A new digital press; the anatomy of a new acquisition…

So you are in the market for a new digital press? Well then you are in luck as you have many choices to look at. With offerings from every major player in the market the job of making an intelligent choice is quite daunting. No one machine can be perfect for every situation and no one manufacturer can be everything to everyone.
Before walking down the digital printing isle to chose something off the shelf, you will want to review carefully at your current customer base and the jobs that they are providing to you, the skill sets of your people and the current equipment capabilities and capacity and your business as they are today. A bit of dream building and having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish both in the near term and the future can be a job by itself.

Take into account that a digital press acquisition in not an inexpensive one and is a decision that you will have to live with for a while. Whether you purchase or lease and what options you chose will have a lot to do with the current state of your business and your short and long term vision is for your company. A solid business and marketing plan are essential when undertaking such an expense.

Environmental considerations, Electrical needs, Space requirements, Speed, Reliability, Output Quality, Throughput, Substrate Handling, Duty cycle, Image Processing in both Accuracy/Power & Speed, Initial Acquisition Price, Cost to operate, Serviceability, Operator Control, Uptime, Training & Ongoing Support, Color Management and the ability to put this new asset in line with a workflow system or MIS system are all considerations that you must take into account when shopping. Companies that cannot answer your questions and provide you with a reasonable level of confidence cannot be considered seriously.

Let’s face it digital printing has come of age and is a serious rival to offset lithography. Run lengths for digital are getting longer while the average run lengths of offset lithography are getting shorter. At the GATF/PIA training I received in PA last month we were told the national average has dropped to 5000 sheets per run. At the same time the digital printing technology has evolved to the point that the delta between digital and offset has risen significantly from on average 1500 sheets to the 2500 sheet neighborhood. Even with the industries greatest achievements and innovations set up times are still 30 to 45 minutes on an average 4 to 6 color press. Highly skilled labor, Chemicals, Plates, Make Ready are still serious pricing components to any offset job. The systems required to drive these new offset presses are expensive and have many cost factors associated with them as well.

Now that the economic pressure has put companies on alert CMO’s are being pressured to do more with less both in marketing budgets and in labor. Companies are reaching out to find new ways to increase ROI of their marketing campaigns and are seeking to increase revenues without increasing the money spent to bring in those revenues. Marketing and Communication departments have redefined what “good looks like” and have looked to the science of timing and relevance to increase response to their offers.

With this science the advent of cross media advertising and elaborate relevant campaigns have become the norm. Print service providers have also had to redefine themselves and have been stretched from selling a commodity in their chosen craft to becoming a practitioner of a manufacturing science and participating in a solution based sale. Reaching out to expand their horizons the common print service provider has had to look for new revenue streams and retool their staff in their transition to marketing service providers.

Now many printers are selling a product based service instead of just a cost center product. With 1 to 1 marketing and the ever increasing sophistication of conditional variable data printing the choice of a digital press has become a very important one indeed for the printer that intends to be around in 2020. With many companies looking at variable data printing the ability to print long digital runs has changed the way to make a digital press choice.

So where do we start in the dissecting of a digital press acquisition? Well let’s start with the workflow surrounding a digital press. Many companies have already invested or will invest in a make-ready/workflow tool. Whether you use something simple like a suite of applications, or something more advanced like a server based solution there are many options available; one must look at what solutions are supported by the equipment and what training and ongoing support is also available.

If your sales rep and his/her team do not have a strong resume and experienced background you cannot take them seriously in their recommendations for your business. As important as the attributes of your press are so is the connection to that company both from a training and support side and from a recommendations side. You cannot spend enough time to know everything therefore you have to have a relationship that is strong enough to be able to count on their recommendations at a certain level. Sure you have to be a student of the business but the reality is you have way too much on your plate to learn about everything involved.

Pick a company that locally has a strong presence both in production print and in the ancillary services and has the relevant knowledge to help you become successful. Make-ready tools, Workflow systems, Business Development, Hardware setup and support, Business system integration, Initial training and long term support along with the typical financial services and flexible billing options are all key elements to take into account. Listen for people with vision but that are not unrealistic or that sound like “perfection in a bottle.” People that don’t talk about the risks associated with a solution are not being realistic. You should always be presented with options and a well thought out upgrade path so you are not caught off guard.

Make sure to know what level equipment you need and that the company you are looking at has a sufficient upgrade path for you and your business. Make sure to take the time to understand all of the cost elements and product limitations and upgradability. Digital presses can cost from $50,000 to millions of dollars. Ensure that your system is modular and has a way to add feature sets as your business adds new revenue streams and takes on new offerings. The last thing you want to do is short change yourself by buying the cheapest machine on the market without taking into consideration what you may be doing in 3, 5 and even 10 years.

Companies that don’t show interest in your business processes and rush to offer a “solution” without taking the time to observe and ask questions are not going to be good business partners now or in the future. Reluctance to slow the process down to seriously talk to you and your key operators and production managers are not going to offer anything but a nightmare down the road. Without a true understanding of your current capabilities, capacity and business offerings any proposal given to you would be futile.

Look for companies that not only have a good product but have local talent that understands both your needs and business model. Listen to the questions being asked and the level at which they communicate with you and their responsiveness to your requests. Be willing to give a serious contender the time to be able to fully grasp both your current situation and your future vision. Companies that are not interested in your future will under or over sell you and compromise you and your company.

Many a printer has gone out of business by over extending themselves. There are almost as many companies that have gone out of business by not taking new technologies seriously and not having the firepower to compete in the marketplace effectively. The effective use of technology is a delicate balance and sometimes it takes someone from the outside to help. Look to sound organizations that can help like the GATF/PIA who have a broad understanding and membership that crosses all sections of the industry. Whether you are a specialty printer or a general commercial printer they can offer invaluable advice as they see things from a 50,000 foot view.

After you have narrowed the field to a manageable list of potential suitors it is time to look closely at the hardware and software solutions that are being presented to you. In the next segment we will look at the hardware considerations of a digital press and what options are available.

Pirate Mike

Color Calibration is the Key to Consistency; the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things seen!

Talk to ten people about color management and you will get ten (or more) different answers. I really like the commentary that Frank Romano wrote for WhatTheyThink.com.

Frank suggested that "color management is the ultimate oxymoron. You can no more manage color than you can manage light or nature (or even teenagers)."

Unclutter your mind, Standardize your equipment

We all know that the same color image looks different when viewed on different monitors, printed on different proofers and printers, on different brands of paper, or even viewed under different lighting environments. Yet this is the task that we are given to accomplish. Color management is about characterizing color imaging devices. It is about understanding color space and the creation and proper use of profiles, both input and output. Color management is about achieving color portability and predictability so that you can count on the result.

If you are working in the digital world, you have to manage color somehow, whether by eye or by making a substantial commitment to hardware, software and training. Regardless of how far you have traveled down the color management path, you know this isn't easy. Don't forget, every color device and every combination of ink and paper has its own color "signature" requiring separate profiling and calibration to achieve the best results. (Perhaps this is why my hair has gone gray way before it's time.)

While many of the people selling color management solutions would like you to believe that installing their group of widgets and software will give you perfect color all the time, I prefer to look at color management as a way to achieve repeatable, consistent results. No matter what you have done to set up your color managed workflow, there will be some colors that you just can't reproduce or that are out of gamut for your suite of devices. A good color management system will allow you to deal with this in an efficient manner. So consistency is the key to the overall success. So how do we arrive at consistency you ask? Good process control!

Getting to Consistency

How sophisticated do you need your color management system have to be?

If you are working on in-house newsletters or printing real estate flyers on a color laser or inkjet printer, you may not need to do anything more than calibrate your monitor. Working with the default settings on your digital camera, scanner and printer may be producing acceptable results as is. There are many ways to set up your color managed workflow, there are a lot of options none of them are 100% right or wrong. There ARE things though you should do and things you shouldn't do; but you have a lot of options.

One thing that is very important regardless of which color space you work in or what or what color output profiles you assign is you do have to use the SAME settings across all of your cameras, scanners, and software applications etc to maintain consistent results. If you have multiple designers or pre press people that have their own computers you have to ensure that both are working in the same color space and using the exact same settings or jobs coming from both of them will ALWAYS look different.

If you are working in a photography/design studio and someone else has to output the files you may want to see what they are using and how much sense it makes to adopt their system for consistency sake (always ask for some help from your printer). I have found most printers are pretty happy to explain how they like their files set up before they start on the job. This will usually go a long way when it gets to press time. They may even have custom profiles for the equipment you are using, making the process even easier. If you know who will do the final output you can call ahead to find out what they will run the job on and ask them if they have the output profile for their device or how they would like the file setup and delivered.

Printers have a hard time of it as they deal with so many clients that it many times is impossible to "train" all of their parters to provide them with exactly what they need in the format that they need it. Hence the Pre Press department earns their keep. There are a lot of things that must be done by printers to ensure consistent color job to job so that the Pressman do not have to be "Artists." Web submission has helped this by taking files and processing them in a consistent and predictable manner you know that the fonts and graphics are there as the customer submitted them.

Many times printers are using a particular standard like SWOP or GRACol or using a particular methodology like G7. Most of the time they will be more than happy to put their geeks with your geeks to save them time in the long run. Everything you do will get closer to what you are aiming for and over time you can perfect the "art" of color managing your systems to work with theirs.

If it exists, It exists to be Calibrated

If you are going to implement a color management strategy in your print center and start down this many times slippery path, you need to manage it all. Calibration is a way to ensure process control. Calibration is not color management but you cannot color manage what is not controlled! But it will help allow you to implement a system of color management that will ensure consistent, predictable and repeatable results. Color calibration is a requirement for all devices taking an active part of a color managed workflow. You cannot arbitrarily pick one element to "Control." For instance calibrating your monitor is not enough. You will need to calibrate and profile all of your monitors, or have just one dedicated color workstation that everyone works from. All devices that are part of the system need to be controlled! Maintaining process control will allow you to implement a successful color management program.

Consistency is one of the major keys to color accuracy; so whenever you can standardize equipment do so – that will make your job a lot easier. You will need to profile every combination of printer and substrates (paper) that you use, because of the differences between them. This is work but once you get started things get a lot easier and when you quit having to redo things to get colors right you will be thankful. First, you must calibrate your monitor – using your flavor of color calibration software along with a spectrophotometer that you will attach to your screen.

For the most accurate results you will want to have your monitors in a subdued light environment to be able to discern color. The walls of the room should be a neutral grey so they do not add ambient color to the images you are viewing.



The light recommended for the ultimate viewing your prints in production uses yet another standard called Kelvin. Daylight is considered to be 5000K or 5000 Kelvin.

You will want to look at the papers you use and standardize a bit. Pick a good smooth proofing sheet that you can always use to look at comps etc. This day and age it is hard to find a good digital sheet that isn't completely saturated in optical brighteners which give the sheet a slightly bluish hue.


Optical brighteners are additives that paper manufacturers put into paper in order to help a paper look "whiter." They do this to compensate for the yellowish or brownish tinges of the low quality paper. It is an optical illusion though and is to fool your eye into thinking the paper is a bright white. This many times is factored in with the "Brightness Factor" you see mentioned on the package numbers over 100 indicate a high level of optical brighteners have been used.

L* is also another term used for the quality of a sheet and refers to it's "Lightness". L is one of the components of the L*A*B* or CIE (Commission Internationale De l'Eclairage ) LAB color space. Paper has a profound effect on the ultimate appearance of the image as a sheet with an L* of 80 will be several shades darker than a paper with an L* of 90 and so on. This make makes a huge difference when printing on such papers, as the sheet with an L* of 80 will add a 22.75% K component to the image your printing where as an L* of 92 only adds 9.41%.

Moral of the story, pick a good sheet that you like it should have a brightness of at least 98 (only adds 2.35%) to minimize the effect of the added K and profile the paper; many times you do not have to re-profile do to adjustments in thickness but you do for finish changes like from matt to satin, to gloss to uncoated. Uncoated papers have a different gamut that they can produce do to the propensity of the toners, dry inks, offset inks and other pigments to absorb into the paper fibers and not lay on top like a well coated stock.

The next step in process control after you have done your monitors is to calibrate your printer(s). Most of the higher end systems with print controllers will have their own targets and process to accomplish this but there are many that can be used as a standard like the IT-8.7 target. Then you can move on to whatever input devices you use, i.e. scanners, digital cameras, etc. Once your input devices are calibrated, you have a closed loop, calibrated system that should make it easy to achieve files and prints with outstanding color fidelity. Many times your equipment vendor will have a couple great targets to use and can show you what they should look like considering your setup.

Printers like other equipment need to be continually calibrated to be brought back to a baseline. Characterization profiles (output profiles) can be used to maximize what is known about your particular system. As you change key components of your printer like replace ink, toner, drums, or any other color critical component you need to recalibrate. As things like corona wires get older they take charge differently and this will change your color if you do not calibrate your machine routinely. After long runs you may want to recalibrate as well. Whether it is daily, weekly or whatever you need to put a process in place to ensure it gets done and in the same fashion each time.

Easier said than Done

The sad thing is that it is all easier said than done, as Frank Romano put it, "There are many standards committees, organizations, and vendors working on "standardized" approaches to color reproduction. It seems that the more standards we have, the more chaos there is." For the most part this is true but if we do nothing at all we will have customers upset and operators that have no hair! We have to start somewhere. Your equipment vendors will have ideas that will guide you in the right direction in the end you will have to put together a system that makes sense for you. There is no end to color management so it can get involved. You need to work out a process that is duplicate-able and predictable. Keeping things simple enough that everyone can follow the process and use the system will greatly help your success. Human error can also lead to color infidelity so having a system that is understood and always followed is key!

Even when you apply science to every input, viewing, and output device we still cannot control how the client or end user will see the finished product under what lighting conditions etc. The reality is that color management albeit full of science is still a highly practiced art form.

Bon Appetite


Pirate Mike

Ready, Set, INKJET! A look at this new innovative technology as it comes after traditional printing!

In the previous article, “Inkjet; the next generation of digital?” I introduced the idea that inkjet is being developed to be represented as a “Big Iron” player. As advertising agencies and marketing service providers prove to their customers that relevancy gets results and affects their bottom line that the amount of companies using these techniques will grow.

Even entire organizations like Alphagraphics are required to do cross media campaigns as part of their local efforts. From many of the shops that I have talked to these shops experience an average of 12% as compared to traditional direct mail of 1%-3% on a good day. As these technologies drive printers to have the capability to produce fully variable pieces in large quantities they will quickly outgrow typical electrophotography devices as we currently know them.

As copier manufacturers drive their toner based systems faster we see a convergence of technologies and at the lower end of the spectrum they are there with products like the HP Indigo 7000, the Xerox iGen4 and the Kodak NexPRESS 3600. But in the service bureau arena when looking at fully variable transactional or trans-promotional printing the volumes still push the limits of toner or toner suspended devices. When printers look to manufacturers to make this transition there are only a few choices as of today, but the competition is widening.

In a current article, “The jet set” Mar 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Denise Kapel of American Printer she touts the advances of digital inkjet web printing. This newly emerging technology is generating a lot of attention. Denise mentions, “Almost half of the respondents to our December 2009 “Web Offset Survey” believe high-speed inkjet presses are a threat to web offset volume.” The need for a technology to be able to produce large runs of variable pieces in an affordable and reliable manner is already here. Traditional methods do not afford a printer the ability to be competitive once the volumes get to certain levels.

We see every area of printing and publishing impacted by the advances of inkjet! In a recent article, Bill Esler, Editor in Chief -- Graphic Arts Online, March 23, 2010 "CPI Launches Inkjet Book Line." It goes on to say, "CPI, Europe's largest book printing firm, has formally commissioned a digital inkjet book printing system, which its has branded the Quantum, built around a 400-fpm HP T300 monochrome inkjet web press." CPI chairman Pierre-François Catté was quoted in saying, "Book printers have 30 to 40% overcapacity. If you are going to buy something, you better make sure you made the right choice." Catté also notes that compressed delivery schedules are changing customer expectations. "One and a half years ago, customers wanted five-day turnaround; now they want two days." Inkjet is here to stay and its making rogue waves!

February 4th, 2008 the Direct Group became the first in the US to install the Océ JetStream™ 2200 system, a very high-speed, fully variable, color inkjet, continuous press. Direct Group President and CEO Don McKenzie said, “The Océ JetStream 2200 system will enable our clients to leverage three significant and converging industry trends – the rapidly increasing adoption of trigger-based mailings, the availability of revolutionary digital printing technology, and the demand for more effective postal strategies to combat recent and future rate increases. The capabilities provided by the Océ JetStream 2200 system will allow us to deliver sustainably improved response rates for our clients, while significantly lowering total campaign costs for customer acquisition programs, including postal and logistics expenses.”

The world’s largest English language print show IPEX is held every four years in Birmingham, England, IPWX (www.ipex.org) is being held this year May 18 to 25. Ipex 2010 is looking like a repeat of Drupa 2008, as it is already being labeled “Inkjet Ipex.” This is where digital printing meets offset head to head. With the all of the new demand being variable print whether it is transactional printing, trans-promotional or one to one advertising companies want to do it and in color, and printers are looking for new ways to get it done! The Fujifilm Inkjet Digital Press is one of the newest innovations to be shown at the show. This new press will utilize single-pass piezo drop-on-demand inkjet head technology and will produce at approximately 180 A4 sheets per minute. From digital sheetfed to continuous web we will see inkjet technology as we have never seen it before!

There are draw backs to Inkjet; the systems are new, expensive and the quality is not where many printing professionals would like them but this technology is still building. The continuous inkjet process has been used for decades in monochrome addressing and imprinting. The first continuous inkjet (CIJ) presses were seen in the 1970s, and today, the process is universally used for wide-format graphics and offset proofing. At Dupa 2008 many of the industries brightest manufacturers came forward with the “next generation” of inkjet presses. “All areas of inkjet have changed,” says RIT's Frank Romano. “The fundamental principles [haven't], but there have been significant developments that make it a more viable process.” Now with On Demand less than a month away we will see what the America’s have to say in our largest exhibition of printing technologies.

I am not predicting the DEATH OF THE COPIER! (Shameless plug for fellow blogger Greg Walters) Toner based systems have rallied as well trying to keep up with the trends for larger runs of variable printing. Xerox uses non-contact flash fusing on continuous-feed, color Electrophotography devices such as its 650/1300 and 490/980. A high-intensity xenon light flashing more than 2,000 times per second gets the job done. Because no heat or pressure makes contact with the paper, the devices can print on a wider array of substrates. Xerox is not the only company to use xenon lights. Founded in 1992 Nipson a French based company located in Belfort also uses this technology. They state on their website, “Thanks to our proprietary dry toner magnetography technology and cool xenon fusing, our presses offer you a unique combination of flexibility, productivity and consistently outstanding quality.”

As inkjet gains popularity and attention we will see electrophotography manufactures turn up the heat as well fighting over their turf as we have already seen great examples of; or invest into this technology as product offering as Kodak and others have done already.

As a consultant to the printing and publishing industry I love to see new tools to bring to my clients to help them achieve their business objectives. There are a lot of good manufacturers out there that are bringing technology to bare at an intense pace. What we don’t realize is that the industry has never seen such a pace of innovation. The last 200 years of printing has not seen the changes that we have over the last 10-15 years. And what is a known is that it is not slowing down at all. As we sit at the edge of a global community we will see communication being more important than ever!

This “new world” helps to anchor the printing and publishing industry for another 200 years as we watch the chameleon change colors yet one more time. One thing about the printing and publishing industry is that it is full of innovators, and tough businessman that will not be left behind. In an industry that has been clouded with companies coming in and going out quickly we will see the “new age” printer become even more agile in a time where it is not just the printed piece that is under inspection but the ability to come up with a good message as well.


Happy Sale’ing…

Pirate Mike

On Demand; what’s next for 2010…

With less than a month left excitement is building for ON DEMAND.

ON DEMAND Conference & Exposition, the largest digital printing and automated production event in North America, is just around the corner. The 2010 show, taking place April 20-22, 2010 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA is sure to give us a little insight as to what our year has in store for us. In the electrophotography arena we are sure to see some new devices come to market.

The new Konica Minolta 8000 will be on display along with the rumored new Xerox digital press that will sit under the iGen The Xerox Color 800/1000 will also be in attendance. Canon has been very quiet but I am sure that they have the next series of imagePRESS coming around the corner and with the Oce acquisition well on its way they may use ON DEMAND to spring board some new ideas to the marketplace.

I am not sure if I will be going this year but as my employment search comes to a close I am hoping to be able to take the time to see a lot of these new innovations myself. I am curious what else may be on display if you have any ideas we would love to hear them!

Pirate Mike

Inkjet; the next generation of digital?

So now for many years we have been hearing about the evolution of inkjet technology. Not the inkjet that you have on the edge of your desktop, but the kind that could eventually take over the digital printing industry. As the need for larger formats and higher speeds increase so does the need for reliability. As every print center looks at the available technology to make their "go or no go" decisions they have to balance capacity, work load, cost, reliability and other risk factors in weighing their decision on what technology to invest in or which to use for a particular application. Technology is advancing at such a pace and the different factions of the production print market are converging at such a rate that these decisions which might have been easy at one point are not ever increasing difficult to parse.

Even during the 2008 Drupa many of the commentators called it "Inkjet Drupa" as many of the innovations that were on display were new Inkjet devices aimed at the trans-promotional space that would ultimately be aimed at another level of lithography. A couple years ago Frank Romano came to Dallas during a speaking engagement "Frankly Speaking" where he was talking about the "new kid on the block." He predicted that Inkjet technology would revolutionize the industry as he did some 20 years ago in his talks about "Desktop Publishing."

As the cost of the equipment gets under control and the quality gets better, high speed inkjet may upset electrophotography all together. There are gaps in traditional offset lithography and electrophotography's ability to fill every need do to the applications balance of speed, quality, print window, cost requirements that lend itself to the need of a new technology that seems to be filled by the new role of high speed inkjet systems.

In an article by Barney Cox, PrintWeek, 24 January 2008 titled "Inkjet technology to dominate Drupa with Kodak and Xerox launches" Barney talks about some predictions that Kodak made about high speed inkjet and its role in the industry by 2015. Now at this time digital printing comprises approximately 15% of all printing today, in Kodak's estimate they felt that their "Stream Technology" would comprise roughly a trillion pages or 1% of the global printing industry. This is a huge growth potential for such an emerging technology. In Frank Romano's model he showed digital printing "toner based" on a gradual slope to 2050 but showed digital printing "inkjet" on a sharp increase as the traditional methods of offset coming to about half of their current rates. The 3 largest and growing areas of print are: Advertising/Promotional 24%, Packaging 18%, and Direct Mail at 13% these areas all are having an increasing demand for a more increased level of personalization and relevancy. This can only be accomplished by digital print methods.

June 16th, 2009 Kodak came forward with this release in part, "The KODAK PROSPER S10 Imprinting System, which features flexible mounting options, integrates seamlessly with web offset presses and web finishing equipment to add variable data to offset printed materials. Operating at 1,000 fpm (305 mpm) with a resolution of 600 dpi, it allows users to print variable data inline, saving time and money over a traditional, two-step process that combines offset pre-printed forms and offline laser imprinting."

it went on to say, "Wilen Direct, which has installed four S10 Imprinting Systems, is outputting 80,000 pieces per hour, or 1.6 million pieces per day, on just one of its presses."

They said "This technology lets us create full variable data print through our offset presses, and it does it three to four times faster than a traditional high-speed roll-to-roll system. As a result, we can move faster than ever while increasing quality.”

Kodak is working hard to development and bring to market this new leader in digital printing, "Kodak is working with customers and prospects under two programs: PROSPER Press Market Pioneers and PROSPER Press Market Leaders. PROSPER Press Market Pioneers will be the first users of a PROSPER Press, with installation targeted between the first and third quarters of 2010."

And Kodak is just one example of a manufacturer working hard to develop this new technology. As the quality and substrate handling ability increases and the initial cost of the acquisition of such devices comes down we will see an increasing migration as we did to the digital cut sheet devices to roll fed, wide to super wide format inkjet. Reliability and cost effectiveness cannot be matched by other methods at this time. Inkjet has a lot of interesting characters in the playing field. Kodak, Xerox, IBM, Agfa, Oce, HP and others.

Interestingly enough Xerox has over 1,200 patents in this arena already. In an article that I recently wrote in April of 2009 "Amidst the slaughter rises Xerox Technology" I talked about Xerox's tenacity to continue their intense research and development plans. And again this month in "In Search of Innovation Xerox joins the gang; and builds a new research facility in India.” I quote a recent Xerox press release that stated this last year they increased their production of patents by 19%.

But in typical Xerox fashion they have been quite conservative in their inkjet direction "We believe inkjet has its place and is suitable for very high volumes," said Xerox production systems group vice president of marketing Valerie Blauvelt. – Barney's article stated. Valerie went on to say, "People have high-quality applications inkjet is not suitable for. These include direct mail and transactional."

At Drupa Xerox did showcase some of it's revolutionary inkjet innovations that they are working on but didn't give a release date. Xerox is advancing the technology with new modular print heads that are more reliable, low cost and scaleable. Xerox has also been developing next-generation ink in the form of "cured gel" ink, which offers more ways to print on many substrates - from coated paper to plastic to aluminum.

In an ever changing business environment the needs of business dictate where research and development money will go. As the needs of business migrate toward the increasing sophistication of variable data to meet the "relevancy" needs of marketing applications and the fact that these applications demand high quality and substrate diversity so too we will see products come to bear that meet these needs.

Just like Plato said 400 years before Christ, "necessity is the mother of invention." In a free market society that economic gain will bring to bear solutions that solve today's critical business needs. In a soft or declining economy the need for relent marketing is increasingly important. Roger Gimbel and Associates,"an international management consulting firm working to ignite business growth through digital technologies" conducted a cross media marketing campaign in 2006 called, "Digitally Cool" which was geared at raising awareness of XMPie and Xerox digital printing technologies. The results were that they:

1. Produced and delivered more than 13,000 customized invitations in six languages, all on tight deadlines and fixed budgets.
2. Motivated 5,300 people, or 41% of invitees, to visit a personalized Web landing page for valuable information exchange. An impressive 26% of all Web page visitors pre-registered for the seminars.
3. Secured 40 - 200 attendees per seminar, adding 1,600 highly qualified prospects to the Xerox sales cycle.
4. Brought a 1000% ROI to Xerox's pipeline.

In the end Roger was quoted as saying, "In the future, we will not be measured by the quality of the output; we will be measured by the quality of the outcome."

Something that equipment reps forget when directing their commercial print clients. Many times all we talk about is speeds and feeds. Well my widget is 600x600 dpi well my widget is 1200x1200 dpi, well my color gamut is wider. In a world where most manufacturers are creating color equipment that produces very good quality color and is "good enough" for most purposes. We need to differentiate ourselves by the services that we provide and not just the hardware we push!

With competition becoming increasingly fierce it is more important that ever that we direct our commercial printing clients to becoming more of a "marketing service provider" and not just a provider of the deliverable. This "solution selling" allows them to hold better margins, buy more equipment and pay their bills. They become more of an asset to their clients thereby creating a barrier to exit for themselves.

By delivering a highly customizable and relevant message to our audience we create a bond that delivers action. This end result is what companies are looking for. This ability to deliver an actionable message also creates a "barrier to exit" as print providers try to deliver real value in retaining and developing their customer base. To that ends as high speed inkjet becomes more accessible I can see this technology giving print centers the ability to economically deliver complex and sophisticated messages that create a "call to action" for their customers. It may also change the way that we sell equipment as well and the pricing models that we use.

As the technology develops we will see presses much like the full sheet 6 color Heidelbergs and Kamoris that we are familar with today but producing fully variable digital printing at speeds we have yet to imagine. Right now most of the technology is aimed at web presses and wide format but surely we will ultimately see more cut sheet inkjet presses as well, like the Riso ComColor press that was unvieled at PRINT09.

The great thing for digital printing consultants is this new technology will give us one more tool in our bag to help our customers deliver their message and drive profitability. This ensures our lifecycle as well. Be watching for new comers to this arena as the economic gain becomes more of a reality to those that hold the keys to this new innovation.

You can read more about this case study at: American Printer's Website in an article self titled, "Digitally Cool."

Pirate Mike

Eastman Kodak, another one bites the dust…

Ok this is purely conjecture but I am starting to hear about push back when proposing Kodak products to high level clients. My local superiors are saying the typical, "business as usual." But we know what that means, "They dont know and they want us to keep marching without missing a step."

The rumors are that at the higher levels they are being told not to go forward with Digimaster and NexPRESS products as they will be going away soon. So I am putting my feelers out to get more feedback from YOU. Many times you know what is happening before the news hits the street. I had heard months ago that Ricoh was looking at Kodak for the high end production black and white and color and so they would not have to develop a strong workflow product.

I was recently in a position to be aware of a huge Federal deal that would involve thousands of machines, the word from the silver hair and black tie side of the business is a "no go" on the Kodak products the word coming down from their superiors in the fancy building with the pearly gates is that HP is making a play for Kodak and that that product line is going away anyway!

Going away anyway? What do you mean says the innocent pirate who sells the big iron? Yes going away says the silver haired man in his late 60's. Could it be that Ricoh the 'new' one world leader is coming forth with its own product to replace it. Replace it wow; that sounds well wow…

Could it be that the great minds that gave us the engine for the IBM infoPRINT have stepped down to create for us "the ants of the 'new' one world leader" a great and ultimately powerful multi-function of destruction?

The great destroyer of all that is Docutech, Varioprint and Digimaster? Wow, (for those of you that don't know better don't hold your breath.) I am very interested to see what we are going to replace these MaMaMaMillions of clicks a month Machines.

What could this new Multi-Function of Destruction look like? What will be its call to arms. Will it cost those that wield it their souls? Will it be like a cyborg and run itself? How far into the future do we have to look to get a small glimpse of what is coming down the pike from our engineering friends across the great oceans from our 'new' one world leader?

I do not know of what could be motivating people to NOT sell the Digimaster products especially since we have always been the largest channel for these products anyway I would rather us buy them than another competitor especially like an HP that already is whooping up on us with their Indigo sheetfed and web products I really do not need them coming down into my small shops and taking away all that which Ricoh has giveneth.

One thing that is very apparent is that Kodak is a bit vulnerable at the moment. After posting a “preliminary Net Loss of $137 million, or $.51 per share.” For the 4th Quarter of 2008 and watching their stock dwindle from a close on April 28th 2008 of $17.89 to $3.95 April 28th 2009 they have seen better days. Watching a company prepare to lay off 4500 people or almost 18% of their workforce could start a few rumors all by itself.

Hey if you have the inside track please feel free to enlighten me as this has become the great soap opera for all things pirate-like.

Pirate Mike…

And they asked, “will this print envelopes?”

Over the years if I was given a penny for each time a new customer would ask, "will this print envelopes?" I would be a millionaire! The reality is even the few copier manuals that mention that they can print on an envelope like a number 10, you quickly find out that the service department that handles your account doesn't support it. Why not?

I mean come on, most fusing sections of a normal copier run from 160 degrees centigrade to 200 degrees! That is the perfect environment for a new feature called self sealing. That's right you just print your envelopes and they come out sealed for you! Not to mention that they come out very friendly, as they will come out looking like they are waving at you. As most of us in the business know it would be nice to have a real solution for envelopes!

Now there is Riso and offset duplicators which will do multi color envelopes but even a seasoned pressman hates envelopes. Now once you get to full color envelopes you start running out of options.

Sure there are specialty presses for high speed envelopes and you can always print flat and convert but wouldn't it be nice to have a full color digital envelope press? Can you imagine maybe even complex variable images along with your address information? A short run solution with the capability to run all day, and maybe for as little as 2, 10 50 envelopes?

Well there is an answer; let Pirate Mike introduce you to PSI!

Yes PSI has developed a digital envelope press that slightly resembles a copier with an AB Dick Envelope Feeder on the front with a conveyor belt delivery on the back! Print up to 55 #10 envelopes per minute in "one pass" as the website says.

• Wrinkle Free – High Impact
  
• Print color on difficult stocks
  
• Cost Efficient
  

For just pennies you two can print your own envelopes simply and efficiently! Ok am I starting to sound like an info-mercial I will stop! But it is still worthy of noting as this technology has taken so long to come to bear. I remember the first time that I had heard of PSI's new technology, it was from one of my clients a "Sir Speedy" franchise. They had seen this device at the national convention and were asking me if I could sell it. They know that I have a tendency to sell products that are not on the price list – IKON's or anyone else's for that matter. I sadly said "no" I don't think I have ever run into it! Till just a couple weeks ago when my bosses boss sent me a "demo video" of this new great product. It was the PSI envelope press. Ok you will find out that I call everything a "press", so don't get caught up in the minutia. I was ecstatic a new product! I love new products and am always looking for a way to offer something that I won't have 5 other bids for as we all know that copiers, printers, and digital presses are a dime a dozen. The only thing that sets us all apart is the quality of the local staff for a given vendor. Installation, implementation, training and support are what make you or break you in my opinion. The rest is history, customers are becoming very savvy and being taught by professional buyers and consultants on what they need.

It is hard for me to remember the last time I really sat down with a neophyte in the office equipment biz. Mostly I sit down with production managers, general managers, and C level operations and It professionals that can basically give you the part numbers for what they need. Now they may not know why or have been led down a particular path and need a bit of readjusting to their particular workflow or network typology but in general they have a pretty idea of what they want, who they want to buy it from and how much they are willing to pay for it. It is always amazing how still buyers will hold back information thinking that this is benefiting them. Only to find out that they omitted something that was critical for their own success or that was pertinent to the cost structure to make the project a winner. I never feel sorry for those types of buyers, I figure if you don't take advantage of my years of experience and use what has been paid for by my company, "my salary" to answer your questions and gather important data for you then "shame on you!"

Long term I do not know the robustness of these printers, the engine is made my Okidata and the service is completely seperate from whom you will buy this device from. I just was excited to see someone address an age old problem that now I can fix for a "nominal fee." I will let you beat that out of me! They say the monthly duty cycle on one of their engines is 150,000 per month. Now I am a bit skeptical of anyone's "maximum monthly duty cycle" as we all know that is in a white sterile lab for one month before the machine blows up, not for a typical 5 year lease. But at 55 pages per minute that gives us the potential to get 25,080 envelopes in an 8 hour day factoring in 95% uptime that is pretty interesting. Using the company's duty cycle that would average about 7,500 envelopes a day based on a 20 day work month. Not bad for the nemesis of the copier salesman.

We all hate envelopes so it is fitting that now we can make money on them, as at some point in our career a customer has hated us because our machine either wouldn't do envelopes or because it did do envelopes for a while then quit working all together after they glued everything on the inside together. Hurray for another thing to sell to fix a problem that is older than the copier itself.


Happy printing,

Pirate Mike

 

The raindance that is color management

After getting back from the 2008 PIA Color Management Conference (Phoenix, Arizona) I really had to take a few steps back to regain my composure.

Even after all of the fun and comradeship of meeting my fellow national competitors and potential and current clients had to get back home to rest from the show. I too like many that have been involved with Color production for 15 + years (ok its getting closer to 20, shhhhh) have had many preconceived notions of what is right and wrong both in and out of the pressroom. As we get closer to our PHD’s in Physics and Electromagnetic Science we still are really not much closer than we were with filters and rubylith film.

The witchcraft we practiced in sales, pre press and then ultimately the great rain dance in the press room to appease the color gods so that they would bless the job just in time for the ever dreaded, “press check” was just part of the business.


Now almost 20 years later not really anything has changed but our understanding of the problems that we face. We can talk about standardization, we can talk about the initiatives and really between it all it has stayed very academic. Start anywhere say the measurement of color (spectrophotometer) The reality is whether to UV filter or not really doesn’t make much difference when the bulbs all come from different sources and age giving different results the only commonality. As all businesses drive to the lowest common denominator and it is sad when our response to the economic pressures of fierce competition is "how cheap do you want it and what are you willing to sacrifice to get it?"

Sure we love to fix it all of the problems or would we?

If G7 methodology was really the answer and we could come up with an idea that really could be visualized on paper and agreed upon by everyone and we could send it anywhere in the world and it could be reproduced without question would we really have accomplished anything? Do you really want your customer to have such an exact science that he or she could come up with your secret sauce so easily as to just waltz over say 12,000 miles away to a nearby printer and get the EXACT same results?

And for half the cost? Ok a fifth of the cost?

What makes printers so special is that they are innovators and what truly separates the Leaders from the Challengers is their vision and ability to adapt and create unique methodologies to solve unusual and creative business problems. What will separate the men from the boys now is the ability to; recapitalize their toys in the digital realm, commit to the long term, and their ability to automate the rest.

Robots or Die I say!

No really you will never take the “craft” out of printing and publishing, even if it all goes digital or better yet, visually digital and skips the paper process all together. You will always need thinkers and young minds with old experienced hands to make it all work right. There will always be deadlines to meet and customer visual misunderstandings as we all think we know what it really should look like.

Now more than ever I hold tight to technology as it drags me through the mud. As an equipment vendor I now have to be able to show it, justify it and in the end still have to be able to run it as to keep the peace when everything goes wrong. And even worse, since I cater only to the printing and publishing industry (actually one of their very own) I have twice the hurdle to overcome. I cannot walk away when things are not working out. I have to stay and operate the equipment like I did some 10-15 years ago and show that even know I am still the Pirate that is and not just “was”.

But even with all of the technology, no one will really agree on anything. It perpetuates the lies that have been told for a century or better. We all think we know better and that is great it is why you will see 3 brands of color viewers all of varying ages, bulbs, surroundings and types all in the same pressroom with yet a different set of circumstances in the prepress room and in the customer viewing area.

I am glad that we get to keep our secrets and continue making our secret sauce. I for one would be sad just to be another number that can reproduce color perfectly time and time again. I like to leave that to the prepress soothsayers and color witchdoctors of the here and now.
What never changes is one’s passion to excellence and the drive that it takes to realize it. Whether you are the pressman in the back or the salesman coming in from the front we all have to be on top of our game in these tough and competitive times. I look forward to the challenge and the surviving another holocaust like we have before. From the paper shortage to the realization of our harsh chemicals that we so daily rubbed on everything each contraction is volleyed with an equally and greater expansion. Nothing like seeing old friends and making new ones as this career of mine has treated me so very well.

Even though the technology is driving competitors to find new ways to distinguish themselves and solve yet new problems we are still doing the same thing we did before the Apple and Desktop Publishing – Communicating to the world through visual symbols and colors. I love this mess I’m in and I look forward to another 20 years of it.

You should see my rain dance it is awesome!

Pirate Mike…

Of Pirates and Digital Printing…

Of Pirates and Digital Printing you say, well that is the story of my life; this I make a conscious decision to unravel for you. Though there are many that would try to convince you otherwise the question still remains is the industry that surrounds document imaging equipment a noble profession? Every day I watch salespeople draw their swords and banter back and forth over territory squabbles, commission debates and the prospects in their pond. For the love of money this too is the reason that technology has overtaken such a noble industry like commercial printing. From what was once a simple and majestic art, created by the skilled hands of artisans taught by their fathers and their fathers alike. Now just the hum of electronic circuit boards and the flow of powered ink that spills upon blank pages are monitored by the children of a new generation. Pulverized, polymerized, organic, chemical, toner now called by many "dry ink" comes in many shapes and sizes but one thing remains the same; we will charge you many ways for it to lie down on your beautiful blank pages.

This is a story of the death of a noble art and a young man's desire to learn to harness the power of the printed word and to capture the impact of color and visual symbology. This young man was Pirate Mike and this is his story...

It was the summer of 1990 and we had recently moved to Oklahoma from Bellingham, Washington. My mother was volunteering for a local church that was lightly staffed and was looking for any and all help to help spread the good word. With an X386 computer, a 300 dpi laser printer and a $29 copy of print shop deluxe or something similar they had to find a way to create a church newsletter.

My mother had been a part of the high school newspaper and had done some free lance writing for a local paper back home, but putting together a church newsletter was not really her expertise. With most of the material being written by church staff what she did know is that it was going to involve that X386 PC and that she did know; she knew nothing about.

When questioned my mother boldly said, "Well if it involves a computer I'm sure my son can figure it out." I can still remember the day when I was handed about 5 type written pages that had been typed by an electronic typewriter and was sat down in front of was at the time a behemoth of a personal computer. Approximately 48 hours later, 4 clip art books, 1 floppy disk full of 5 or 6 fonts and the use of a flatbed scanner at a local print shop the first issue of the church newsletter was almost complete.

After a marathon of sweat, blood and tears I was then given the task to get this grand publication printed and in 2 color no doubt (black and an odd pms color). After about 50 phone calls and numerous visits to local print shops a deal was struck and a deadline given we were well on our way to having a finished product. The church was awakened by this new communication that had been handed out that morning before service. And somewhere before the "you are released" and after the offering it was mentioned that we have Sandee's son to thank for the newsletter. It wasn't but several weeks later that I started to get a bit of attention over the work being done on the church newsletter.

I can still remember one Sunday after service when a man walked up and asked me if I could do some business cards for him. Design, print and deliver was the task he needed me to complete. At the end I handed him 500 business cards and he preceded to hand me some money, I told him that I really wasn't a graphic designer and didn't feel comfortable taking his money. He said, "You did the job that I would have given to another and this money you deserve." I graciously took the money, and inside was very grateful as at the time I had no gainful employment.

It was not long before I really didn't have time to get a job I was way too busy doing design and brokering print to several local print shops. Business cards, letterhead, envelopes, brochures and marketing pieces; little did I know that this new found skill would carry me over the next couple of decades. I finally went to a local technical school and took some adobe classes and an offset printing operations class so that I would have a stronger foundation for working with printers and be able to speak their new found language.

Eventually I did leave the world as a print broker and designer to work behind the presses in print shops all over Tulsa Oklahoma. Old beaten down equipment I had run it all; from setting lead type in chases for a 100 year old windmill letterpress to stripping up negatives with rubylith for exposure plate making. I received a lot of practical experience in the darkroom shooting halftones and line work, and in my off hours would practice at a friend's shop just paying for the materials that I used. After several years doing paste up and every menial job that can be found in a print shop I got my first break. I had worked through most of the small format duplicators (AB Dick, Hamada, Chief, Multilith, Ryobi, Davidson to name a few) and had worked my way up to a second pressman working on a 40" 6 color Kamori learning the art of high end color work for Roger's Lithographic when I got a call from my placement service. They needed to place a temp to perm spot in a small town called Dewy Oklahoma about an hour north of Tulsa.

It turns out that this new process had just come out this new thing called "digital printing." And this new company Indigo has created one of the first digital presses the E Print 1000. Now considering that only about 400 of these presses had been sold worldwide it was going to be a challenge. One I had to move to Dewey, then I had to learn the electro-mechanics of a copier as this was the basis for the platform. This small format press had to have sapphire coated papers and at the time there were about 6 papers that we could use. The company was Central States Business Forms and was the 17h largest continuous forms printer in North America. They were getting ready to try their hand at Digital Printing and I was chosen to learn the madness.

After 6 months of training and many months of trials and tribulations they disbanded the project all together and sent us all home. I don't know what happened to the 2 Indigos that they bought but it was a turning point in my understanding of printing and the future possibilities of digital printing. I came home and started to work for ABC Printing in Coweta. Over time I had gained some respect with the owner and we had even talked about setting up a second shop in Tulsa that someday I could own through "sweat equity." This had always been my dream to have my own shop and to further my knowledge of printing.

I have always been a rebel and found myself taking unusual paths to follow my dreams. A pirate if you will. The word Pirate comes from the Greek word peira. The Greek word πείρα (peira) means assay, trial, attempted, or experienced. Pirates were and are entrepreneurs. They lived very democratically and paid close attention to their crews. They lived by "articles" or rules, many of which we have adopted today. They offered workers compensation should they get injured while following the common goals of the ship. I have always followed my heart and a day came when I got the opportunity to work for a wildlife sanctuary that lured me away from my dreams of printing.

After about a 4 year sabbatical from printing taming the likes of Tigers and Bears Oh My, (Another story entirely) I came back to printing but in a different capacity, "Equipment Sales." My first job would set me up for what would become an infamous ride and new career beginning. Now while apprenticing at Minolta I was to truly learn the art of piracy and what it meant to be truly a corporate pirate. While under the tutelage of Zack Jones, sales manager for Minolta soon to become Konica Minolta I was to learn the art of sales and the 7 deadly sins of a copier salesman, up front, close and personal. Here is where I made my first 6 figure income. No education, No experience, just the drive to make things happen and enough common sense to listen and learn a new way of living.

Konica Minolta had 2 branches Dallas and Fort Worth; I worked for the Fort Worth branch and quickly learned that we were a merry band of "thieves." Not allowed to pirate in the building, but was given free rein on anything and anyone that was not "in the building." This is where I learned my art; this is where I earned my title. Stealing business from competitors became the battle cry. Never left behind we all made our president club trips and even set sail on the high seas on a circle of excellence trip on the Royal Caribbean ship "enchanted seas." Konica Minolta had been a good master and provided me more than just an education they had provided me a strong 6 figure income and a pirate's home.

Digging for pain and anything else that we could add up to create a compelling business reason to buy, buy now and buy big! Here I learned the art of piracy! Over the years at Konica Minolta I quickly learned that big copiers hit quotas quicker and were the "sexier" of sales. I quickly went to selling what I knew, "printers." I moved into the production print specialist role which was a new position with the company and then after my promotion I came to an impasse. I had made more money as a down the street rep then fighting the good fight with printers for large sales with low margins. Becoming the hunter I had given up a gravy customer base and large MIF to take on the impossible and sell entry level production color and black and white copiers to printers that would ultimately destroy the equipment and push it way beyond what anyone at Konica Minolta thought it would do. Dealing with hard to get credit approved and very high maintenance customers became my passion. Keeping a cell phone close and answering at 8pm or on a Saturday afternoon became a way of life.

From the Minolta C900, to the 3102 and the C5001/8050 soon to be a force in the light weight production equipment Konica Minolta was quick to learn from mistakes and reengineer what had to be done to garner a position with the big boys, Canon and Xerox. Needing a stronger income and more opportunity I kept my eyes open. I was passed up for an entry level sales management position and was refused a transfer to keep up with my mentor Zack and his career progression (Branch Manager of the Austin Branch). I left Konica Minolta to take a Color Systems Specialist position with the 2^nd largest independent Canon Dealer Datamax to sell the soon to be released imagePRESS and the Konica Minolta production equipment as a newly formed On Demand Publisher Dealer. Well I started at the end of 2007 the imagePRESS hadn't been released and Datamax was not yet authorized to sell the Konica Minolta equipment. As a result I wasted a lot of time and energy while waiting for these 2 events to happen. Thinking in error that they would have an established production base I again was fooled into the lure of "Big Iron" and "Big Money." 10 Months of struggling and with the new understanding that I could not be competitive in the Commercial Printing market at such a small dealer with very ridged ways I had to again make a choice.

What lured me to Datamax was the idea that a smaller company could react quicker to a local market and be more competitive as we could make decisions "on the ground." What I found out is that as a smaller company they did not have the resources to support such complex solutions and high volume clients. I found that it is much more about power and control as there is little to go around. Things were not as they seemed and they proved to be ineffective with inappropriate margins in a vertical market that demands the best price and the most labor intensive service. With 4 other Canon Dealers in the market selling the same product and a dozen Konica Minolta dealers differentiation was almost impossible unless you truly could talk the talk and come up with business solutions that addressed production problems and enabled printers to make more money and quicker. Unable to compete I started to get nervous, should I have left Konica Minolta? Maybe I should have taken the income hit and just waited things out; surely another promotional opportunity would have come my way if I had stayed.

Spending many hours every day working with the new Canon imagePRESS that we had on our demo floor I was beginning to build up my skill set for the next level in my production sales career. Now hitting the ground running I was making my way around town with this new challenger to the world of production "big iron." I could see that the imagePRESS was my future; now I just needed a company that I could sell for that could support it and be competitive in a market that IKON proved that commoditization was just a good place to start.

Quickly making an appearance on the commercial printing scene soon I became a recently acquired asset for the newly created commercial print initiative for IKON Office Solutions. Now selling the Canon imagePRESS, the Konica Minolta production equipment relabeled as IKON gear and the Kodak Digimaster black and white production gear relabeled as Canon IR 110/125/138/150's. I had truly made it. Selling the "Big Iron" to big companies with the knowledge that I wouldn't be beat on price. Bringing with me my well refined pirate ways now with one more shtick in my repertoire I came on board and started down a long road. Now divorced from my wife and companion for 10 years, and living aboard a French Sailing Vessel I had about created enough "unusualness" to make anyone nervous. Now the new guy again, Pirate Mike came aboard the IKON ship and started to do damage. Getting involved in the PIA and participating in every training session that came along I prepared to do battle with HP, Kodak, Xerox, Oce and Konica Minolta. Along with the normal cast of Offset characters that now were fighting for floor space in the print shop in this new age of digital printing. We sponsored the 2008 Dallas Digital Printing Conference, the Nolan Moore Golf Tournament benefiting the PIA educational scholarship fund, we showed up anywhere people would let us. Banging our chests and beating our drums we walked to the beat of a different drummer.

Starting a new company with new products I went to work. Having to start from scratch, creating my own list and fighting for any printer that might have potential I had to fight local account executives as well as major account reps. No one wanted to give up anything, keeping anyone that had ever mentioned that they might buy from IKON I ended up with whatever everyone wanted to discard. Selling into the Franchises and Commercial printers was not going to be an easy task even with a company as big as IKON. After about 10 months of taking names and placing many imagePRESS units, we heard the news. IKON was to be acquired by Ricoh and the imagePRESS would be shortly going away. My now well developed pipeline started to look like a white elephant. With this knowledge I stood and stared at the wall of my cube. Do I just jump ship? Or just jump out the window of our 3^rd story floor? Do I run as many have and will? Should I quickly look at my options and find a new master?

Ricoh knew what she was purchasing; pirates are what she needed and pirates are what she got. Now with new bounties in place most of the experienced sailors stayed aboard and paid respect to a new captain. New ship, new crew and new guns we went to war under a new flag. Ricoh did not have the footprint that IKON had, nor did she have the production experience or talent in sales, service or professional services to do service to any new innovations that she would bring to market. Without a way to sell and market such new inventions they would be rendered useless and of no effect in such a competitive landscape. Their own PPBG (Production Print Business Group) had been in existence for several years with no justice being served. It was now IKON's chance to shine and shine she will.

Well the merger came and went and the "business as usual" statements got quite old but everyone's fears that IKON would fall apart and that people would move to CBS or another Canon dealer quickly faded. As crew we just kept tabs on what was going on and just made sure that we "held on tight" as this was going to be Mr. Toads wild ride for sure. Trying to learn about our new master and the products which we were surely going to half to sell the job became learning the Ricoh story and taking a close look at the products that they have brought to bear.

Now we stand before the door with swords drawn and with a new tool of destruction and we are ready to wield it. The Ricoh Pro C900 Color Production System new to the market and a new name all together in the production print arena. Loaded with goodies from another (Hitachi Printing Systems – designer of many production print engines) this newly Ricoh wrapped treat has to earn its place in the production world along others that have been doing this for generations. So what does the future hold for the pirates of digital printing? Keep reading to find out only time will tell…

"Our voyages are very short in comparison to the time we spend telling the stories that come from them." – Pirate Mike