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also promote the convenience of a one-stop shop for print and other marketing communication supplies. Nothing could be further from the impersonality than web-to-print.
Another long surviving trope
in printing is the argument over who owns the client, the printer
or the salesperson? Every printing business owner knows, either first-hand or through associations, of the uber-gun sales reps who move from company to company taking a growing list of clients with them. Who can explain their fatal attraction? Are they all playing golf with the clients? Their kids can’t go to every school.
Making life easy for customers
is the first rung on the ladder of success. Once the relationship is strong and trust is established, by all means allow them to order at arm’s length through special personalised portals on the web. But don’t forget to call them on birthdays and invite them to the grand final.
Add the value
Successful printers are relationship managers. They know how to add value to their engagement with clients. We often hear of ‘exceeding client expectations’, but it is the printer who sets that bar to begin with. The days are long gone when a piece of print can be produced in isolation from the value the client expects to gain from it. Every piece of print has a purpose, and it’s up to the printer to know how to increase its utility on behalf of the client.
If it’s a brochure, then adding virtual connection to the coupons it contains is not only possible but also necessary to drive results – it’s also something the client may be unaware of. If it’s a manual, then advising on print run lengths and updating of single pages will keep it current and reduce costs. If it’s a banner, then making sure the substrates are most
appropriate for display conditions
– either indoor or outdoor, or both – must be down to the printer. And the clients will appreciate the added value.
Software can be a major advantage here, away from refining production. Developer printIQ promotes its wares as ‘more than MIS’. It builds its operating and marketing ecosystem on a series of APIs to deliver flexibility and add further value to a printer’s relationships. Selling clients the ability to easily develop their own websites may appear removed from printing, but it is the new normal for most businesses.
EFI comes to the party as a software behemoth. In addition to its ubiquitous Fiery digital servers,
it has MIS and workflow production software for companies of every
size – plus EPS software across every aspect of digital print production, all designed to create something more than simply print for pay.
Perhaps the ultimate added
value software is Xerox-owned XMPie, which reaches into clients’ marketing goals to provide end-to- end capabilities delivering marketing automation to every business. XMPie promotes itself as print-based ‘Many Channels - One Conversation’, exploring the different ways printers can engage with clients in delivering personalised marketing campaigns across print and digital.
It all comes down to meeting the market, which is too often hijacked into meaning ‘lower your price’. Sure you have to be competitive. Yes, you must take account of market prices. But if all you’re doing is selling on price, then you’re on the road to nowhere. Meeting the market really means meeting and knowing your clients and customers, discovering what they are trying to achieve, and finding ways you can help. Print production is no longer a black
art, but meeting and beating the market’s expectations is the very stuff of success. 21
Kodak in the cloud
with workflow
Kodak says its newly launched cloud- based Prinergy VME with Managed Services heralds a new workflow era for print business.
For 20 years, Kodak Prinergy workflow has formed a solid backbone for commercial, publishing and packaging printers’ production activities with its high automation, efficiency, integration capacity, and flexible connectivity. Kodak has now launched Prinergy VME with Managed Services, and says it represents a decisive step into the future.
With Prinergy VME (Virtual Machine Environment), each printer’s virtualised Prinergy software is hosted and managed by Kodak, backed by Microsoft Azure’s $1bn investment in R&D. Through the Managed Services, Kodak assumes responsibility for system administration, 24-hour security and monitoring, upgrades, and problem resolution.
Kodak says the new VME will provide reliability, proactive security, scalability, and reduced cost of ownership, and that Prinergy VME with Managed Services helps business- critical prepress software run at optimal levels 24/7, 365 days a year.
Kodak assumes responsibility of the system in its care – data backups are distributed across several data centres, which it says provides ironclad security, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
For printers, this has the advantage that they are no longer required to operate, manage and maintain any local servers directly on premises, lowering the total cost of ownership. Printers can streamline their IT infrastructure and rid themselves of the costs and constraints of the system.
“Prinergy VME with Managed Services is industry-first innovation that combines cloud technology
with our Managed Services under
a subscription model. This product offering marks the future for
all prepress and print workflow software platforms,” said Todd Bigger, president, Kodak Software Division and vice president, Eastman Kodak Company. “This one-of-a kind solution guarantees reliability and optimised performance, protecting customers against cyber attacks with maximum flexibility to adapt as the marketplace changes.”
Print Intelligence
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