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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, …

Andrew Hennings, Director of Operations, Epiq Systems and John DiNozzi, President and Owner, Access Direct, described why their investment in inkjet led them to also invest in finishing, and the increased flexibility, capacity and value they experienced. Did you miss it? View the recorded session now .  Hosted by Jim Hamilton, Andrew Hennings and John DiNozzi described their evolution to inkjet printing, and how they expanded the advantages of their inkjet investment through a holistic view including finishing.     Inkjet printing can deliver huge increases in speed and capability, and based on InfoTrends research, usage is expanding beyond publishing, transaction and promotional printing into other market segments.  As printing capabilities grow, areas for improvement in finishing are often highlighted, providing opportunities to increase capability and service, and improve productivity. Both Epiq Systems and Access Direct moved to inkjet for its increased speed, flexibility, and …

You may have seen it in your newsfeed last summer but now you can read all about the inkjet investment decision at this large in-plant in the recently published case story, “HISD Adds Value with Inkjet Digital Color,” posted in the thINK resource center.  The largest school district in Texas and the 7th largest in the U.S. became the first in-plant to install a Canon Océ VarioPrint i300 sheet-fed inkjet press in July 2016. The investment made it possible to handle the short-run and fast turnaround times while also bringing affordable printing to the school district in a centralized location, enabling teachers to spend time creating lesson plans and working with their students rather than copying the materials themselves.   One of the greatest challenges of in-house printing operations serving K-12 school districts is the high volume of teacher requests for customized course materials at the start of the school year. According to InfoTrends’ research, 62% of education providers’ …

Hosted by Brad Simpson, the panel for this session represented a diverse set of inkjet customers, ranging from a 100 person print shop with a widely diverse customer set, to a large in-house printing group, to an expansive $600M+, 3,800 person print business.  The panelists described their motivations and goals for investment in inkjet printing, their planning process, and the resulting advantages they have experienced. Did you miss it? View the on-demand session now .  In this thINK panel discussion Christine Soward, Ron Goglia and Pat Foley describe what led them to inkjet, and how they evaluated and communicated the advantages for their investment.   Support for business growth was one key motivator for investment in inkjet.  “We chose inkjet because our business was growing, and we needed to be able to scale predictably,” explained Christine Soward of DMS ink, adding “It allows us to be scalable and compete against larger companies.”  One of Pat Foley’s Merrill facilities had a …