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

Inkjet is building steam; will it ever do anything other than transactional…

Inkjet is building steam and this time in a new report!

"In its "North American Transactional Printing Market Update & Forecast 2009-2014" study, Interquest reports that inkjet presses are gaining volume and installations. Interquest is a leading market and technology research and consulting firm serving the digital printing and publishing industry.

The 2009 study notes that although inkjet equipment accounts for only four percent of the transactional printing systems (monochrome, spot and full color) used by respondents to the survey, inkjet presses produce 35 percent of the total transactional print volume reported – up from 31 percent the year before. The number of print operations using inkjet equipment took a big jump. The survey found that about one-third of the respondents now use inkjet equipment for transactional printing, up from 16 percent in the first half of 2008."

What will be interesting to watch is how well this technology is received as the quality gets better. All I have heard from printers lately have been thoughts that the volumes will not be there if they take the risk and invest in the technology. But transactional and trans promotional volumes are relatively untapped as not many printers have attempted to sell this business. As the economy strengthens companies will have to return to the drawing board and look at their capabilities and ensure that they are investing in areas they can make money in and that has growth potential.

Printers are struggling to reinvent themselves this time as technology is pushing them away from their traditional business. I have had many comments from printers that were a bit on the negative side on the high volume inkjet, I am worried that they will pass this opportunity up and allow the commercial sector to invest which will shut them out of the business completely. In house marketing departments already have the ability to add 3 or 4 small machines to take over much of their companies printing needs. As in-plant facilities grow in capabilities and skill sets traditional printers will lose their foothold.

It is interesting how much cross media advertising that I receive but printers are saying "no one is doing it." Traditional advertising agencies have stayed away from cross media as it requires them to add additional skill sets beyond just the creative. I think it is time to rethink business plans and put away the ideas of "this is how we have always done it." Every day another printer goes out of business or gets acquired by one of the conglomerates. As employment comes back and companies start thinking about capital reinvestment printers need to be the first ones in their ear talking about where they can spend their money.

The print salesman of the last decade will not be the print salesman of the next. Marketing services and solution selling will take over and the idea of asking for "cost center" business will be over with, as most companies can produce that work themselves. If printers keep shying away from the work the commercial sector will use their IT and marketing departments to develop their own cross media programs and printers will lose out on that business as well. The work is getting printed but will it get into the hands of a printer is the only question.

With the advent of Inkjet this ability to produce high volumes of print inexpensively will be just one more tool in the data center that could easily erode volumes that go out to the local print shop. With the resurgence of direct mail it is only time that Inkjet will get its hold on the industry. Now with everyone demanding quality 1 to 1 marketing in their direct mail programs and as those programs get adopted by larger institutions the run sizes will grow. This business lends itself to inkjet as long as the quality is there, otherwise it will go to the electrophotography devices that we are used to.

As digital presses advance (electrophotography) Inkjet will have new quality levels and substrate standards to meet. Maybe the technology will never get to that point but I doubt it. "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay and the Inkjet companies are working hard to rival the "dry ink" technologies quality and substrate handling it will only be a matter of time before we see the technology mainstream. With Canon's latest purchase of Oce they are making sure that they do not have all their eggs in one basket. This acquisition could prove to be a very valuable one in the future.

Fortunately for those of us that sell the "dry ink" technologies, inkjet is new, expensive and the quality is not quite there. But many companies are joining in the race to develop a new level of inkjet so this will be a no holds barred battle. 

Pirate Mike

Lean Printing; the benefits of implementing an MIS/ERP solution in small to mid size print shops…

Printing has become a very complex and constantly changing industry. With the rapid advancement of digital technology, the rise in the use of the internet, globalization and the commoditization of the printed products the industry as a whole has seen compressed margins and a new level of competition.

Combined with a weak US economy and lagging consumer confidence this storm has wreaked havoc on US print shops.

Using the Business Register from the US Census Bureau the number of shops has declined from 36,024 in 2003 to 29,550 in 2008 that is a loss of 6,474 print shops in 5 years.(1) It has become a top priority of print shop leadership to find more creative ways to distinguish themselves among the crowd and to maintain profitability. Today, commercial printers have difficulty differentiating themselves from one another; this has come from the elimination of craft positions and increased reliance on automation to maintain profitability. One of the ways that companies can get the most out of their organization is through the implementation of a MIS/ERP solution to help keep inline with lean manufacturing principles.

Lean manufacturing is a combination of practices, polices and philosophies that allows an organization to shorten the time between order placement and product delivery by eliminating waste in equipment usage, labor resources, and materials to produce higher quality products and greater profit margins. (2) Even though Lean Manufacturing principles have been around for ages the printing industry has been slow to adapt them. (3) In fact, it is a common misconception that you must be a large organization to benefit from Lean.

NAICS 323 Printing - from the Business Register of the Census Bureau
Enterprise Size	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2008 % of Total
1-4 employees	16,307	16,214	15,952	15,450	15,551	14,117	47.77%
5-9 Employees	7,661	7,464	7,214	7,067	7,069	6,109	20.67%
10-19 Employees	5,096	4,984	4,793	4,619	4,466	4,107	13.90%
20-49 Employees	3,974	3,774	3,599	3,495	3,434	3,110	10.52%	92.87%
50-99 Employees	1,669	1,636	1,589	1,551	1,531	1,052	3.56%
100+ Employees	1,317	1,249	1,238	1,251	1,230	1,055	3.57%
Total	36,024	35,321	34,385	33,433	33,281	29,550	100.00%

 In the US the Small Business Administration classifies a small business as a company with less than 100 employees. In the European Union a small business is any business with less than 50 employees. In 2008 almost 93% of all print shops in the United States had 49 or less employees. Yet when we look at these companies we find that less than 5% of small firms and less than 20% of large firms have an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System. (4)

According to a 2004 Gartner, Inc. white paper entitled, "ERP Applications Help Achieve Lean Manufacturing," there are five areas in which an MIS/ERP solution can be leveraged to build a successful Lean Manufacturing operation:

1. 
   
   Product Data Management
2. 
   
   Forecasting
3. 
   
   Line Design
4. 
   
   Line Scheduling
5. 
   
   Flow Visualization

MIS/ERP solutions offer manufacturing organizations many benefits, it can help with value stream mapping of individual processes and help to increase the flow of information to the leadership to increase response time and limit buffering for problem correction. It can be helpful to human resources managers to monitor and asses the strengths and weaknesses in the organization's employees and give them and the production manager's feedback on employee's productivity and effectiveness.

MIS/ERP solutions can affect not only the pricing and estimating strategy but also can affect the days sales outstanding by making the billing/invoicing systems more efficient. Due to the high importance of cash in running a business, it is in a company's best interest to collect outstanding receivables as quickly as possible. By quickly turning sales into cash, a company has the chance to put the cash to use again. Printing is a capital intensive business and the proper use of all resources is critical.

Indentifying, assessing, and implementing a successful MIS/ERP solution can be a daunting task. Not only are the systems to be implemented important but equally important is the company doing the implementation. The analysts and sales staff must be familiar with the intimacies of print shop operations and it is even better for your salesperson to have worked for a number of years in the areas of the shop to be affected. If your salesperson has not "walked the walk" it is almost like giving someone a heart transplant after reading a book. To be successful leadership must consider the following three areas for assessment: 1) Technology 2) Human Resources 3) Systems after the assessment leadership must look for ways to implement the simplification of the identified processes and lastly place policies to safeguard performance with metrics for measurement.

Value mapping a process can help identify "cost added" activities and "value added" activities. A "cost added" activity is any activity that does not directly increase the value of the product. When looking to streamline a process the RIT Center for Excellence in Lean Enterprise has identified 7 different kinds of "cost added" activities.(5) 1) Transportation; movement of material in the plant 2) Inventory; anything of value waiting in process 3) Motion; excess movement of people 4) Waiting; idle operation of machines 5) Overproduction; producing more product at each step that is needed downstream 6)Over-Processing; performing extra processing steps that do not add value 7) Defects; materials spoiled in the process.

Until the advent of the proliferation of digital technologies the printing industry has fought against using many manufacturing techniques to save the impression that it is a "craft" done by "artisans" instead of looking at the productivity and effectiveness at its employees and processes. Until the digital age the printing industry was filled with highly skilled workers that could output the day's jobs using their "craft" to uniquely produce each job. This lag in adopting "lean manufacturing" has positioned the industry to be caught up in the "perfect storm." Michael Baker in his blog, "Lean Manufacturing Blog" (5) states,

"Lean manufacturing may be the last hope for the printing industry. Because of the promises, the forecast and expected savings companies can reap from implementing lean manufacturing principles: the printing industry is believed to be the most and primarily boosted and lifted up by the lean manufacturing approaches.

The printing industry has somehow turned into a damsel in distress. With the lean manufacturing, figuratively, its knight in shining armor."

Using Lean Manufacturing as our armor, technology then becomes our sword. Technology is one of the most valuable "keys" to unlock the door to reducing the costs of business and manufacturing processes. Having access to the proper information is critical for all areas of a printing organization from the receiving or taking of the order through every step in the process to the point that it is delivered to the customer and eventually billed and the payment received. It is estimated that there is a 60% chance that a job will get delayed somewhere in the production process. The delay ultimately will be caused by the lack of information. These delays cause jobs to have to be expedited to maintain delivery promises. This sacrifice of efficiency to maintain "service at all costs" puts an organization in jeopardy.

The effective implementation of a MIS/ERP system to allow for the critical exchange of information and the proper allocation of resources can be tantamount to the long term success of an organization. MIS/ERP systems have come a long way now integrating every area of the shop. From web submission to the ordering of inventory, efficient pre press workflow, maintaining job ticketing information and feedback to production managers of bottlenecks or potential shop problems, to the dissemination of business intelligence to the leadership and the eventual shipping and invoicing of the job to the client.

Due to the varied services and product offerings of today print shops, a solid MIS solution must be modular and offer flexibility in designing an end to end solution for your organization. It must not just automate the simple tasks in the production organization but must also provide real time feed back to production managers and shop leaders so they can monitor the key performance indicators that had been identified in the original analysis. One of the key factors in lean manufacturing is that the employees must be surrounded in a culture that promotes thought and the questioning of all processes. Leadership must have the business intelligence real time to minimize the buffers so that they can be quick to react to opportunities to impact and improve shop efficiencies.

As JDF/Cip4 technologies develop and come to the forefront you will want a MIS/ERP solution that can help you manage your equipment workflow and address challenges that come from improperly or inefficiently installed pieces of equipment. These inefficiencies can create "islands of automation" which can contribute to "cost added" activities which will undermine your lean efforts. Leveraging CIM principals can enhance the areas of 1) Improved quality 2) Increased productivity 3) Lowered costs 4) Shorter customer lead times 5)Reduced waste, labor and inventory 6) Greater flexibility and responsiveness - all are parts of a good lean strategy.

This use of lean manufacturing principles and techniques will further separate the leaders from the challengers as the competitive field narrows through attrition. Only the companies that embrace the emerging digital technologies and proven manufacturing processes and strive to continually improve those processes will survive.

Happy Sale'ing
Pirate Mike

1. Frank Romano and David Broudy, "An Investigation into Printing Industry Demographics—2009" RIT 2010
2. Chris Faust, Paper Film and Foil Converter, Apr 1, 2003 12:00 PM, "Think Lean"
3. Sandra Rothenberg PhD and Frank Cost, "Lean Manufacturing in small and mid-sized printers" RIT December 2004
4. Frank Cost and Bret Daly, "Digital Integration and the lean manufacturing processes of US printing firms" RIT October 2003
5. Frank Cost and Bret Daly, "Digital Integration and the lean manufacturing processes of US printing firms" RIT October 2003
6. Michael Baker, "Lean Manufacturing Printing Industry", Lean Manufacturing Blog, http://www.leanmanufacturingsecrets.com/

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

A disturbance in the force; reconciling our philosophical and business agendas during these difficult times.

Like all companies our leadership has business objectives that we are held accountable to. We are graded at every interval imaginable; daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Over our career we are graded on how well we over achieve the objectives that are handed to us. No one cares about the economic climate, the stability of the environment how strong the credit market is or how much or little corporate leadership is going to invest into their infrastructure over a given time period. Really all they care about is did you meet your objectives and overachieve! Life is about revolving and ever growing budgets and making and meeting commitments.

At the end of the day I personally do not believe that anyone really cares if the “Solution” you provided company XYZ really worked or benefited them if all of the corporate objectives have been met appropriately. Now I may be wrong and I’m sure somewhere somebody will write to me and correct me. “Pirate, we are going to give you amnesty for your budget because you create the most successful business strategies and help so many people.” Well your right I probably won’t ever hear that from anyone above me. What I probably will hear is something like this, “Michael, the company is suffering along with everyone else in this tremulous time and we would like you to accept our offer of a 15% salary decrease and a 25% budget increase. You know that we are all being asked to do more with less.” This is probably a lot closer to the truth then the other.

So within the same organization we have different business groups or units and with them come different and varied objectives. One group may be focused on maximizing our return on Service and Maintenance. Another group may be focused on generating revenue in a particular area of competency like facilities management, production equipment, office equipment, printer fleet management, software solutions etc. So the question then becomes how do we “all just get along.” Well that is the question, how do managed services coexist with equipment sales division? Does the equipment sales division exist to provide hardware based solutions to the “solution wizards” in managed services? Surely the people in equipment sales are incapable of seeing the bigger picture and what is important in the overall solution. Or is it? If you are owned by a manufacturer what is more important, to keep assembly lines moving, keep their cost of manufacturing as low as possible by placing as much gear as possible or do they go with a more altruistic approach and maximize their profitability by increasing the wallet share of a particular client regardless of how little equipment is placed?

So what came first the Printer or Managed Print Services Rep?

And in every opportunity who should sacrifice their business objectives? What are the organizational goals as they are related to individual objectives? Is it greedy to want to stay off of the unemployment line? Is it rude to want to meet our individual budgets? Should we always sacrifice for the greater good of someone else’s success? When does a “good solution” become a “great solution” and when does a tomāto turn into a tomäto? And who is to say that there is not more than one path to the Promised Land? Retooling the departments in an organization and centralizing certain functions can be just as effective as outsourcing a handful of key functions to a third party!

The problem exists as we do not work independently. Managed business services many times may not have the technical background to truly create complex hardware based solutions. In fact it is not ever in my experience even desirable to have a business services rep know all of the bits and bytes of the hardware. They are the “big thinkers.” They leave that to us lowly hardware reps to push the buttons that make “their” brilliant solution work. As we see companies migrate to greater levels of automation their need for highly sophisticated solutions goes beyond what a typical manufacturer’s business services salesperson wants to memorize. As applications drive these complex solutions because of a companies need to “do more with less” we find that hardware reps are being positioned as “technicians or analysts with personalities.” I constantly am faced with the perception that I know nothing but facts. I have to convince my area leadership on a regular basis that I can create a compelling argument and win others over to that argument on a mutually acceptable time frame.

Every day I go to work and curse the day that I picked up the manual and learned how to network a copier or setup scan to email instead of just leave it for the technician that surely was going to show up when my client needed him to. Now I am the great “nerd with a smile.” I am used as an encyclopedia of all things printing. If I really wanted to live on 80 to 120 grand a year I would have graduated college and became an engineer. Instead I moved myself toward strategic sales only to find out that eventually I would be pigeon holed to be the guy to someone else’s “bad solution work.” In my humble experience “managed services” comes from the perspective that with their own “trained operators” they can do more with less so they are notoriously under equipped with the technology piece of their mantra “people, processes and technology.” “Big Thinkers” are also paid on the services that they sell not the hardware and software that go along with the overall solution. Because at the end of the day the technology piece is what costs the most and ruins the gross margin component of the puzzle it is also the first to be compromised. It is also the part that decision makers can quantify and everyone wants to see you “do more with less.” And because more and more companies are asking their vendors to take the hardware risk; manufacturers do not want to invest in placing new gear when it is not really sales treatable. No one wants to create “used gear” when they know they are going to have to carry it on the books and sell it later when all the useable life has been squeezed out of it.

What they do instead is use “off lease” gear which has a zero cost on the books, and assign a cost to keep margins inline with paying managed services reps and as part of the justification to the business owners on why the cost of their solution is what it is. Can you really save someone so much money that you can use the greatest that technology has to offer and still save them 30% on their current spend? Sure if there processes are so broken that they need to trash them and start over. Now does this happen, yes unfortunately many companies grow so fast or stick to their competency so closely that they do not take time to look at their business processes and keep them streamlined. For example a research firm may invent great chemicals but have a poor process of piling their documents in a corner in boxes. But for the most part today’s companies are hiring professional buyers and using ISO standards for typical business processes.

So what suffers? From what I have seen when you bring the entire elephant into the room typically most companies can not afford to eat it all at once. The overall picture becomes menacing. Sure we can implement a complex solution in stages but it still becomes overwhelming even too many “C” level executives when they now are facing large layoffs, financial cutbacks, compensation freezes, import/export restrictions, legislation, environmental initiatives, hostile takeovers, and technological obsolescence. With so much “noise” in the air it is many times hard to hear the important conversations that are directed to us.

These obstacles along with huge egos that the “big thinkers” carry with them can make such undertakings miserable for a hardware specialist. We diligently work to please the “big thinkers” but in the end tight budgets and anorexic timelines along with the normal pushback and reservation of key information from a client will allow something to happen and surely something will not work due to lack of discovery and it will fall on our heads.

Plus they would love us to be their “eyes and ears” but what is good for the “big thinker” is not necessarily good for a hardware specialist. Especially when their ultimate solution doesn’t involve hardware! In hardware we talk about efficiency, automation and cip4/jdf compliancy; we do not talk about “adding headcount,” and creating more hand work. In the “Big Thinkers” mind putting someone in the place of equipment that can fail is a good solution, where we feel that hardware is more reliable and less prone to “human error.” In hardware we trust, for each machine we place we save companies from under performance, workman’s comp, and manpower gaps over vacations, and sick leave. 

We look at having your own hardware as a solution to sending the work out and buying it back at 30% uplift, we feel the same way about people. Why send them out when all you are going to do is pay someone else a 30% uplift to not have to deal with them. Strengthen your process, put the right people in place and rely on hardware automation and technology refreshes to empower your people with the tools to accomplish more with less for less! 

Now that is a bit of an exaggeration but it underlies the foundational problem that I see with “team selling,” when each member has different objectives or when the meeting of one members objectives becomes a liability for another’s on the team. I am constantly asked to work with people that have different motivations and when one wins the other loses. What kind of “team” is that? The only way a “Team Sell” can work is when the objectives of the team are common. You can not ask someone to work on a project that will eventually turn out to be a non commissionable event. Why would I waste my time doing a study to hand over my findings and relationships over to someone else just to be pushed out of the deal?

Everyone must profit from a group project! Solutions must be designed to achieve corporate objectives and satisfy the client’s short term and long term needs. Anytime key players are pitted against others in the team to compete for compensation the entire project is compromised and the client suffers as no one can give their best when they have lost the financial incentive to keep focused. Sure there are many reasons to outsource and I believe in keeping to your core competencies, but handing off a department or important key function is not something to take lightly. It is dangerous at best and even worse if the consultants brought aboard are not in sync.

A long time ago I was simply a street walker and answered to myself. A day’s work brought a days pay, and I didn’t have any competitive forces to worry about but the enemy outside the organization. Now all too often I overtake the enemy outside only to be beaten by someone on my own team. Now the dance is more delicate and dangerous. Not only am I competing for larger projects and bigger cash prizes but I am also striving to maintain my competitive advantage and edge both inside and outside the organization. What ever happen to the days of walking down the street asking people, “want to buy a copier?”

Pirate Mike…

So who do we blame for this?

After another tough week scrapping it out in the Dallas marketplace I thought to myself, "So who do I blame for this?" I find myself writing late and night and doing research at odd hours just to wake up at 6:00am to begin the war all over again. The battles rage on as the economy hits all time lows, and unemployment skyrockets. With the financial climate so hostile it is amazing that anyone is thinking about anything other than packing up and heading for the hills. Instead I look for the "new angle" on positioning people, processes and technology to help my prospects make more money! In the heat of the battle we cannot forget to continue to make and spend our money it is our duty. So who was it that stayed up long hours and late nights so that I could have something to write about?

Chester Carlson of course! Now you may be asking yourself who is Chester Carlson? Why he is the inventor of Xerography. If it weren't for his desire to copy patent papers quicker by having a piece of equipment that could make "instant copies" we would not have the luxury of selling imaging equipment. And what is interesting is how his patent ended up in the hands of a small company then known as Haloid. Haloid started in April of 1906 to manufacture and sell photographic paper. Now of course this small company is known as Xerox the grandfather of copiers.

So for those of you that didn't know or realize that you cared, In 1959 the Xerox 914 was introduced based on the innovations that were discovered by Chester. Fifty years later 2009, Pirate Mike tries to figure out how did I get here and whom can I blame for it? Well it is Chester's fault for sure. In a world that is accelerating and producing new ideas and technology faster than any other time in history I chose to get involved with the printing industry at the beginning of the personal computer boom. What is funny is that my grandmother felt so strongly about computers and my need to learn them that I can for as long as I can remember had a computer of my own. I have had every game console and personal computer as soon as they became available. From the Commodore 64 to the Coleco Adam computer I was prepared for the "Desktop Publishing Revolution" and the advent of digital printing technologies. So why you ask?

Why do I care? Well the interesting thing is that since I sell the big iron, I have always had a bit of disdain for Xerox, they after all were my primary competition and in fact many times the incumbent and the overall winner of many of the deals that I was in at the beginning of my career. I also was never really impressed with the docucolor 5000AP or its predecessor the docucolor 5000 they seemed clunky very inconsistent for color critical jobs and had an odd "image appearance" as Xerox calls it. I come from high end offset printing and no one wants the "greasy glossy" look or the "3d or layered look" and that is the sure signs you're looking at a CLC or docucolor print. The 5000, 7000 and 8000 do not seem to have much differences other than speed so if you are having issues with your 5000 at a particular volume then you don't have much choice but to look beyond the docucolor series and Xerox doesn't have a step between mid level production systems and their very high end the iGen.

I was just in a deal where the customer had a Xerox 5000 doing about 150k and were having lots of service issues, team Xerox rolled in and pitched an iGen. Now I'm sure the ones of you that know are laughing. You really cannot justify an iGen till you get over 250k and really it doesn't make good sense till 400k. Now this particular customer was a national account for both IKON and Xerox so we are obviously both supposed to be on our best behavior. So to be honest I was quite surprised that they went to the iGen at all. I think it was bad strategy as I of course came out with the Ricoh Pro C900 which can take them to 400k a month without any increase on capital investment. The 5000 maybe is 25 ppm on the thicker stocks and I am still at rated speed 90 ppm I can using 80# Cover settings duplex 100 and 110# Cover without loss of productivity in the turn like the Xerox. Plus really the docucolor is terrible both in color consistency, accuracy and in front to back registration. Those are not my issues at all. I do have a smaller color gamut, the C900 is almost exactly the same gamut as SWOP but if you're an offset house SWOP is good enough.

Also I had to fight the "image appearance" as my image is not the "greasy glossy" look but my sheet can be UV or Aqueous coated so you can still have the look and the abrasion resistance. So over the last couple years I got very comfortable beating Xerox with both the Konica Minolta in the light production (Although the doc 250 series is much tougher competition in my opinion) and then in the mid range beating Xerox with the imagePRESS and now the Ricoh Pro C900. So as I think about them I just don't get the feeling that I am dealing with a deadly foe. In fact if I didn't know the men that I compete against and have great respect for them I would really think they are clowns.

So where does that bring me? It brings me to the other day when I read about Xerox's 600 new patents (1000 in all if you add Fuji Xerox) and the feeling that they will not live long enough to see their new inventions come to fruition. And the thought that came to me about who is to blame for this. Then I start to do a deep dive into the history of my product and the legacy that Xerox has had over the last 50 years. Which in all honesty after learning about Xerox's past successes just makes me sad. How can a company with so much fail so miserably? Where do they go from here? All I can say is please do not unleash any of those new patents any time soon, as I am enjoying giving you the whooping that I am with my Ricoh Pro C900 and on the high end the Kodak NexPRESS. Please leave my real battles with HP's Indigo and beating the Kodak rep to the account first, that way I don't have to worry about what Xerox is going to do. Right now Konica Minolta cannot play in my realm and they are very late to market with their 90 ppm color system. By the time they bring theirs to market Ricoh will have released Version 2 of the C900 which will use a new toner system (Polymerized Toner) without fuser oil and will have the 120 ppm version using this new toner as well. (shhh its about a year away now)

In all seriousness, if you are reading this blog then you are "in the biz" and I hope that you take a moment whether you are brand new or a seasoned vet to look back and learn the history of our industry and how your company fits into it. We are all a part of making the digital printing revolution what it is and with all of its advances and trials we are in the midst of history in the making. I for one love it and hope that I can live long enough to see Xerox rise again and come to market with something that they can be proud of. Because I know they do not like losing to Canon and I KNOW they hate losing to me!

Happy Selling,

Pirate Mike…

Activity begets opportunity and opportunity begets success! Having a great product only makes it easier… - 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

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