Digital Offset Press Spurs Business Growth

MSP Digital Marketing is a privately held organization building a national network of world-class marketing solutions providers. With two locations currently—TecDoc Digital in Hudson, MA and DigitalXPress in Rockaway, NJ—MSP continues to seek additional profitable digital communications related companies to invest in or acquire. It currently employs 50 in its digital enterprise, including 13 sales professionals, and is aggressively partnering with other firms to extend its capabilities.

MSP Digital was seeking a printing technology platform to augment its toner-based digital printing devices. “Our production platform is all digital,” said Jonathan Fogel, a Managing Partner. “But given the run-length limitations of existing digital technologies, we also have needed to source conventional offset depending upon client requirements. We were looking for a solution that was complementary to our digital platform, which would allow us to more affordably do longer runs, and also bring in all or some of the offset work we have been outsourcing.”

Requirements Met

MSP Digital founds its answer in a Presstek 52DI-AC digital offset press, staying with a digital platform and positioning the company for further growth. With a Presstek DI, a digital file is sent directly to the press without the use of offline platemaking processes. All plates are simultaneously imaged on press in precise register; automated press settings ensure consistently high quality throughout the run without significant operator intervention. The 52DI-AC features in-line aqueous coating, further enhancing image quality with spot or flood coating.

“The 52DI puts us in a relatively unique position in the metro New York area,” said Fogel. “It opens a niche for us, between what is economical to produce on digital versus conventional offset. It is also very high quality, allowing us to provide our very demanding client base an extremely attractive solution for their short-run very high quality work, for which the 52DI-AC is ideally suited. The in-line aqueous coating also offers a number of advantages, including production efficiency, and the ability to flood or spot coat for special effects and increased durability, especially for pieces that will be mailed.”

Joe Boylan, production manager for MSP’s DigitalXpress division, spoke about a specific project the company recently completed that demonstrates how the company uses both digital and offset in a hybrid manufacturing strategy. “This was a four-page newsletter that required 4,800 pieces to be printed with variable messaging, addressed and mailed,” he said. “If we were to produce the project on our Indigo press, the cost goes through the roof. Instead, we printed the static four-color imagery on the Presstek 52DI-AC and then overprinted all of the variable data in black on the Indigo. The result is a much more cost- and time-efficient production process.”

From a cost perspective, according to Boylan, this hybrid production process resulted in a 65 percent cost savings. “In addition,” he said, “we had an 80 percent savings in cycle time. Had we run the entire job on the Indigo, the process would have consumed about five hours, where it took us only 45 minutes with the hybrid strategy.”

MSP is also investigating a range of new applications, including lenticular printing and other point-of-sale applications. “We are exploring partnerships with companies who are developing proprietary products using lenticular and other materials,” explained Fogel, “and the 52DI-AC places us in a strong position to assist them in bringing these products to market while boosting our overall revenues.”