2017 Road Map for the Printing Industry

We all know the industry is changing, driven by the near frenetic pace of technological evolution, but which changes matter most to the commercial printing industry? To answer these questions, KeyPoint Intelligence (keypointintelligence.com) has released its 2017 Road Map.

The 2017 Road Map outlines the top six trends that commercial printers need to be prepared to address. These trends build on those from 2016, including:

• Smart manufacturing and cloud-based software that collects detailed production data and reports back performance and benchmarking data. 
• “App-ification” of production workflows, allowing vendors and PSPs to create apps for specific areas of their business and production. (See HP’s Print OS framework, EnFocus’ App Store, and EFI’s Workbench.) 
• Growth in packaging and textile workflows, opening these markets to a broader slice of the industry. This trend is driven by the rapid adoption of high-speed inkjet, which addresses concerns such as color, substrate flexibility, and production speed.

With this in mind, what are the production workflow trends that printers can expect this year? According to KeyPoint Intelligence, what follows are the top six you should pay attention to.

1. Equipment manufacturers embrace the Internet of Things (IoT)

As the commercial printing industry further embraces Industry 4.0, cloud-based computing will continue to redefine how productivity and profitability are managed.

“This is about the capturing the information from the equipment or machine and being sent – like a big firehose of information – to the cloud, where software analyzes it and provides it back to the end user in an intuitive dashboard,” notes Ryan McAbee, associate director of KeyPoint Intelligence. “This provides insight into where printers’ businesses have bottlenecked, where they are not being profitable, and eventually should allow them to be more accurate in their costing models. This will enable them to make data-driven decisions rather than gut decisions.”

Pat McGrew, director of KeyPoint Intelligence’s production workflow advisory service, points to the ability of printers use cloud-based analysis to identify where they have operations and staff issues. “Maybe the third-shift operator is out-performing all expectations, but the second-shift operator has reduced output,” she says. “If you are only watching total output, you will miss the level of granularity these systems offer.”

On the vendor side, cloud computing can be used to create an R&D feedback loop. As manufacturers scale up placements for new equipment, for example, they can see where there might be hiccups or failure points.

“You can also develop new professional services such as predictive or proactive scheduled maintenance, notifying customers when maintenance needs to be done rather being reactive as it has traditionally been, or you can offer training when there are significant productivity differences between shifts,” McGrew says. “There are many new business models you can piggyback off this information.”

McGrew notes that there were nearly a dozen vendors offering such models at drupa, including HP (Print Beat), Ricoh (TotalFlow), and Pitney Bowes (Clarity Intelligent Mailing Software). So check them out!

2. Continued emergence of app-based workflows

One of the threads you will see throughout all of KeyPoint Intelligence’s trends is “appificaiton.” This refers to app-based software such as already exists in the B2C and B2B space. “Apps make things simple,” notes McAbee. “You can go to the app store and say, ‘I need a good preflight checker.’ Or ‘I want to do VDP.’ Or ‘I want to do VDP only for the three months during the holiday season.’ Then you can download that app into your workflow. For PSPs, the benefit is flexibility and potential for base level of workflow integration.”

3. Maturing of visualization software to drive online sales of 3D products

The third trend is how the scaling of visualization software promises to expand product opportunities in three-dimensional products like packaging or t-shirts. By giving customers a 360-degree view of what they are buying – allowing them to take a product, spin it around, and view it from all angles (or even in its environmental context) – this increases their comfort level with making these purchases online. By allowing customers to see exactly what they are buying in advance, it also promises to reduce returns and speed approval processes.

Not only is 3D visualization software supporting growth in the packaging and apparel/textile markets, but it is helping printers sell high-value print with techniques such as foil and embossing since the texture can be visualized on screen.

4. Web-to-workflows on the rise

On the backside of online sales is workflow, automating and increasing the efficiency of all of the processes on the back side of the order. This is driving growth, not in web-to-print, but in web-to-workflow. Thus, the fourth trend is the impact of such systems on improving productivity and lowering the barrier to entry for new markets.

“Web-to-print technology is a great tool, but in most cases, it ignores the many workflow steps in between the order and fulfillment,” says McAbee. “Printers who have adopted these systems quickly realize how efficient they are and their benefits for handling the high number of smaller jobs that come through their storefronts.”

Software vendors like Aleyant TFlow and Aleyant Pressero have developed web-to-workflow apps to help bridge those gaps. Canon has also taken a look at this with Print Direct.

Web-to-workflow also offers the opportunity for PSPs to develop apps to lift themselves out of the commodity market created by the equalization of Web-to-print. Visualization tools, geo-marketing (adding maps to printed products), and other value-added apps can easily be integrated.

5. Online print customization platforms at scale

The next trend to watch is online platforms that connect print purchasers and merchants to geographically dispersed fulfillers.

These platforms have been scaling over recent years, and KeyPoint Intelligence believes they will start to become impactful. “The technology platform offers an API for the fulfillers to plug into and automate the job intake, the routing of the job to where it needs to be based on geographic location, and the tools to prepare the job and automate the shipping back out to the end customer,” says McAbee.

As these networks scale (think Gelato, Ink Router), there are three primary areas KeyPoint Intelligence believes that will be impacted:

• Print brokers: The types of matching of services, equipment, and locations that used to require human intervention have now been automated. “If we know the Internet has done anything,” McAbee says, “it’s cut out the middle man.” 
• Online print volumes: The easier, more accurate, and more flexible online print ordering becomes for both printer and customer, the more this will drive volume. “If I’m a PSP, instead of having to purchase W2P software and go through the challenge of implementing it and getting customers onboarded, I can leverage existing technology to do that and get increased volume,” McAbee says. McGrew points out that software vendor should be looking at how to work with and help to enable these types of organizations. “They should look at opportunity to provide interesting plug-ins to these platforms,” she says. 
• PSPs investigating new markets such as packaging or offering new products using equipment they don’t currently own: “If you are a PSP and trying to understand the ramifications of expanding into packaging or areas of the market that have finishing you don’t have, these platforms provide interesting opportunities,” says McGrew. “During a recent study, we worked with a commercial provider using one of these platforms to fulfill things they can’t do themselves. They are also participating in the network for the things they do best. Those kinds of two-way relationships can really expand the footprint for a local PSP to boost their capacity.”

But do printers actually make money with these platforms? McAbee says yes. “One of the questions asked during the study was, ‘Does anyone ever make any money?’ and we found that the answer is yes. Of all of the printers talked to, most of them – maybe 85% of those using these platforms – understood their network capabilities, were looking for new opportunities, and were actively growing.”

6. Digital publishing gains traction in B2B sense

While digital publishing is well established in the book and magazine space, anticipate a natural segue or extension for PSPs who already offer document management as a service to their customers.

“Digital publishing doesn’t have to be only for large brands,” notes McAbee. “For anyone with marketing portals offering asset management, regardless of the size of the business, it’s a natural extension. You already have the material, so it makes sense to make it available in digital formats, whether computer, tablet, or smartphone.”

Although there is natural concern among PSPs about digital publishing competing with their printing business, McGrew says this is not actually the case. “Among the PSPs we’ve seen who have developed the ability to offer both in print and via mobile app or online, those companies are seen by their customers as 360-degree companies,” she says. “The tools are now available to make it happen almost seamlessly, they’ve only gotten better. It’s not an area that even small and midsized PSPs should be afraid of.”

Digital publishing does take some education, however, and not all legacy files will work well in this environment. “These systems work well for well-designed HTML 5, they like InDesign, many like Quark and Corel,” says McGrew. “They kind of like PDF, but they don’t always return good results. So do some investigation if you are looking in this direction.”

McAbee concludes that you should expect a different kind of costing model for the software, as well. “They are more subscription or transaction based rather than buying it outright as a license,” he says.

From appification to 3D visualization, these are significant trends set to transform how PSPs and their customers interact. While they represent a fundamental shift in how printers manage their businesses, they also offer the opportunity to transform their business operations and profitability models in a really positive way by streamlining and adding flexibility and value at many levels. Sometimes change is a good thing.