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Inkjet: Advancements in inkjet technology have print service providers asking not if, but WHEN they should invest. InfoTrends interviewed a number of inkjet users to find out the critical strategies they are following to accelerate their organization’s path to profitability.  In the recent Keypoint Intelligence | InfoTrends “Inkjet: The Pathway to Profitability” analysis, Barb Pellow shared key highlights: InfoTrends expects global digital production color volume impressions to approach 895 billion in 2020, with inkjet representing 60% of total volume.  Investing in inkjet is not enough to drive business results; building a business with sustained growth requires service providers to develop a solid strategic plan. The real value of inkjet comes from doing things that can’t be done with other print technologies, including the ability to produce more affordable high-value personalization, short runs, and versioning. With the question being “not if, but when” to make an inkjet …

Recently while perusing my local wing joints sauce heat index I started thinking about an all too common problem for printers. How spicy is too spicy? Color perception, like taste is very subjective.  I grew up with an Asian influence in a step-mother who immigrated from South Korea. I enjoy very spicy foods. My wife on the other hand grew up with a comparably “bland” palate. Thus food she finds too hot I regularly enjoy. Similarly when discussing color do we know how “spicy” our customers want their color? Generally when discussions about color or color accuracy come up they usually center on industry specifications, calibration methods or how close to a particular technology or media can achieve to some other technology. These are important topics that speak to consistency and accuracy, what’s usually missing is what does the customer expect to see? A press can print 100% accurate and still be 100% wrong to the end customer. How is that possible? When measuring spiciness something …

When most of your competition is still living in a digital toner-based world, what can you do to stand out? For Carmel, Ind.-based Bacompt, a provider of data processing, printing and mailing for high-security documentation, the solution was production inkjet. High-security documents necessitate fast turnarounds, a low cost per piece due to the sheer volume of jobs, and data-intensive printing and processing. So when Bacompt needed to update its capabilities, an Océ VarioPrint i300 color sheetfed inkjet press fit the bill.  Founded in 1980 as a laser printing service bureau, Bacompt has come a long way to serve customers in the healthcare, financial, collections, insurance and government markets. In the late 1990s, around the same time HIPAA and other healthcare privacy laws were enacted, Bacompt began printing documents that required a high level of security standards and data management. Now, Bacompt provides its customers — banks, credit unions, hospitals, the government and others …

Enhancing sales productivity, differentiation, and maximizing individual markets are ultimate goals for today’s print businesses. Understanding a specific market’s dynamics by vertical or company size can provide lucrative opportunities for the shop, but can be challenging. Gaining a greater insight into specific markets and the key verticals within their local markets can help print providers make decisions regarding what services to offer to their customers. More often than not, the U.S. market for various print offerings is treated as a whole. In fact, it is made up of a number of key vertical segments that have critical differences. Each of these key vertical segments has unique structures in terms of the number of firms and establishments, the distribution of these firms in terms of size (both employees and revenues), ownership, overall concentration (or lack thereof), average profitability and cost ratios, and the nature and degree of competition. This type of data is important …

Christine Soward is the president and CEO of DMS ink, based in Yellow Springs, Ohio with an additional production facility located in the company’s original location in Dayton. She took over the business after purchasing it from her father who started in 1984 as a direct mail company. Today DMS ink is a certified WBENC, MBE and WOSB. Christine is a compassionate and envisioned leader who sees community involvement as a great asset. She serves on the boards of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce and Dayton Children’s Hospital, and a past committee chair of Prevent Blindness in Dayton.  In this interview Christine shares details on their decision to invest in inkjet. Yellow Springs, Ohio-based DMS ink , originally known as Dayton Mailing Services, was founded in 1983 by Robert Hale. In 2005, Hale’s daughter, Christine Soward, purchased the business she had worked at since its inception. The company thrived in the direct mail space for more than 30 years through its ability to adapt, …