of paper printed for demonstration purposes (over 70 tons), the total electrical power required by the equipment used (three MWh), printing plates, ink, coatings, alcohol, dampening solution additive, and cleaning agents.
Océ announced on June 5 that the company has been recognized as an environmental leader in printing and document management through its selection as a Climate Action industry partner. Climate Action is an international organization communications platform that informs a worldwide network of businesses, United Nations, government and non-governmental organizations in promoting organizational and individual actions to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. As a result of this selection, Océ N.V. will participate in a series of activities focused on protecting and preserving the environment. These include a “Climate Leaders” video interview with Rokus van Iperen, CEO of Océ N.V., which will be broadcast on www.climateactionprogramme.org and featured on www.oce.com on June 5th, 2008 in support of the United Nation’s World Environment Day. Océ has been selected as a Climate Action industry partner based on the company’s exemplary record of environmentally sustainable products and business practices. These include the CarbonPositivePlus+ project, which provides access to eco-friendly initiatives and carbon offsetting credits for customers who purchase or lease Océ VarioPrint 6000 digital duplex cutsheet printers.
Océ has been selected as a Climate Action industry partner based on the company’s exemplary record of environmentally sustainable products and business practices. These include the CarbonPositivePlus+ project, which provides access to eco-friendly initiatives and carbon offsetting credits for customers who purchase or lease Océ VarioPrint 6000 digital duplex cutsheet printers.
In late May Xerox sponsored its European Leadership Summit in Dublin, Eire. From this new research released by Xerox and Forum for the Future reveals that 96 percent of European business leaders believe that running a sustainable business can no longer be considered optional, but is an absolute
necessity for human survival. Nearly every attendee (95%) surveyed at Xerox’s European Leadership Summit claimed that businesses are not doing nearly enough to address social and economic problems. As a result, the majority of respondents (95%) felt personally responsible for finding new business models, policies and processes that will reduce the damage on the environment. At drupa Xerox emphasised their environmental policies and pointed that this is not a new area for them and they have been operating an environmental policy in all areas of their business for many years.
At drupa on Tuesday June 3 The World Print & Communications Forum (WPCF) supported by Heidelberg hosted its Environment Conference. The conference provided a summary of environmental legislation and gave an insight on how printers manage these legal constraints in their daily work. Presentations featured the situation in the US, China, Japan and Europe. Current trends in environmental matters were presented. Heidelberg gave an insight into the contribution that a printing machine manufacturer can make to help printers fulfill the increasingly strict legal requirements as well as the requests by customers for environmental friendly printing. This Heidelberg presentation showed many ways that press suppliers are improving their products to reduce harmful emissions, reduce power usage and reduce paper waste. One interesting presentation at this event came from PIA/GATF and was about its member printers getting accreditation within the SGP (Sustainable Green Printing) Partnership. To be accredited printers have to prove they can adhere to a range of environmental benchmarks and criteria. The accreditation process will be handled by independent experts. The result will be a list of accredited printers that can display the SGP logo. Printers however will be monitored and can lose accreditation if they do not maintain their environmental standards.
In Europe there is an initiative being sponsored by a number of organizations including HP and Fujifilm. This is the Verdigras project run by the publishing and consulting organization Digital Dots. This company is run by Laurel Brunner who in a previous period was European Managing Director of Seybold. The Verdigras initiative will work with vendors and printers to assess the carbon footprints of printing equipment and plants and evaluate potential carbon offsetting for these. It will also endeavor to compare the environmental impact of different printing and publishing activities compared with electronic forms of publishing such data. Verdigras will also be compiling a list of environmentally friendly printers, in this case it is using the ISO 14001 standard as its standard of excellence.
Some people may still wonder why this is so important to this industry, however these appear to be in the minority today. The printing industry is moving to position itself as a very green industry, and one of the world’s greenest industry to counteract the ridiculously skewed information that is presented by so-called environmental gurus like Al Gore in slating the use of print. Just remember it is a lot easier to recycle paper that to recycle an old computer monitor, computer or printer. The electronics industry is trying to conform to environmental regulations in Europe like ROHAS (reduction or elimination of hazardous substances in devices) and WEE (recycling of electronic equipment). The more that this industry can do to show that print is environmentally friendly the better it will be for all in the industry. We are already seeing demands on the industry from its print buying customers who are looking to only use environmentally excellent printers for their work.
I apologize to suppliers not included in my outlines above. There is just not sufficient space or time to mention everyone that is working hard in this area. The suppliers mentioned above are just an indication of what everyone is doing.
Andrew Tribute
To see everything being shown at drupa requires a disruption of the time-space continuum. There are something on the order of 1900 vendors showing their wares here at drupa over the 14 days the show runs. That means you would have to see 136 of them each day, and spend a bit over 4 minutes at each stand. And that assumes you can instantaneously transport yourself from one place to another, such as from the new buildings of 8a and 8b to the remote reaches of building 15 instead of making the trek across the complex, dodging trucks, shuttle buses and weaving through the herds of attendees.
Fortunately, no one has to see all of drupa and visiting a relative handful of companies will satisfy your needs. But what to see? It's truly a case of so much to do, so little time, even if you actually dedicated two full weeks of your life to the event. What is important is an individual matter, so the trick is spending time in the right places.
What this digital drupa clearly demonstrates is that digital printing is here to stay --and growing. It is not a curiosity or a pretender to the throne of offset. It is a powerful, effective and above all profitable way to put words and pictures on a page and is perfectly compatible with offset printing. It is proven to be an ideal way for printers to extend what they do and generate new business for both offset and digital presses. That makes this drupa a place to think about what all the elements of digital printing mean for your business, especially if you have both offset and digital technology. I've seen a lot here over the past week and there are two areas of products and technologies to see that can help a print business be more agile, more responsive to customer needs and more competitive.
First, look at lots of print engines, both those that fit the way your business works today and ones that can help transform it into what you'd like it to be tomorrow. There are no longer any significant quality concerns with digital printing. While not all digital presses produce "offset quality" images (a truly arbitrary term), they all produce sellable images that satisfy customer needs, which is what's important at the end of the day. As you examine them, look beyond image quality and even speed to overall productivity and finishing capabilities. Most of the new systems shown here at drupa can increase the volume of work you produce each day, raising your topline even as greater efficiency increases the bottom line.
Also helping the bottom line, especially for printers with both offset and digital operations, are many ways to better integrate your workflows so that jobs can easily be switched between offset and digital devices. Nearly all the makers of both types of presses have rolled out new software that enables jobs to be routed all but seamlessly between types of machines. Check this stuff out: Some it has a real "Wow factor." Many printers I've been talking with do this already, but all have areas where they need greater efficiency and are looking for answers. Many of the solutions printers need today are here in the stands of offset and digital vendors alike.
So for most printers at Planet drupa, there are not 1900 vendors but maybe a couple dozen --easily seen in just a few days. And by spending a generous amount of time at each one it is easy to see how the products and technologies being rolled out here can help change their businesses.
Good shopping!
Noel Ward
Managing Editor, WhatTheyThink.com
Director, Brimstone Hill Associates
How does a print provider approach a corporate brand owner without alienating their agency?
That question was posed to me during my presentation in Dortmund, Germany to about 75 leading Xerox-equipped print providers from developing markets who are members of the Xerox Graphic Arts Premier Partners. They were participating in a daylong meeting on business development as part of our drupa activities, and I was presenting on creative agencies, a great, but oft- overlooked opportunity.
The question, from Eduardo Achach, chairman of the board, Mega Direct, Mexico City, typifies the hesitancy print providers feel about approaching creative agencies. In North America alone, creatives buy $26 billion in print annually, yet 85 percent of print providers don’t call on them.
I recommended to Achach that he approach the brand owner’s agencies with concepts for working together to increase awareness of digital printing. Get on their team.
In fact, my entire presentation was relevant to his question. I offered advice on identifying the agencies that are most likely to work with you, on the research you should do on them, on the applications that resonate with them, and on techniques for building relationships outside the traditional sales cycle. I told attendees to become insiders by getting involved with the local chapter of an ad association or creative tools users groups. Go to their meetings and speak at their events. It’s an excellent way to make contacts and build trust.
With this preparation, when you do approach an agency, you’ll be sure to bring a relevant, creative concept to the table.
Bob Wagner, Vice President
Xerox Creative Services Business
and Premier Partners Program
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Eduardo Achach, chairman of the board, Mega Direct, Mexico City, asks his question of Bob Wagner: How does a print provider approach a corporate brand owner without alienating their agency?
Xerox's Bob Wagner gives tips direct from the customer on what it takes to earn their print business.
Listen-in to the podcast by clicking here.
Andreas Weber, Global Communications GmbH, talks about joining print services providers who are growing their digital business by targeting the lucrative untapped ad agency and design services marketplace.
Listen-in to the podcast by clicking here as this renowned industry consultant describes the big opportunity that awaits!
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