When it is ok to quit; and other excuses we accept the unraveling of pirate logic.

When it is acceptable to quit? Have you ever really thought about that before? All of us have our own cross to bear and as a foot soldier my orders are different but not dissimilar to the orders that are given to my associates or superiors. In fact really I would guess that all of our orders are very similar both at work and at home. So when it is ok to just set the sword down and quit fighting the fight? Is there ever a day that you can rest?

I ran into a situation that caused me to think. I had a system configuration that was not going to work on several levels but do to circumstances it was one of my only options. I could see the frustration in everyone’s eyes when I took one of our best technicians out of the field to “test a non supported never tried before theory.” In fact everyone around me seemed to be quite irritated that I was not ok with what all the literature said and what the advice of everyone in our technical organization. “Well in theory Michael that might work.” “Well then,” I said we will try every option till we prove it cannot be done successfully. A day went by and I was unable to get the configuration to work no matter what I tried.

At the end of the day when most thought I had completely wasted not only my day but the resources of many in our branch I sat down to write an email. I sent it to every business development liaison that I have ever met. Most only casually but none the less I built my business case on why we should look into the engineering that stops us from achieving our business objectives. Within an hour I heard back from the director of business development for production. The message was upbeat, positive and simple. I love having an impact even if the ultimate decision is that it is not worth making the change globally in a system that is aging. What I do like is that those around me have no limits to their mind and what is conceivable and they are willing to work for it.

I am always trying to achieve this mythical work-life balance that I have heard about in writings. What I do know is that we often times sell ourselves short by not walking something all the way through. As I make career and personal decisions I hope that I always keep an open mind to the possibilities and am able to achieve the level of success that makes me happy, not what someone else thinks is what I deserve but what I have earned. As the business environment gets ever increasingly difficult and my chosen industry narrows the field even more I hope to always be referred to as the one that will “carry the ball.” I never want to just block and tackle but respect those that do.

I hope to meet the people needed in my life who can help me be a “great ball carrier.” Even as I sit typing, I have been sick for almost 3 weeks now, I am planning to travel again next week for more training. I hope that my attitude settles in on the troops that I serve and that I set a good example of what “good looks like.” And in those many moments when I do not, I hope to have someone in front of me that does! I have 44 people that depend on me for my part of the game and I hope that in the second half that it is what becomes the “game changer” or at least to play and contribute to the winning team.

So every day we need to look at our behaviors and examine have we become hardened by not seeing change implemented successfully? Just because it didn’t work before are we not going to try again when it is the right thing to do? At what point do we hang up our professional opinions and just not give input anymore? I hope never…

NO you cannot drive the advanced finishing accessories with the C5501 but doesn’t mean you will never be able to… Just not now… Thank you for everyone that helped me and allowed me to act foolish without shame.

“Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.” - Chuck Palahniuk (author of the Fight Club and many other novels)

Sorry to be so philosophical but our attitudes drive our behaviors and as consultants our behaviors determine our success, the success of our solutions and ultimately our clients.

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

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

In Search of Innovation Xerox joins the gang; and builds a new research facility in India.

Mar 17, 2010

Xerox Launches Innovation Hub in India

CHENNAI, India – A central concept behind "open innovation" is not only to have ideas yourself, but also to know where and when to learn from someone else. Xerox Corporation's (NYSE:XRX) new research facility – the Xerox India Innovation Hub – will bring together Xerox scientists and engineers with leading Indian academic institutions, research labs and industry partners. Its initial mission: develop document management solutions that are relevant to emerging market countries and contribute innovation to solutions and services delivery.

"The Xerox India Innovation Hub exemplifies our continued commitment to customers in the emerging markets," said Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox chief technology officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group. "Creating a research facility in India allows us to make use of local knowledge and to extend that expertise to our global initiatives.""What is interesting about this is that outsourcing to India has been a common theme for quite a few years now. A highly educated workforce with a very low labor cost. We have seen our fortune 1000 outsource their IT to India, China, and the like; now even our greatest companies are sending out their research facilities. Now I don't think that Xerox has forsaken anyone at this juncture. They strategically need facilities all around the world to cover all of the areas that they serve this is just the newest one.

Both China and India have vied for US company's affection relative to outsourcing. In a very recent Forbes article, "China: $1 Billion And Ambition" by Rebecca Fannin, 03.19.10, 06:00 PM EDT What China is doing to become the world's outsourcing giant? She goes on to say in her commentary some of the efforts and hurdles that China has in their way. She mentions, "China's disadvantages compared with India are real, though. First, India has a natural advantage with English-language skills. Second, India is typically considered less risky when it comes to intellectual property protections. India also has an edge in managerial skills to tackle more high-end, technical projects." You can find her article at the above link.

Even with China's efforts and challenges India has been a first choice for outsourcers. Jack Welch opened a $130 million technology center in Bangalore India, which is GE's largest research and development center outside the US. "IBM Opens New Autonomic Computing Technology Center in India" ; as IBM joins the crowd and moves a research facility to India. IBM has research facilities all over the world, in their press release they state," The Autonomic Computing Technology Center is part of IBM's globally integrated approach to innovation -- a network of 63 major software development and research labs worldwide that develop, test and support a wide range of emerging and established technologies that span software and services."

As the world "shrinks" we will see the one world economy become more of a reality. As travel has become more efficient companies are quick to look outside of their bubble to see what new lands there are to conquer. Companies gravitate to emerging markets hoping to corner their share of the new found wealth and expansion.

Xerox is not new to building research facilities and collaborating with global academic institutions. Xerox produces a lot of patents. In my article "Amidst the slaughter rises Xerox Technology" I talk about Xerox Innovation which is well documented. It is one of the things about Xerox that that has always amazed me. This devotion to invention goes back to the acquisition of the discovery of the photo copier.

Chester Calson, "So who do we blame for this?" who was the one that started this "E Ticket" ride for us in the first place.

In 2009 Xerox brought the game to another level which I think we will see some of the fruit of that very soon. With On Demand and Graph Expo coming we are sure to see Xerox innovation first hand. Xerox patents were up 19% over 2008 which that had a staggering 600. In 2009 they logged in at 706 new patents. You can find more about 2009 accomplishments at "Xerox Patents Up 16% in 2009" Innovation is the key to survival in this industry. With companies pushing hard on companies like Xerox it has become a battle in the cage like we see in the ultimate fighting challenges.

2010 will be a very telling year for the office equipment industry. I think we should get a snapshot of what we are in for in the coming years. I am hoping this is a turning point for many of us. As the refugees start to find homes and things start to return to normal.

Hopefully the painful changes will be made at the begining of the year Q1 and we won't have any more scary announcements for the remainder of the year. After the initial round of annoucements I am hoping that all of the news will be about innovation and success stories and not about layoffs and more mergers.

I think that they may be a few surprising innovations that come from some forgotten players, but that is another article.


Happy Sale'ing…

Pirate Mike

Amidst the slaughter rises Xerox Technology

Xerox has been considered a leader in document imaging equipment and software for many years. In a press release on Xerox's website claims that they earned "600 new patents in the year of 2008." Xerox Chief Technology Officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group, Sophie Vandebroek says companies must keep the innovation pipeline flowing even in a lean economic climate or they will face huge product gaps in future years. In her quote, "You cannot sacrifice tomorrow to save today. Our investment in innovation guarantees Xerox leadership in our core business and creates opportunity to grow in new markets," said Vandebroek. "It's also a source of pride for us. More than 2,300 employees, past and present, have been granted five or more patents – an extraordinary accomplishment." Xerox has been issued over 55,000 patents worldwide since it was founded. They mentioned that 18 scientists have earned the 100 patent mark. That is a tremendous feat. In our economic environment technology companies live and die by their research and development. Those that quit developing and forging on quickly go by the wayside.

I am always amazed at Xerox's tenacity and sheer bulletproof-ness. The old saying, "no one ever got fired for buying a Xerox," is one of those phrases that I have actually had someone say when they were not going to buy from me and didn't know why. It is a fallback statement your prospect uses when you didn't do a good enough job building your "Value Proposition."

As the economy tightens up and the financial markets "right size" themselves we will see true competitive natures come out. The only people that can survive such environments are true warriors. Many will be sacrificed over the next few years as the "great consolidation" occurs. With so much talent on the street jobs will go to the "lowest bidder." Companies are looking to "upgrade" their talent and cut costs while doing it. I have seen jobs offered at 30-40% of what they were just a few years ago.

As the number of competitors decreases the quality of our competitors gets more intense. It seems like I get closer to all of my enemies every day. Over the next year I am sure I will meet the rest of them face to face as I dig my feet deeper into the sand and prepare to get down and dirty with them.

All the while I am also meeting people that I admire and can learn from. As I get closer to the sources of information I am learning much more about the business that I could ever imagine. Innovation and the ability of a company to package that innovation and convince others of how it can benefit them is the key measure of their potential of success. Xerox is no stranger to a "good package." I have always been amazed at "team Xerox's" ability to sell iGen's. Almost everyone that I run into is grossly underutilized. And not only did they up sell the customer they got their asking price in many of the older examples. Canon, Ricoh, HP, and Konica Minolta are making them think twice about their pricing strategy and how they "brainwash" their new and current customers.

They must have a good training program, I have not had the benefit of such training other then the down the street training I received at Minolta. I am ready to put my thinking cap on and become a student of the business again. I am interested to what mother Xerox does in such trying times. After Xerox lowers their profit forecast by 80% and cuts 3000 jobs in 6 months worldwide in an attempt to get things under control. Even the company's executives are starting to "right size" along with the markets. Top level executives including Chief Executive Anne Mulcahy's have come down considerably, Anne's 2008 total pay fell to $10.9 million from $13.5 million a year ago.

So what does that mean for the global giant? Can Xerox live long enough to bring their new ideas to fruition? Or will the ideas die along with the inventors as they enter the market as over qualified Walmart greeters? As one of their competitors I have mixed emotions. Just as bad as I would like to be the one to slay goliath, it will be a sad day in history as well. Will the reorganization make Xerox leaner and meaner? Will they bring these new innovations to market instead of hide them in research journals and patent office's?

Only time will tell if they have what it takes to rise from the fire once again. As a warrior I love a good competitor. Just a few thoughts from your favorite copier pirate…

Pirate Mike