Wide-Format & Signage January/February 2021 by WhatTheyThink

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

46 Automation is Key: Trends

Drive Changes in Wide-Format Print Software

50 Wide Format 21: Reasons to Be Over-Optimistic

54 The Digital Sprint:

Simplifying Printer Textile Production to Deliver Increased Sales

MAIN ROUTS Options for adding traditional signmaking capabilities

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EDITORIAL ─ Print Continues To Look On The Bright Side Of Life

WATCHING AND WAITING

s this issue goes to press, we are crunching the numbers from our Fall 2020 Business Outlook Survey for our Richard Romano Printing Outlook 2021 Managing Editor richard@whattheythink.com report, which should be available in our eStore by the time you read this. Some of Richard Romano the business conditions data is depressing, has been writing about the graphic but then we were expecting it. Instead, it’s communications the lack of proactive thinking and the sense industry for 20 years. He is an of hunkering down elsewhere in the survey industry analyst, that are a little dispiriting. author and co-author of There is no doubt that last year saw more than half a dozen books. unprecedented carnage—71% of 279 print businesses surveyed said that 2020 revenues had decreased compared to 2019. No surprises there. But 28% said that revenues had decreased more than 25%, and another 27% said revenues had decreased between 10% and 25%. (For the past 15 years—or 25 years if you count the original TrendWatch surveys that WhatTheyThink’s questionnaires were based on—“decreased by more than 10%” was the most dire survey option, and even during the Great Recession it was never selected by as much as one-fourth of respondents.) Eleven percent of respondents said business stayed about the same, while only 19% said that revenues had increased over 2019. Of more importance, though, is how the industry feels about 2021. Gotta hand it to print businesses, they are an optimistic bunch: 78% are expecting revenues to increase compared to 2020, which Read More… shouldn’t be hard, given the hole Find article at PrintingNews. everyone fell into—unless of course com/21147791 those external conditions everyone is expecting to improve don’t. Eleven percent expect revenues to increase by more than 25%, and 40% expect revenues to increase by more than 10%. The top three business challenges reflect the most pressing concerns: “regaining

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business lost due to COVID” (64%), “keeping my employees safe from COVID” (46%), and “national economic conditions” (38%). Top business opportunities are “passive” opportunities—they depend on waiting for external conditions to change and not taking proactive steps: “improving economic conditions” (60%), “national recovery from COVID-19” (57%), and “customers outsourcing more work to us” (37%). It’s disheartening to see things like “producing post-COVID print materials (such as PPE, distancing signage, divisional graphics)” only selected by 13%, since these items were what kept a lot of print businesses afloat during the worst of 2020. Planned investments are a case of sameold same-old: “we have no planned investments” (28%), “finishing/bindery equipment for digital production” (23%), and “workflow automation software” (14%). One-half of our respondents have hiring plans for 2021, most of them for outside sales reps (43%) and postpress/bindery employees (34%). We get the sense from this survey that a lot of print businesses are hunkering down, waiting for the virus to go away or a vaccine to become widely available. But throughout 2020, we found that the print businesses that prospered—the 19% that said that revenues had increased over 2019—were proactive in seeking out new opportunities and teaching themselves how to produce the products that were in demand throughout the early days of the pandemic. In this and the past few issues, Preston Herrin has been writing about “agility,” and while agility was something print businesses always needed, it’s needed even more now. “Sheltering in place” is a good policy when it comes to public health and the pandemic, but not when it comes to evolving one’s business or keeping it afloat during a pandemic. ●

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VP, GROUP PUBLISHER Kelley Holmes kelley@whattheythink.com 772-579-7360 PRODUCTION EDITOR & MANAGER Amy Hahn amy@whattheythink.com EDITOR Jessica Taylor jessica@whattheythink.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

MANAGING EDITOR Richard Romano richard@whattheythink.com

CON

SENIOR EDITOR Cary Sherburne cary@whattheythink.com

Cover Story

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Paul Zimmerman paul@whattheythink.com 973-727-1376

Advice from Trade Print and Service Leaders

ORCHESTRATING SUCCESS By Preston Herrin

PRESIDENT Eric Vessels eric@whattheythink.com 740-417-3333

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PRINTING NEWS

COO Adam Dewitz adam@whattheythink.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Pete Basiliere Steve Johnson Christine Erna Jennifer Matt Elizabeth Gooding Pat McGrew Preston Herrin Larry Oberly

Frank Romano Heidi Tolliver-Walker David Zwang

CREATIVE SERVICES Bobbi Burow, CreativityTank LLC bobbi.burow@gmail.com SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE For change of address or subscription information email: help@whattheythink.com Published by WTT Media, Inc. 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116

ARTICLE REPRINTS Please contact your account executive PrintingNews.com PrintingNews.com—the web portal representing content from Printing News, Wide-Format & Signage—is devoted to delivering you timely news and multimedia content on a daily basis. WhatTheyThink (ISSN 2642-3189) (USPS 500-850) Volume 44, Number 3 is published nine times per year in January/February, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, October, November/December by WTT Media, Inc., at 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116. Periodicals postage paid at Saint Paul, MN and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WhatTheyThink, 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116. Subscriptions: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. to qualified subscribers. Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Annual subscription prices in the U.S.A $95; Canada $125 USD; all other countries $150 USD. Printed in the USA. Copyright © 2021 WTT Media, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recordings or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission. WTT Media Inc. does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of causation. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not those of the publishers, unless indicated. The publishers do not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, or of any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles.

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12 16 18 24 30

IS THERE A FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE FOR INKJET?

Five inkjet early adopters share their experiences. By Elizabeth Gooding PACKAGING PREPRESS SERVICES ADAPT AND EXPAND

As packaging requirements change and the transition to digital printing increases, who will pick up the mantel? By David Zwang CHECKING THE MAIL

A 2020 USPS year in review By Christine Erna THE FUTURE OF PRINT CUSTOMER SERVICE

Like an ATM machine, but better By Jennifer Matt PRINT RESOLUTIONS

Start doing these three things to thrive in 2021. By Pat McGrew

WIELD THE DATA SWORD

LESSONS LEARNED FROM A NON-PROFIT

How to use the growing "datasphere" to your advantage. By Preston Herrin

Turning pandemic response into long-term success By Heidi Tolliver-Walker

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NTENTS WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE

MAIN ROUTS

Options for adding traditional signmaking capabilities By Richard Romano

GET AHEAD OF THE TECH CURVE

AUTOMATION IS KEY

50 52

Smart signage expands experiential marketing opportunity. By Larry Oberly

Pre- and post-COVID trends drive changes in wide-format print software. By Richard Romano WIDE-FORMAT ’21: REASONS TO BE OVER-OPTIMISTIC

What substantial new opportunities for wide-format graphics and signage can we be over-optimistic about? By Richard Romano

COLUMNS

PRINTED ELECTRONICS

PROSPECTING SKILLS

EXECUTIVE Q&A

EXIT INTERVIEWS

ASSOCIATION INSIGHTS

JOHNSON'S WORLD

SPINNING A YARN

The book, “The Fabric of Civilization,” weaves a fascinating tale. By Cary Sherburnee

THE DIGITAL SPRINT

WILL THE HUMBLE SILKWORM SOON BE OUT OF A JOB?

Simplifying printed textile production to deliver increased sales and a sustainable future. By Debbie McKeegan

High Value, high touch By Pete Basiliere

There’s Gold in Those Hills By Dave Fellman

John Mills, CEO of Xaar talks about the new strategy, the new platform and the “ new Xaar.” By Richard Romano

New Year, New Adventures as Marc Olin, Ken Garner and Michael Makin make their exits - for now. By Cary Sherburne

APTech brings even more content to 2021 By Thayer Long

Be My Valentine By Steve Johnson

How bolt threads is changing silk. By Cary Sherburne

DEPARTMENTS

4 Editorial 32 Printing Industry News 34 Watch List: Video 58 Textile Industry News

64 Classifieds/Supplier Directory

FOLLOW US twitter: @PrintingNews; @WideFormatSign; @whattheythink facebook: Printing News; wideformatsignage; @whattheythink linkedin: Printing News; linkedin.com/groups/1780044; whattheythink youtube: PrintingNews.com

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MANAGEMENT ─ Customer Service

ORCHESTRATING SUCCESS

Advice from Trade Print and Service Leaders By Preston Herrin

very motion you make in your business sets the tone for the ultimate performance of the supply chain. Whether you are a manufacturer/service provider shepherding the genesis of the supply chain or a reseller/distributor working bi-directionally within the supply chain, success hinges on advanced collaboration in order to deliver on customer expectations. Great customer experience is intentional. Even in the throes of hyper-change and disruption, the successful leaders I collaborated with on this piece see unique opportunity in the market. They have architected, developed, launched and refined new solutions that bring harmony to the complex marketing supply chain. The transformation necessary to intentionally create a great customer experience can be conveyed through the traits of successful businesses.

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Traits of Successful Distributors and Resellers ● Adaptive, Flexible Operating Reality Resellers and distributors must continuously learn to adapt and respond to the rapidly changing environments and behaviors of buyers. Greg Muzzillo, founder of Proforma, characterizes the pace of change with sobering truth. “The ‘new’ becomes a commodity faster and faster in business today,” he said. “Most people, especially the end-user customer, take for granted what was special five years ago.” Augmented by an unrelenting pandemic, the

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delta between the growth-minded and the laggards will continue to widen. “Flexibility is the new operating reality,” Muzzillo said. “Tomorrow’s opportunities are cloaked as the challenges of today.” “The customer experience is improving in all facets of life with the proliferation of integrated technology tools and data,” said Matt Bruno, executive vice president at PSDA. “It’s harder to decipher competitive advantage today as the ante has been raised to include price, quality and speed. The new focus is on needs, not products. It’s about creating brand success for end-user customers. The future advantage will go to the distributors who shift from a transactional mentality to a partnership mentality and choose providers who are streamlining marketing supply chain complexities.” Indeed, taking into account the full-spectrum of adjacent markets, products and providers available to distributors leaves one wondering who will succeed at coordinating and aggregating the disparate pieces into a refined solution offering. Entrepreneurial thinking is worthy of emulation in the midst of disruption. Shaheen Javadizadeh, CEO of 4over, noted that it is the “hungry entrepreneurs who are taking chances, looking forward, pivoting and winning. The most successful ones care passionately about their customers and their market. They establish trust with their customers by continuing to deliver new breadth and quality of product.” The reality of integrated technologies, seamless workflows, touchless operations and real-time push communications are all within reach. The advent of these platform advances will enable distributors and resellers to elevate out of the detail and become an orchestrator rather than a one-man-band. ● Orchestrator of Outcomes The information age in which we live has been aptly referred to as the “attention economy.” Buyers’ habits have been sharply changing for many years and have certainly intensified as a result of the pandemic. Engagements with buyers are golden minutes where gaining a deep understanding

of their complete needs are paramount to your product knowledge. “Look at the market as brand-campaign centric,” said Nikki Stella, CEO at AIM Smarter. “Come to the customers as an agency offering full campaign solutions rather than as product specialists. Instead of pigeon-holing yourself in one niche, be the brand expert for the customer and all of their needs. Customers would prefer to work with one trusted advisor. Distributors who collaborate, integrate and adopt provider technologies will find lasting success.” The strategic, full-service provider trend for resellers and distributors has been a winning formula for years and has become even more imperative in this pandemic era. “Customers want to communicate differently with suppliers today,” Muzzillo said. “As a result of the pandemic, customers will remain distributed, working from home. Thus, accurate and timely

information is essential. Companies that are not communicating through an integrated technology platform will increasingly fall behind.” By strategically elevating your approach and becoming an orchestrator of resources to deliver on customer projects, you simplify the customer’s life. Consistently delivering positive outcomes for the customer will create the opportunity to become a trusted advisor.

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MANAGEMENT ─ Customer Service ● Pioneer of New Value Chains As the relationship owners, the resellers and distributors carry the responsibility of not only adapting their mindset and elevating their market approach but also pioneering new platform efficiencies designed to simplify the complexities of the marketing supply chain. “Too many distributors are trying so hard to generate growth, that they are forgetting the tools and processes that are necessary to help them sustain growth,” Bruno said. “The same is true on the supply side where too many providers are one-dimensional in their solutions offering. It is a multi-dimensional process to add new efficiencies and automated touchpoints to the supply chain and deliver lasting value to the end user clients.” Case-in-point, many of the contributing leaders discussed significant opportunities and investments in technology solutions that are cutting-edge in their speed, information disbursement and market relevance: ● Stella and the AIM Smarter team are seeing significant adoption of their suite of technologies and marketing services. Specifically, they are seeing a surge in demand for pop-up e-commerce storefronts that are short-lived, event-driven opportunities. ● Muzzillo and his Proforma team took a couple of years to thoughtfully build, from the ground up, a streamlined platform that enables the Proforma owners to scale their businesses with efficient order, information and business metrics visibility. ● Rick Roddis, Navitor business unit president, sees a significant down-market opportunity where fully 71% of small distributors do not have an e-commerce presence. ● Shaheen Javadizadeh foreshadowed a revamping of marketing and e-commerce technologies at 4over that will create a new digital experience where market-specific product bundles can be edited and ordered online. Creating an exceptional customer experience and sustaining that performance in an age of disruption and hyper-change takes diligence and the adoption of new technologies that will allow you to

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scale. The market is rife with opportunity for the resellers and distributors who can execute. “Customers don’t have time to see multiple suppliers,” Muzzillo said. “Their companies are starting to understand the real cost of creating RFI’s, RFP’s, evaluating the responses and coordinating the logistics of all the disparate pieces. The cost of the product is oftentimes less than the fully burdened cost of procuring the products. Customers want one source with infinite resources.”

Traits of Successful Manufacturers and Service Providers ● Affecting the Success of Others “We cannot rely solely on our tried and true product offerings,” Roddis said. “Many of these products are entering their eighth decade of use in a world where product lifespans are measured in months. We are thoughtfully taking a step back to ask the questions, ‘What do end-customers really need?’ and ‘How do we equip resellers to fulfill those needs?’ We are focused on creating downmarket solutions for our resellers that facilitate the success of their customers’ programs.” Extending strategic focus “down-market” for the ultimate success of the end-customer is a winning strategy. Ensuring your distributors have their unique needs met is also of paramount importance. “By listening to distributors and resellers and responding to their needs,” Stella said, “which are a reflection of the end-user customer needs, your success multiplies.” Listening to needs led Stella and the AIM team to the realization that the distributors were in need of full-service financial and capital support. So they launched a service to aid their distributors and free-up resources. At 4over, Javadizadeh enthusiastically discussed his team’s “pragmatic marketing” approach, which identifies the “why” around the need and use of products and services. “We’re simplifying the marketing buying process by creating online product and service bundles that can be edited on the fly. These types of solutions will expand the resellers’ product portfolios and market reach while making them appear bigger

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than they are.” Bruno said the success formula in the trade service and manufacturing space is a simple pivot. “Focus on making someone else successful.” In doing so, your customer growth and success will become a force multiplier in your own business. ● Nurturing Lasting Partnerships Providers of trade services and manufacturing all have “high-potentials” in their workforce that are empathetic problem-solvers, good listeners and work with a bias for action. Equip these individuals with technology tools, and elevate their role with a breadth of influence that allows them to be decisive and orchestrate positive outcomes. Placing the right person in the right role at the right time is crucial to establishing a positive customer experience at the genesis of the supply chain process. “If you think of the trade provider and reseller relationship, it is truly symbiotic,” Roddis said. “We, as the provider, invest and develop relevant products and solutions for the end-customer. The reseller, as the relationship owner, needs our best operational and intellectual assets to deliver for the end-customer. If these parts do not work in concert to deliver for the end-customer, we all fail. The key to a partnership is first clearly understanding the need of the end-customer. Then our team can partner with the reseller and suggest the right technology solution, leverage our national manufacturing footprint and access our team of knowledgeable product and marketing managers to provide the resources needed to sell the program.” Javadizadeh believes that relationships deepen with an established trust borne out of disrupting the traditional market benefits. “In the past, customers could only choose two out of the three benefits of quality, speed and price,” he said. “Today we have five: reliability, consistency, high quality, speed and price. Resellers want all of them and we deliver them all. We are geared to do this because of scale. Our team and our technology enable the reseller and the end-customer to succeed.” “Our distributors know we care,” Stella said. “We are focused professionals doing business with a heart. We have created a universe where once you step in you never have to step out. Whether it is

providing financial and back-office services to you as a distributor or listening and collaborating with you on your marketing and customer needs, we can help you take your business to the next level.” ● Engineering New Value Chains As one key trait of successful resellers and distributors is to pioneer new value chain opportunities, the calling of the service and manufacturing providers is to design, develop and execute on solution platforms that deliver on the promise of extended reach and customer value. “The customer expectation of ordering online and having a great experience will only further develop and expand,” said Nate Mulliken, executive leader at Taylor Corporation. “Don’t compare yourself only to other printing websites. You have to look at the best e-commerce players and measure how your ordering platform compares.” A holistic market view is critical in developing market solutions with real value. Pragmatically, size and access to capital play an important role. “The future will bring greater consolidation,” Javadizadeh said. “Raw material and logistics costs continue to increase, which impacts smaller providers who don’t have buying power. Additionally, access to capital is required to invent technologies that drive efficiencies throughout the system that speed job Read More… routing, improve safety and Find article at enable new product innovations. PrintingNews. com/21147900 The companies who can execute at scale will shape the future.” The notion of “inventing” is a refreshing outlook. It strikes a chord of inspiration that may capture precisely the mindset needed for future success. The strategic market leaders will invent solutions that add value and harmony to the complexities of the print and promo marketing supply chain. These same leaders will also unite with their extended “sales team,” the resellers and distributors, in a closer-knit fashion than we have seen previously. “What makes this time unique is that the issues facing the industry affect both the resellers and the print and service providers,” Mulliken said. That is why collaboration and partnership is the key to mutual sustainability and growth.” ●

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DIGITAL & INKJET ─ Early Adopters

IS THERE A

FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE

FOR INKJET? Five inkjet early adopters share their experiences. By Elizabeth Gooding

he pace of innovation in production inkjet has accelerated over the past few years with new technology conquering more substrates, entering new markets and driving quality to new heights. For each of these releases there is a first customer. Often that customer is on board long before the product makes it to market, and not all products make it. It’s easy to understand why OEMs want to be first to the market with new technology and that they need beta customers to succeed, but why would a

printing business want to take a risk on unproven technology? To answer this question, we spoke with five technology leaders using inkjet in quality-sensitive operations about their experience as pre-release adopters of production inkjet presses. Some of these companies dipped their toes in the inkjet pool as far back as the late 1990s while others purchased their first inkjet press within the past two years. In each case, the company was looking for some combination of quality, flexibility,

(Above) Patrick Murphy, president of Japs-Olson. (Left) Kodak Prosper 6000

media compatibility, productivity or price that was not commercially available at the time. Japs-Olson Company, a commercial print and direct mail provider based in St. Louis Park, Minn., (japsolson.com) made their initial foray into inkjet in the late 90s after several years of working with inkjet arrays added to their traditional presses. Their beta test of that initial press didn’t work out, and it wasn’t until 2014 that they were ready to look at presses again. When they did, they again pursued a device that was not yet commercially available, the Kodak Prosper 6000. “We were aware of the Kodak Prosper 5000 and waited to jump in until the 6000 was announced,” Patrick Murphy, president of Japs-Olson said. “As an alpha/beta partner, we had months of questions before we installed.” An existing relationship played a big role in the decision to work with Kodak. While it was their first inkjet press, JapsOlson had over 100 inkjet heads (DOD and CIJ) in the plant at that time. According to Murphy, their decision was made based on “speed, quality, technology, and trust based on our relationship with the OEM.” Prolist Inc., a direct marketing services provider operating in Frederick, Md., (prolist. com) is a much more recent convert to production inkjet, but they have moved quickly. In 2018 Prolist invested in the Konica Minolta Accuriojet KM1

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cut-sheet inkjet innovation junkies. This press when there direct mail and marketwere fewer than a ing services provider was dozen installed in one of the first to install the U.S., and then the original Océ (now installed a second Canon) ColorStream one in 2019. 3500 in 2012 and then Dave Lokos, President and CEO of Prolist Prolist engaged the ImageStream 3500 with MCS several a few years later. The months prior to the launch of ColorStream was a big leap since the Merlin K146C and acquired it was not only the company’s not one, but two of the presses first inkjet press, it was their first in 2020. This represented a continuous press as well. shift from a B2 sheet-fed press “The ColorStream 3500 using UV inks on the KM-1 to was one of the first presses a B3+ format aqueous inkjet to achieve the combination of device, but this didn’t daunt quality and speed needed for Prolist. Dave Lokos, President our clients,” said CEO John Ashe. and CEO of Prolist justified the “Canon’s original Chromera ink investment in the Merlin K146C set was formulated specifically based on “relatively low capital for IWCO Direct.” cost, low transactional cost, IWCO was also a beta site good quality, speed, and confifor the Xerox CiPress and, more dence in MCS.” recently, the first site in the The team at IWCO Direct U.S. to install the Canon i300 in Chanhassen, Minn., (iwco. VarioPrint cut-sheet inkjet press. com) could be considered The St. Louis, Mo., operation of worldwide marketing powerhouse, Epsilon (us.epsilon. (Left) IWCO com) selected their first inkjet Direct CEO John Ashe press in 2014 after nine months (Below) of fairly intensive OEM testing IWCO Direct and due diligence. Epsilon was Digital Press looking for a continuous press Operations

(Above) Screen 520HD (Left) Epsilon VP and Managing Director Nate Miliken

that would print on coated offset stocks, and there were very few solutions available at that time. “We were the first in the U.S. and third globally to install the Screen 520HD in 2015 while the device was still in factory beta,” said VP and Managing Director Nate Miliken. “Screen offered the best print quality on gloss and matte cover and the best ROI. “Pick a good reliable business partner, but don’t be afraid of trying the ‘new guy’ either.” In 2015 Heeter Inc., based in Canonsburg, Pa., was the first general commercial printer in the U.S. to purchase a Ricoh Pro VC60000, and then in 2019 they doubled down with Ricoh to become the North American beta site for the Pro VC700000.

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DIGITAL & INKJET ─ Early Adopters

(Above) Ricoh Pro VC 70000 (Right) Heeter President Kirk Schlecker

Like IWCO Direct, Heeter’s first inkjet press was also their first continuous device. Heeter was in discussions with Ricoh about the VC70000 for 10 months in advance of the VC70000 beta delivery. Heeter President Kirk Schlecker, described long lead times for ordering inkjet formulated papers and major cracking issues with some papers as impetus to find a press fully compatible with offset stocks. “Quality is seen by all that interact with the VC70000, and the new ink set was a step up, but productivity was the Read More… game changer Find article at PrintingNews. for us,” he com/21147754 said. “It’s much faster than the VC60000 on coated stocks, and we no longer have to deal with IJ treated or coated stocks.” In 2021, Heeter is taking their third leap with Ricoh as a beta site for the Pro Z75 B2

sheet-fed press announced in December. Each of these companies is consistent in their claims that being a beta site was beneficial in several ways: access to new capabilities, building a stronger relationship with the OEM and prestige with print-buying customers. “Being one of the first elicits real investment from the vendor,” Lokos said. “Additionally, Prolist has a much stronger voice in the direction of future technological upgrades and additional features by being an early adopter. Being first means we are essentially playing an integral role in creating an entire new market/ channel of services.” “Being early adopters allowed IWCO Direct to offer the benefits of a fully digital workflow to our clients before our competition,” Ashe said. “Being first also meant we were in a position to partner with the

OEMs in defining what features were needed on the equipment to succeed. We had input on technical and service aspects of the equipment, especially helping the OEM understand what was needed for success in the direct marketing space. Based on the reputation we developed as an early adopter, our input is now sought out by other OEMs who understand the value of our feedback and respect our input.” “Heeter had a competitive advantage, and the level of quality surprised our customers,” Schlecker said of their early-adopter benefits. “We also were able to win work from other B2 digital presses based on price and quality without cannibalizing our margins.” Many print providers want to be the first to deliver new capabilities to their customers and to develop an influential relationship with their OEM, but not every company is cut out to be an alpha or beta site.

What does it take to succeed as an inkjet innovator? Being an early adopter comes with significant responsibility as well as benefit. The level of stability of a new product can vary greatly depending on whether it is an upgrade to an existing line or the first of its kind for the OEM or the market as a whole. Beta sites must be committed to the potential of many months of testing and the possibility that

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the product may not deliver the benefits promised. In short, they must be financially stable and comfortable with risk. “There is always a risk it will not perform as planned,” Murray warned. “The investment and commitment of resources is difficult to gauge when planning a beta test or implementation of new technology. You have to accept some risk and possibly a longer ROI.” “First adopters need to realize every test isn’t going to be a success,” Ashe added, “and sometimes you have to pull the plug and say ‘let’s try something else.’” Early adopters also need to be experts in their field, able to share valuable market expertise and speak candidly with OEMs. “Being first meant having many discussions with the OEM and giving candid feedback,” Ashe said. “It also meant the OEM was learning how the equipment would actually perform in a 24/7 environment, which can differ widely from the performance of a machine in a controlled R&D environment.” “OEMs do not know or totally understand the day-to-day issues that arise on a production floor, or how we may integrate this new technology into our environment,” Murray added. “These discussions and agreements must be part of the project from day one. It’s in the best interest of everyone involved.” It must also be understood that any pre-launch product will have issues to be resolved in the testing phase. Part of the responsibility of the beta-tester is to help the OEM work through those issues. “When there were issues, we spent a lot of time and effort helping Ricoh diagnose them,” Schlecker said. “A few of the issues ended up being resolved with engineering new parts and patches. Our responsibility to Ricoh is, and was, that we will put our best efforts forward and will not play any games with regard to accountability and equipment availability to their service team and engineers.” It’s also important for both parties to ensure that the product being tested is a good fit for the business, with numbers to back it up. “Have a strong business case for the new equipment,” Lokos said. “It will likely be of little value to

Elizabeth Gooding helps companies to streamline their business process, improve customer retention, and maximize new opportunities for document design, print and Internet technology.Contact her at Elizabeth@inkjetinsight.com.

you, and you will be little value to the vendor, if you bring in a piece of equipment that you ultimately aren’t going to run very much.” “Don’t get blinded by the excitement of the new technology,” Murray added. “Make sure you have a strong project scope defined with your internal team and the OEMs at the start. It’s almost the same advice I received before getting married: ’Learn how to solve problems quickly, openly and respectfully, then learn how to disagree without getting angry, and remember that if someone wins an argument, the marriage might have lost.’” ●

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LABELS & PACKAGING ─ Migration To Digital Printing

PACKAGING PREPRESS SERVICES

ADAPT AND EXPAND

As packaging requirements change and the transition to digital printing increases, who will pick up the mantel? By David Zwang

n the world of analog (pre-digital) packaging production, film and plates were and, in many cases, still are an important bridge between the customer, the Consumer Packaging Companies (CPC) and the print and converting provider. However, these two products are more than mere film and plate media. The processes and, more importantly, the skills used to image that media is really what ensures an acceptable end product. The division of responsibilities during the transition to digital in commercial printing was split between the designer and the printer, with the help of increasingly “smarter” software to reduce some of the skill requirements. With the packaging transition it isn’t quite as easy. Understanding the complex relationship between machine, color, plates (in the case of flexo) and an extensive array of substrate media and the converting process is a skill that has been the purview of the prepress house for generations. In packaging, as was the case with commercial print, with the migration to digital printing the need for film and plates disappears, however even with the advent of new imaging technologies,

these core skills still play an important part of the process. So where do those responsibilities lie now and in the future?

Trade Services Making the Transition Existing packaging prepress services saw this coming for a while and have been reinventing themselves to address the inevitable shift to digital. Their role has always been more than just the platemaker for the converter. In many cases it has been the liaison between the CPC’s and the converter, since they managed the many variables that controlled the nuances in the platemaking process that ensured the expected results. A great example of how prepress companies are transitioning can be seen with Olberding Brands, formerly known as Phototype, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, the home of P&G. The new name, Olberding, is the family name of the owners. Founded in 1919, this familyowned business grew into an international packaging prepress powerhouse. With production facilities in the U.S., U.K. and China, and client support centers around the globe. They have grown as a result of

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their ability to innovate and adapt to the changing requirements of the market. This includes consolidation of prepress houses, as well as SKU proliferation for different product lines and sizes to support increased demand for targeted marketing, all of which has added to their growth. To address the shifts, in addition to the name change, they have created three separate divisions that operate independently, but sometimes leverage existing and new customers across each of the divisions. Gravity is their design and branding division which works with CPC’s on packaging design. Amplify works with CPC’s on leveraging their brand design across different visual delivery requirements. Phototype is their prepress production division. Since flexo still maintains the largest share of packaging print production, their Phototype prepress division is still the largest group, but it has also continued to evolve and expand its offerings to better support the market shifts. A key service they offer to their clients, whether they are the converter or the CPC, are “print-quality management” services. As previously noted, this is a significant role, and according to David Olberding, probably one of the more important services they offer. Not only do they work with the CPC’s on the production realities of their design, but they also prepare the plates and work with the converter on how to achieve the expected result. They still make proofs, both analog and digital, and recently even metal decorating proofs to provide a way to envision cans before they go to full-on production. This new addition has been especially valuable to both craft beverage producers and larger companies looking to introduce a new line.

Digital Packaging Printing While the largest percentage of their work is still going to flexo platemaking, the brands still rely on them to prepare the files for other processes as well. “Generally all products go through the graphics process, which means it’s got to get approved,” Olberding said. “It’s got to get routed, and the colors have got to be right. So, we still do the prep whether we do it for a flexo or offset plate, a digital file or for decorating a metal can.” It is anticipated that using their other two divisions to work with the CPC’s to create the brand designs from the beginning will help to prepare for the increase in digital production as well. Many of the Phototype clients are larger brands, so this doesn’t mean that many companies that have selected digital printing for their package won’t take their original design file and send it to the printer/converter directly. In fact, as we have seen in digital label production, which has been the bellwether for digital packaging production, more often than not, the design file goes directly to the converter, and if needed, a proof is pulled on the digital press. However, ensuring brand identity across different production methods is still going to be a challenge without the inclusion of a quality arbiter that can navigate the many variables. To address that, the role will have to be either with the CPC’s and brands, which is not necessarily their desire in many cases, or a skilled prepress company or perhaps even some new developments in software. ●

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David Zwang specializes in process analysis, and strategic development of firms involved in publishing and packaging across the globe. Contact him at david@zwang.com.

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FINISHING & MAILING ─ USPS

CHECKING A 2020 USPS year in review

THE

t has been a year filled with all manner of challenges, twists and turns for the mailing industry and the United States Postal Service. Not only a global pandemic, but, natural disasters, unemployment in the double digits, a new Postmaster General and a presidential election year. The perfect storm? The mailing industry has been hit especially hard in 2020. COVID-19 has brought with it reduced mail volume, delivery performance (USPS and other

MAIL

carrier performance) has been affected negatively, remote working employees has challenged many employers to pivot their service delivery models to support clients and manage their businesses. All this while being cognizant of their families’, friends’, clients’ and employees’ safety and health. The supply chains supporting our industry, the customers and clients generating the marketing mail volumes have also been impacted, and the ripple effects have been, in some circumstances, catastrophic.

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unfortunately, COVID-19 positivity rates are presently rising at alarming rates. Our industry has experienced contraction, and this will continue. Unfortunately, the same is true for the businesses of the clients we serve. We have all learned how to “pivot” this year, and it will be an important skill to have and use as our clients and their nonexistent advertising or marketing budgets continue to waver on what will happen in 2021 and beyond.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy What has been extraordinarily amazing is watching the industry rise to the occasion together to support one and all to the extent possible with respect to business continuity, crisis management, innovation and ingenuity, to survive in our daily lives and across all businesses that represent this phenomenal industry in so many ways. Fortunately, the printing and mailing community was deemed essential very early on when the pandemic started. So many of our organizations were fortunate to be granted the opportunity to continue

The mailing industry has been hit especially hard in 2020. COVID-19 has caused reduced mail volume and delivery issues. operating. This was not without challenges. Among them, the safety of employees reporting to work and having the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) available. Sanitation protocols needed to be put in place and kept current as they changed with the data that was being collected. Social distancing was required, which led to reworking the layout of the operations supporting the business and the seemingly endless changes imposed. The pandemic is still here, and

During this global pandemic, a new PMG, Louis DeJoy, was selected and began his new job. Upon starting the job, DeJoy launched a series of changes and shake-ups including an entire overhaul of their organization alignment and leadership, eliminating areas, disLouis tricts, and re-aligning all Dejoy functional areas into a new reporting and operational structure. Among things particularly controversial, he issued directives to eliminate overtime, and adhere to all carrier and transportation schedules by leaving on time, regardless of all mail being ready and available for dispatch. As a part of these directives, no extra transportation would be allowed to meet service performance goals for any class of mail. Add in the expected high volume of election mail, and the optics were terrible regardless of the intent of the orders. The fear of delayed mail affecting the outcome of the 2020 presidential election caused a firestorm of bad press and public outrage. The USPS was a headline news story across the country for

Christine Erna is President of Strategic Postal Advisors. She consults to improve address quality while reducing return mail expenses. She can be reached at: cje@strategicpostaladvisors.com.

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FINISHING & MAILING ─ USPS days for all the wrong reasons. Outcry from citizens and politicians about the possibility of a “fixed” election caused by mail delays was not a good way for DeJoy to start his postal career. DeJoy was called to testify in front of Senate Homeland Security and the Governmental Affairs Committee. Lawmakers from both parties and postal union leaders sounded alarms over procedural changes instituted by DeJoy this summer, including eliminating overtime and slowing some mail delivery.

The postal union disputed eliminating sorting equipment, removal of collection boxes, reduction in retail window operations, with no “analysis” of the impact to service. In fairness, these claims by the postal unions were politicized, as many of them predated DeJoy and were well underway for years prior to his taking the position of PMG. Additionally, the unions claimed his intent in doing this was an attempt to intentionally undermine Postal Service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November 2020 election. By the end of the very contentious hearings, DeJoy said in a statement, “To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded.”

Volume and Revenue On Sept. 25, the USPS filed its August 2020 finances with the Postal Regulatory Commission. While the USPS continues to exceed revenue expectations with overall revenue up 4.2% over

August 2019, their expenses declined 16% relative to last year, resulting in a net loss of $278 million. Last August’s net loss was $1.7 billion. Financial problems continue with projections of the USPS being out of cash by the middle of 2021. One thing we all agree on is that this model is unsustainable for the long term, and we all need meaningful action to make it sustainable. We have been hearing for years that meaningful legislation is necessary. This would result in some combination of overhauling the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act and continued operational changes for the USPS. Nothing is easy but surely the legislators espousing about the USPS’ operational changes and the effects on the election should want to continue that work postelection season. Given the current political climate, we can remain hopeful but also aware that we should not expect impactful change in the foreseeable future. The pandemic has accelerated both the decline of letter volume and growth of e-commerce parcels due to an increased number of people shopping from home. Last-mile delivery companies have all scaled-up dramatically because of these volume increases.

Volume has declined steadily since late March. ● Overall mail volume decline is easing, from a high around 25-30% to 15-20%. ● Parcel volume growth is easing. ● The week of Aug. 24 saw an overall decline of 15.5%. First-Class single-piece retail mail went down 16.6%, while presort commercial went down 3.9%. ● Periodicals are down 21.6%. ● Marketing mail is down 16.3%. ● Packages are up 35.6%.

Decline in mail volumes will continue. ● End-of-fiscal-year 2020 volume is trending to be 10-20% below SPLY. ● Return of volume not expected until FY 2022. ● Post-pandemic volume is initially projected to be 25% below pre-pandemic.

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First-Class Mail ● There is a decline in single-piece mailing by individuals. ● There is a low proportion of discretionary mailings (recurring bills and statements). ● More are transitioning to electronic formats.

Periodicals ● Very little discretionary volume (samples, promotional) ● Scheduled distribution of subscriber/ requester copies

Marketing Mail ● High proportion of discretionary volume ● Advertising tied to retail and consumer activity ● Promotions unnecessary due to the closing of many businesses (stores, restaurants, etc.) ● N onprofit activity reflects ongoing/new need for donations.

Package Services/Competitive Services ● Parcel volume reflects loss of retail access. ● The permanence of an increase is uncertain if stores reopen.

Service Performance in 2020 Service impact began to be felt in PQ III (AprilJune) 2020 as discussed above. Even before the directives of the new PMG, the USPS was effectively managing an absenteeism rate 25% - 35% caused by the pandemic. Any reasonable person would expect this to dramatically affect service, and it has. The decline in service affected flats most dramatically and, as with mail in general, varied widely throughout the country by district. Since the Senate hearings, and the PMG vowing to suspend the initiatives discussed until after the election, the industry has seen an improvement in service. The surge of election-related mail for this year’s elections across the country and many different political offices, especially in battleground states, has resulted in increased mail volume for the USPS, which decreases the overall lost volume for their FY20. The USPS has implemented “critical processing” of all election mail throughout their organization.

This has led to improved service and delivery.

Key Facts ● 2.5 Days Average Delivery Time Since Oct. 1, the average time of delivery for First-Class mail, including ballots, was 2.5 days with 97.5% of all measured First-Class mail delivered within five days across the country. ● 4.5 Billion Political and Election Mail pieces Total mail volume surpassed 4.5 billion mail pieces for both political and election mail tracked, representing an increase of 114% compared to the 2016 election cycle. ● 122 Million Ballots Processed and Delivered Since Sept. 4, the Postal Service has processed and delivered more than 122 million ballots, including both blank ballots delivered from election officials to voters, and completed ballots from voters to election officials. “While our ongoing commitment is to maintain the highest level of service performance for all mail, we acknowledge that our full focus and prioritization on election ballots is having a nearterm impact on the overall on-time performance of other products throughout the network,” said Kristin Seaver, chief retail and delivery officer of the Postal Service. “Additionally, we are actively engaging with our Read More… management teams and union Find article at PrintingNews. leadership to ensure we have the com/21147989 right level of staffing and oversight given the increased impacts of COVID-19, and our unwavering commitment to keeping employees and customers safe.” The commercial mailing industry continues to have an uphill climb to get to any type of solvency. What will be critical for mailers in the coming year is to manage their businesses with critical planning and cash/debt management. As everyone, including our clients, adapts to the situation at hand, we all realize that nobody has a crystal ball to know what the future holds. My best advice is to be patient and kind while continuing to maintain relationships, control costs and support and help clients deliver their critical communications. Recover and rebuild stronger together. ●

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INDUSTRIAL PRINTING ─ Printed Electronics

PRINTED ELECTRONICS High value, high touch

rom life-saving medical devices and rapid COVID-19 tests, to dashboards and musical instruments, printed electronics are a high-value opportunity. To exploit the opportunity requires high touch engineering and customer support. Are you up to the challenge? The market for printed electronics is sizable and experiencing substantial growth. Last year, conductive inks, used for a wide range of applications, generated $2.9 billion in revenue, while printed and flexible sensors came in at $3.9 billion, according to IDTechEx. The researchers project the total market for printed, flexible and organic electronics will grow from $41.2 billion in 2020 to $74 billion in 2030, a 6.0% CAGR. Printed electronics are electronic devices produced with digital or analog printing technologies. The parts may be fully functional conductors, semiconductors, resistors, dielectrics and optical materials. Inks with material including metallic conductors, nanoparticles and nanotubes are printed one layer on top of another. The finished parts are then incorporated into larger systems ranging from biosensors and RFID labels to apparel and wall coverings. Often high-value products, printed electronics require a degree of engineering and technical skill beyond what is necessary for ink on paper printing. The effort requires more time and engineering expertise than many printing companies have or want to dedicate to it. One technology provider that is not shy about the market, Avery Dennison (USA), has more than 1,700 RFID patents. In 2019, revenue from its RFID products and solutions grew by more than 20%,

generating roughly $365 million. The company is developing a $500+ million revenue platform, which it expects will grow 15-20% annually. In addition to its estimated 50%+ share of the RFID market in the apparel industry, Avery Dennison sees early-stage RFID developments in food, beauty, aviation and logistics. Printed electronics have been an integral part of the global response to Covid-19. SPG Prints (The Netherlands) manufactures rotary screen presses and mesh screens that printers use to produce a wide range of products, ranging from wine labels to flexible solar panels. Hank Guitjens, commercial manager of Label Printing and Industrial Applications, notes that many clients transition from flat-bed to rotary screen printing by integrating SPG’s rotary screen integration (RSI) units on a narrow-web press. A pharmaceutical manufacturer approached SPG as part of its quest to develop a rapid response COVID-19 test. Working with their anonymous client, SPG integrated their RSI III narrow-web print unit with the client’s manufacturing system to produce the multilayer strips inline (figure 1). One RSI III unit was required for each layer with a quality assurance system between units to monitor

Figure 1. RSI III Unit (Source: SPG Prints)

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print registration and laydown. SPG Print’s design achieved higher output and greater accuracy than the client expected, supporting its worldwide rollout of the COVID-19 rapid response test strips. Among the printers who have ventured into printed electronics is Classic Stripes Private Limited (India), a global leader in “surface augmentation solutions” for the automotive, consumer durables and appliance industries. The company provides printed electronics production services ranging from design development to manufacturing in-house. Classic Stripes’ offerings include: ● Flexible Piezoresistive sensing solutions for a variety of applications such as force/pressure sensors, touch sensing wall switches and temperature detection sensors ● Ultra-thin and flexible electroluminescent solutions, which include illuminated decals and 3D badging as well as multi-channel programmable signage ● Capacitive sensing solutions for a variety of applications, including instrument/device touch panels In addition to printed electronics (thin, flexible sensing and illumination solutions, touch interfaces), the company also produces OEM decals, badging, automotive cluster dials and appliance fascia. Musical instruments may not appear to be a likely market unless you are Tangio Printed Electronics (Canada). Tangio is a global provider of human-machine interface (HMI) products such as labels, membrane switches, force-sensing resistors and, yes, colorful musical instruments such as the LUMI keyboard, which TIME named one of the best educational-tech inventions of 2019. Tangio introduced its Multi-Touch NEO platform in November 2019. Sensor, hardware electronics interface and firmware make it possible for Tangio’s customers to quickly develop and deploy threedimensional interfaces that detect multiple touchpoints with simultaneous position (X-Y) and force (Z). Existing multi-touch solutions are typically enabled by capacitive sensing that cannot offer multi-finger detection with independent force reported on each touch. Multi-Touch NEO supports use with gloved

hands and under multiple cover materials, including metals as well as 3D gestures. While printed electronics is a viable market for printing companies desiring a more significant share of their existing customers’ business or to employ excess capacity, there are substantial barriers to entry, including large and well-established vendors. Colin Page, Development Processing & Design project manager, notes that Tangio developed proprietary Read More… production and testing equipFind article at PrintingNews. ment, enabling it to produce as com/21147792 few as 10 parts for its clients. But in the end, as Page said, success in the printed electronics market “comes down to customer service and engineering support.” Successful entry into the printed electronics market will depend on your ability to develop new or leverage existing strengths in: ● Programming software and design for printed electronics techniques ● I nk development, modification and print quality ● Substrate performance and ink laydown characteristics ● Operating commercially available equipment and modifying it as needed ● Test and quality assurance equipment including proprietary tools Lastly, bear in mind that the large corporations likely to use printed electronics are reluctant to have just one vendor provide anything they purchase. Your operations must have the capacity and ability to quickly recover from any interruption, including having a partner who is available on standby. Unlike many traditional printing markets, printed electronics is substantial and growing, making an analysis of your near- and long-term opportunities worthwhile. ●

Pete Basiliere provides research-based insights on 3D printing and digital-printing hardware, software and materials, best practices, go-tomarket strategies and technology trends.

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW ─ Customer Service

THE FUTURE OF PRINT CUSTOMER SERVICE

Like an ATM machine, but better By Jennifer Matt

ack in 2017, Harvard Business Review estimated “...the cost of a do-it-yourself [customer service] transaction is measured in pennies, while the average cost of a live service interaction (phone, email or webchat) is more than $7 for a B2C

company and more than $13 for a B2B company.” Print businesses don’t typically break down the cost per “customer interaction” in the carpeted area of their businesses. This level of detailed costing is reserved for the print manufacturing floor. I have discussed this topic widely

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with print business owners. They assume they have a sunk cost in head count in customer service and then return their focus to shaving off minutes in finishing or buying a press with inline finishing to increase both their capacity and profitability. Customer service is changing because

the customer is changing. “Eighty-one percent of all customers attempt to take care of matters themselves before reaching out to a live representative,” according to the Harvard Business Review. This of course assumes the company the customer is buying from has a way for a customer to solve their own issues. Today, with most print businesses, the only place a customer can look in order to solve their own issues is their inbox or their voicemail. Most print businesses have no self-service tools for the majority of their customers. A print customer can’t go look at their full order history online. A print customer can’t look at all the approved artwork their print vendor has for them online. A print customer can’t download an invoice, or pay an invoice by credit card, for example. Print customers have to use full service as their only option. This means that print companies have to staff labor to answer every customer question at the cost of more than $13 per question (in 2017 dollars). You have to have customer service, so, again, why focus on it? The global pandemic has pushed lots of customers into the digital self-service world. Think of COVID-19 as the digital laggard accelerator. All those people who insisted on walking into the bank for every transaction have now migrated to digital banking. Do you think when COVID-19 recedes, they will go back to walking into the bank? Not likely. Your customer service team has to be working across channels, and the channel of email and phone are still relevant, but you can’t continue to resist the customer’s preference for self service. The primary reason is that you’re denying the preference of some of your

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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW ─ Customer Service

customers. The secondary reason is that to remain competitive you have to be able to drive the cost per customer service transaction down. When you integrate self-service tools into your business, your customer service team can evolve from a reactive customer service group (passively reacting to requests) to a proactive customer success team. You won’t get rid of your customer service team; you will elevate their role to be more strategic. This is critical for you and your customer service team to understand. Technology will not steal their jobs. Without self-service tools, your customer service team doesn’t have the time to engage in “customer success”— they are too busy fielding every question from the customer. I always use the bank ATM model to help ease the fear of change in a customer service department. Customers

will be able to do simple things without your help, but will still need you for the harder things. You will have more time to help your customers with the harder things, because the easier things will be off your plate. Step back and think about your business from your customer’s perspective. If they are working from home after hours, what options do they have to engage with you? Is the only option to send an email and wait until morning? Have you created a business that only functions when fully staffed? If so, it’s time to give your customers an online channel where they can answer some easy questions and perform some simple tasks without your customer service team being directly involved. ●

Jennifer Matt writes, speaks, and consults with printers worldwide who realize their ability to leverage software is critical to their success in the Information Age.

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MANAGEMENT ─ Prospecting

THERE’S GOLD IN THOSE HILLS Are you – or your salespeople – doing enough prospecting?

hear a lot of talk about wanting to make more money, but I don’t see as much action toward making it happen. There’s a simple equation at work here – more money requires more customers! Yes, you can make more money by increasing sales with current customers, but there’s a risk attached to that strategy. The bigger they get, the more if hurts if you lose them. So, if you want to make more money – and minimize the risk of making less – you should probably do more prospecting.

Skills and Attitudes Obviously there are skills involved in effective prospecting, but I think it all starts with attitude. The following five statements represent the attitude that I would like you to have. I do want to make more money (or minimize the risk of making less.) I will make time to prospect for new customers. I won’t get discouraged if I don’t get immediate gratification. I will identify and pursue worthwhile prospects. I won’t lose sight of my goals. This all begs the question, “Is prospecting fun?” In my experience, parts of it are, but most of it isn’t. That begs another question: “What is prospecting anyway?” Here’s my definition: Prospecting is an activity chain that begins with the identification of suspect companies, and ends with the first meeting between the buyer and the seller. The term “suspect” refers to a company that’s not yet a qualified prospect, and here’s what that means. In order to be considered a fully qualified prospect, you have to know – not just think or hope – that they: buy, want or need exactly the kind of printing you sell, and need enough of it to make them worthwhile. Prospecting is all about getting to that first meeting. Which is fun, right? The meetings are anyway. It’s the work you have to do to get the meeting that’s usually not fun, especially considering that most of your suspects will decline to meet with you, or even return your phone calls and emails. That’s

why it’s so important to have a strong prospecting attitude.

Critical Skills What skills are required to be effective at prospecting? The first two are analytic skills, the ability to identify good market niches and to calculate a suspect’s annual volume potential. The next one is a research skill, the ability to identify the decisionmaker and the rest of the players. The next two are communication and convincing skills, the ability to craft and deliver an introductory message and to deal with a number of predictable early-stage objections. The last one is an organizational skill, which leads to another important attitude statement: “I won’t let any new business development opportunities fall through the cracks!”

Beyond Prospecting

Looking beyond prospecting, I Find article at PrintingNews. like to say that the first meeting is com/21147756 the end of the prospecting stage, the beginning of the convincing stage and the heart of the opportunity stage. The opportunity part is really important. You must understand that most of your first meetings will be held with suspects. In other words, you won’t know when you fist sit down with them whether they’re fully qualified prospects. So the main part of the agenda is to qualify. Remember that being willing to meet with you is often a long way from being ready to buy from you, so the first meeting is your opportunity to learn exactly how you can differentiate yourself from the printer-in-place. So, are you really doing enough? ●

Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact him at dmf@davefellman.com.

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EXECUTIVE Q&A ─ Xaar

EXECUTIVE Q&A:

JOHN MILLS, CEO OF XAAR Talking about the new strategy, the new platform and the “new Xaar.” By Richard Romano

ohn Mills became CEO of printhead manufacturer Xaar in 2019 after five years as CEO of Inca Digital. After a year or so of under-the-radar R&D and business planning, Xaar is now in the process of reinventing and rebranding itself, as well as launching the new ImagineX platform, which the company hopes will power Xaar products for the next 30 years. I spoke to John Mills about the new strategy, the new platform and the “new Xaar.” WhatTheyThink: We had last met at FESPA Berlin in 2018 when you were still at Inca Digital. What subsequently attracted you to Xaar? John Mills: Xaar is actually about four miles from Inca [in Cambridge, UK] and during my time at Inca Digital, we never bought a Xaar printhead. We were very aware of the fundamental benefits of Xaar printheads, but there were things in the technology which stopped us from using them. So when I came in [to Xaar], the opportunity was, what if we could actually fix the reasons why I wouldn’t have bought a Xaar printhead but retain all of the stuff that would make me buy a Xaar printhead? It’s really been the opportunity to do that. WTT: What were some of those reasons for and against using a Xaar head? JM: OEMs want to do a range of

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fluids, and Xaar couldn’t do aqueous ink. Wide-format graphics now is largely UV. Users need to be able to give the nozzle plate a good clean, and to do that you need to have a robust nozzle plate, which Xaar printheads didn’t have. Also, in terms of the speed of the printheads, we needed to make them faster and we needed to print at higher resolutions. The great thing is that we John Mills can actually fix all of those things, and I’m pretty excited that we’re going to be able to deliver a printhead that also retains all of the things that make Xaar technology uniquely beneficial. WTT: The last five years have been a bit of a challenge for Xaar. What led to the need for a new strategy? JM: I think a lot of it concerned some of the decisions around the business model, but also the focus that Xaar had on thin film. Xaar is a good-sized company, but to develop a MEMS head requires a significant financial undertaking. If you’re going to do it, you need to focus and make sure you throw everything at it. And that’s what Xaar did. It managed to develop the 5601 on a

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budget of around £70 million or $100 million. Xaar did incredibly well to get a great product for such a relatively small amount of money, but the harsh reality was that it was hard to sustain that level of investment—about £20 million a year—for a market which really just hasn’t materialized in a way that sustains that level of investment. Thin film is predominantly a kind of a water-based packaging type of printhead, and that market just hasn’t arrived in any real meaningful volume. So we were forced to shut it down—we tried to sell it but couldn’t, not because the technology didn’t work— it absolutely did—but everyone who looked at it concluded that the market wasn’t there. Now, the consequence of that single-minded focus on thin film was that everything else got pushed to the side. The core bulk development was ignored and the markets in which the bulk products would go into were largely ignored. When we shut thin film down, it was almost like we took out the reason Xaar had existed for the last five years. Everyone looked around and said, well,

what’s left? There was also a huge amount of confusion in the market about what Xaar’s technology was, because we also sold other people’s printheads as ours. I talked to many OEMs I had known before I joined Xaar and the feedback was very clear about how they felt about Xaar, and it was relatively negative. So we needed to do a few things, but first of all, we needed to be very clear about our business, who we are, and what we’re going to do. WTT: So you laid low for a year or so and retooled everything. JM: We kind of kept our powder dry for a year, fixed the business model, and we’ve got a clear product roadmap. We’re focused on selling our own printheads. We needed to have a very clear visualization of what our technology is and where it’s going, hence the ImagineX platform. The OEMs that we’d lost because they got confused about who we were have come back to us now, and we’ve regained share in some of our key markets, like ceramics. We’re now in a much stronger position. That’s why the

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MANAGEMENT ─ How To Thrive

PRINT RESOLUTIONS Start doing these three things to thrive in 2021.

hen we began 2020, I made three recommendations. It was essentially the list of things to stop doing in 2020, and it went like this: 1. Stop accepting jobs that lack complete specifications, including substrate, finishing and delivery requirements. 2. Stop using freeware and apps downloaded from the internet in your core business processes.

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3. Stop letting sales team members dictate discounts. That list generated some discussion, but the consensus was that it was sound guidance for 2020. Then 2020 turned into a different type of year. There were more requirements to work remotely while trying to handle either too much or too little business. The folks who had already invested in comprehensive job onboarding solutions and significant workflow automation were better positioned to roll with partial and full lockdowns, remote working and

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limited access to print facilities. Many who resisted steps toward automation found it harder to sell and deliver. The take-away from the end of last year is that those who built internaland external-facing digital storefronts and paired them to some automation for pre-flighting, prep and production were better set up to survive the uncertainty the year brought. Clearly, some print companies did not survive. Some in-plants had to send their work out and close and may not know when they can re-open. Other in-plants and PSPs were able to survive, and still others thrived. Regardless of where you are on the continuum, if you are looking at thriving in 2021, here are three things to start doing now: 1. Review your web-to-print capabilities. 2. Automate job pre-flighting. 3. Tie production and business workflows together. Let’s look at each in more detail. Review your web-to-print capabilities to ensure that you are capturing the data you need to avoid follow-up phone calls and emails. If you don’t have a web-to-print environment built, talk to your current MIS and ERP vendors, as well as your hardware vendors, to get recommendations. The best web-to-print systems allow you to validate order specifications and tie orders to dashboards to provide a clear view of your ability to execute the order and raise red flags if inventory or scheduling poses any challenges. Pre-flighting is more than running your favorite tool. It should be a process that is

executed several times during the workflow, and it may be prudent to look at optimization tools as an additional aid. Review the tools you have and discover how they are being used (or not!). Most preflight and optimization tools can be automated to ensure that arriving files can be processed and will flag those that present challenges. Making it a point to rerun files later in the workflow can catch any anomalies arising from fixing files ahead of production. If you have a great production workflow and a great business workflow, this is the time to make sure that the two workflows are working synergistically and not at odds with each other. Does your business workflow know about changes required during production that are chargeable? Can you easily see if completed work is delivered and invoiced? These seem like obvious things, but so many print shops grow their workflows independently, so it isn’t unusual to find that the business and production workflows “know” different things. As you begin 2021, look for those things that will help you grow and thrive. The print business may continue on a roller coaster as we move through the first half of the year, but that makes it a great time to tune your workflows and ensure you are getting the most from each of your systems. These are the top three. Tell me what you will add in 2021! Send them to me at pcm@mcgrewgroup.com or add them to the comments! ●

Read More… Find article at PrintingNews. com/21147895

Pat McGrew has more than three decades as an evangelist for technology in communication. She is an author and regular writer in the industry trade press.

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PRINTING INDUSTRY NEWS ─ News Trending On Printingnews.com OKI Data Reinforces Position with New OEM Partnership

Domtar Corporation Announces Sale of Personal Care Business to American Industrial Partners for $920 Million Domtar Corporation announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Personal Care business to American Industrial Partners (AIP) for $920 million. The sale of Domtar’s Personal Care business represents the culmination of a process announced on August 7, 2020, during which the Company undertook a comprehensive strategic review of value-creating alternatives for the business. With this sale, Domtar is reinforcing its focus on building an industry-leading Paper, Pulp and Packaging company to deliver long-term shareholder value. www.printingnews.com/21147816

OKI Data Corporation has announced a direct OEM partnership that will continue sales and support of OKI Digital Transfer printers and consumables for North, Central and South American markets. The OKI Pro9541WT and Pro8432WT printers will be relaunched with a new brand name in late Spring 2021, additional product announcements are planned for later in the year. The new brand will continue to be “Powered by OKI Technology” offering the same white toner technology and decorating versatility that has made OKI one of the most recognized names in the market today. The new brand will be unveiled in late Spring 2021. For distribution, sales and support, Imaging Supplies Warehouse (ISW) will continue as master distributor of the new brand, as well as legacy OKI parts and consumables. www.printingnews.com/21147818

Keystone and Henkel to Launch New 3D Dental Modeling Resin As part of their ongoing collaboration for 3D printing applications in the dental industry, Keystone Industries and Henkel have developed KeyModel Ultra. This next generation of 3D dental modeling resin offers a new level of accuracy, detail, and speed. KeyModel Ultra is formulated for rapid printing and fast post curing and is also designed to reduce peel forces, which increases print accuracy. KeyModel Ultra does not require release agents for thermoforming aligners and other devices. Its flawless detail ensures that all thermoformed devices fit perfectly, and it can be carved without chipping to adjust the model when needed. www.printingnews.com/21147915

KORSCH AND MEDELPHARM Partner to Introduce R&D Equipment Portfolio KORSCH AG has announced a strategic partnership with MEDELPHARM to introduce a new portfolio of equipment geared to R&D-stage production. Leveraging the companies’ combined 135-plus years of experience with smallscale, fully instrumented machines, the R&D product portfolio addresses and overcomes longstanding challenges, from early stage powder characterization and formulation development to scale-up and production support. Covering the full spectrum of tableting technology from single-layer to five-layer as well as core coating capabilities, the new R&D product equipment portfolio serves as a versatile complement to KORSCH’s multi-layer production machinery. Notably, the STYL’One Evo offers the ability to simulate all high-speed production presses to predict product performance with minimal material quantities. To support worldwide distribution, KORSCH will offer the fully combined R&D product equipment lineup on a global basis with the exception of France and Belgium. www.printingnews.com/21147857

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Global Graphics PLC completes acquisition of HYBRID Software Group Global Graphics PLC announces that it has successfully completed its acquisition of the HYBRID Software Group from Congra Software following the passing of a shareholder resolution at a General Meeting held in January 2021. The acquisition roughly doubles the size of the Global Graphics group of companies in terms of headcount, expanding the global workforce to around 250 people. It adds several more operating locations to the group through HYBRID Software’s offices in Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France and the USA. Global Graphics is dedicated to developing software and hardware solutions for graphics and industrial inkjet printing and has earned a reputation for innovation, with several of its companies being recognized with prestigious industry awards and, in the case of both Meteor Inkjet and Global Graphics Software, with the coveted Queen’s Award for Enterprise. It will continue to be a key supplier of original equipment manufacturer technology and, through HYBRID Software’s domain expertise in labels and packaging, a customer-focussed supplier of solutions for print service providers and converters as well as OEMs. Together with Global Graphics Software and other technology components for digital printing, the Global Graphics group offers the market a compelling stack of solutions for graphics and industrial inkjet printing. www.printingnews.com/21147982

Fathom Optics Introduces Light Field Technology Software Platform Fathom Optics (formerly Lumii, Inc), has introduced a software platform that brings printed 3D and motion graphics to packaging without requiring specialty inks or substrates and without the need for additional materials, such as lenticulars or foils. Fathom Optics’ algorithmic technology leverages existing press innovations to add depth, motion and chromatic effects to a wide range of print applications including prime labels, shrink sleeves and product authentication. The software platform fits into standard design and prepress workflows. It is based on light field technology, originally developed for digital 3D displays, and currently works with offset and narrow and mid-web printing. The company also plans to expand to digital and other applications in the near future. Fathom’s platform was designed from the ground up to fit into existing packaging design and prepress workflows. Designers can apply effects to PDFs as they would with spot colors, either using the company’s design portal or its custom Adobe Illustrator plug-in. They can then visualize their creations interactively in 3D and share these 3D designs with collaborators. www.printingnews.com/21148068

Flint Group Consolidation of Flexographic Prepress Adds Value for Flexo and Letterpress Customers Flint Group has formed a new division, XSYS, which combines Flint Group Flexographic and Xeikon Prepress into a single Flint Group division, led by Dagmar Schmidt as President. From using innovative materials and technologies to create flexographic plates, to plate processors with a minimal environmental footprint, to software solutions that help automate and control the entire flexographic prepress process. www.printingnews.com/21148038

Meech Announces Launch Of Smartcontrol Touch: The Latest Static Control Monitoring Solution For Modern Automated Industries Meech has formally unveiled its newest remote monitoring solution, SmartControl Touch. An advancement of Meech’s SmartControl device – the new unit allows users to monitor, control and adjust the performance of multiple connected Hyperion ionising bars and sensors via an integrated touchscreen; or remotely via a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop. SmartControl Touch has the capacity to connect up to six devices, with an additional 12 per expansion unit. In total, SmartControl Touch can monitor and control up to 30 devices. Fast and easy installation means SmartControl Touch can fit in seamlessly with operations. www.printingnews.com/21148019

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WATCH LIST ─ Videos Trending On Printingnews.com

Xeikon’s Stefan Clopterop on fleXflow David Zwang talks with Stefan Clopterop, Segment Manager, Labels and Packaging, Xeikon, about the Xeikon fleXflow digital pouch production solution. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21146926

EFI Reggiani BOLT Wins an InterTech Award Adele Genoni, General Manager of EFI Reggiani, talks to Cary Sherburne about EFI Reggiani’s BOLT being awarded an InterTech Award. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147210

Duggal Visual Solutions: “We Try to Be Involved in Every Way Our Customers Communicate Visually” David Zwang talks to Michael Duggal, CEO of Duggal Visual Solutions. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147170

Canon’s Crit Driessen on the Labelstream 4000 Installation at Germany’s Oschatz Visuelle Medien Crit Driessen about the installation of the first LabelStream 4000 series digital label press. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21146925

Todd Bigger on PRINERGY On Demand Business Solutions: “Not Your Father’s PRINERGY” Todd Bigger, VP of Software and Services for Kodak, talks about the new iteration of PRINERGY On Demand. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147389

Mimaki Brings Digital Textile Printing Versatility to North America with Hybrid Fabric Printer Victoria Harris, Textile Specialist at Mimaki USA, discusses the Mimaki TX300P-1800 MKII hybrid printer. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147211

How ISAIC Is Moving the Textiles Industry Forward Jennifer Guarino, CEO and Chair of the Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center (ISAIC), explains the multitude of programs the organization has in place. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21146829

APTech and Innovatis Group Join Forces to Better Serve the Industry Thayer Long and Eric Hawkinson explain APTech’s partnership with Innovatis Group. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147118

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FOW #535: The Closed Gate 4 Unique Ways The Closed Gate 4 Unique Ways. Trish Witkowski shares her super-cool folding samples and helpful production tips. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147414

Mimaki’s Mike Maxwell Shares Update on Mimaki Solutions for Signs/Display Graphics Mimaki offers a broad portfolio of solutions for the sign and display graphics market. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147426

Shutterfly and HP Discuss Recent Landmark Agreement for Indigo Digital Press Rollout Cary Sherburne speaks with Dwayne Black and Haim Levit about their landmark agreement for digital presses. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147424

Domanda Lets Consumers Apply Professional Designs to Almost Anything Domanda is an online store that enables consumers to use professional designs on a wide range of home goods. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147828

Kasper Tomshoj on PrintVis’s Partnership with Kodak David Zwang talks to Kasper Tomshoj, CEO of PrintVis, about the company’s almost 25-year history as an MIS provider for the printing and packaging industry. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147880

Warren Werbitt Goes Printer to Printer with Ace Designs’ Sheri Robertson Warren talks with Sheri Robertson, VP of Awesome! for Ace Designs. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21147933

Security Printing: A Tricky Business Jim Fleet, CEO of Ashton Potter, talks about how security printing differs from other types of printing in this interview by Senior Editor Cary Sherburne. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21148100

COVID-19 and the Shift in Packaging Requirements Mike Scrutton, Adobe’s Director of Print Technologies and Strategy, shares his thoughts on changes in packaging, for both brands and converters. Find video here: www.printingnews.com/21148041

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MANAGEMENT ─ Data-driven Business

WIELD THE DATA SWORD How to use the growing "datasphere" to your advantage.

s oil was the commodity that powered the success of the Industrial Revolution, so data is exponentially powering the age of digital transformation and connectivity, referred to as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Remember when data stored in gigabytes seemed large? Due to the astonishing accumulation of data in our connected world we are now measuring the global digital datasphere in terms of zettabytes (ZB), which are the equivalent of one trillion gigabytes, and yottabytes, which are 1000 zettabytes (no, this is not a “Star Wars” spin-off). In fact, the annual size of the global digital datasphere is predicted to grow from an estimated 44ZB in 2020 to 175ZB in 2025. Bringing this closer to our own operating reality, on average each day in 2020, 306 billion emails were sent, and five billion searches were made. I’ll do the math for you: That’s nearing 112 trillion emails in one year! The data growth rates on all things digital is staggering and in many instances, business sectors are only gaining momentum. The print industry has acutely experienced the pace of change wrought by the attrition of technology and digital transformation. Like any great industry, print has disaggregated in some segments (remember carbon interleaved forms?) and reaggregated in other, chiefly digital, segments. A key

result of the growth in digital capabilities from customer-facing storefronts to connected production devices is the rampant accumulation of data. More than any other era in the print industry’s lifespan, companies have access to massive amounts of actionable data. The successful curation of the data spring-

Source: HCG, Inc.

ing from your business operating systems has the potential to unearth rich clues for improved growth and performance. However, it can be a daunting task to know where to start and where to stop. “Analysis paralysis” is a genuine concern when opening the data flood-gates. Yet, a balanced approach to metrics and analytics and understanding how to apply them in your business is critical to

Preston Herrin is a strategy, growth, and performance consultant. He has served in c-level and senior leadership roles at fast-growth companies like 4over LLC, Café Press, and Drummond. In his 30-year career Preston’s roles span strategy, business development and executive management providing e-commerce, software, logistics and service solutions for all vertical markets such as Manufacturing, Finance, Healthcare, Nonprofits and more.

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advancing a data-driven culture and galvanizing a new agility. To better understand the measurement and analysis of data, it is important to clearly define these terms since they are used interchangeably in most businesses. First, “metrics” are collections of data that answer the “what” of measurement. Important metrics are defined and tracked as Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and Critical Success Factors (CSF’s). Second, “analytics” is the analysis, interpretation and comparison of metrics that answer the “so what” of measurement in order to reach a conclusion and make informed decisions. Analytics are the gateway to actionable insight from which management is empowered to take action. Most companies today Source: PWC; Strategy+Business will trumpet the narrative that they are a data-driven business. Well, who isn’t? We’ve established the fact that businesses are swimming in a riptide of data. The real question is: How are you advancing a data-driven culture that translates information into insight and then meaningful action? As an encouragement to harness the power of the data that is native to your business operating systems, here are a few key benefits to instilling a thoughtful metrics capture and analytics culture into your company in 2021.

Slay Uncertainty, Not Profitability In the absence of meaningful metrics and analytics, business owners and leadership are prone to make decisions by feel, instinct and opinion borne out of experience. While experience plays an important undercurrent role, this style of decision making is impossible to successfully scale. Uncertainty often lurks in the minds of your workforce as a

result of being “told” a direction versus “shown” the decision-making logic. These same people are likely already compiling their own data and applying it to their functions. Your team may be investing hours (or days) in consuming siloed data which may be inaccurate and leading to ill-informed decisions, the cost of which is high and difficult to quantify. This can be a source of great frustration for leader-

ship and discontent for the team members who are doing their best to gain insight with the information available. As with many important new processes, it is often the start that stops most people. Take heart, the process for advancing a true data-driven culture is relatively uncomplicated. It is a natural business maturation process where all organizations find themselves somewhere on the “The Information Maturity Scale.” As a practical starting point and to climb the scale and remove uncertainty from decision making, have your department leaders conduct a simple exercise of defining transactional and performance data that is imperative to their operations. Next, identify the key performance Indicators that need to be tracked at regular intervals (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly). Present these metrics needs to your technology team in Continued on page 62

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MANAGEMENT ─ Improve Business Prospects For The Long Term

LESSONS LEARNED FROM A NON-PROFIT Turning pandemic response into long-term success

ot every printer can develop a new proofing solution or create 100% automated, touchless production. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make changes that improve your ability to weather the pandemic and be successful. I think about Beachmont Christian Ministries, where my husband works. It’s not a printing company, but I often draw on its example because sometimes we can better “get” the lessons from organizations outside our industry. What I’ve watched Beachmont do through the pandemic is, to me, a perfect example of what to do well, and I hope there are lessons that our industry can take. Beachmont’s mission is to serve children and their families through summer camps and a variety of sports and other family-friendly programming. When my husband joined the staff, Beachmont had been in operation for 40+ years, largely doing business the way it had always been done. As you can imagine, the business model that worked starting in the 1970s–2010s needed some updating. The board of directors hired my husband three years ago to bring in a new vision for the future. They called it “Beachmont Better.” The first step was to assess what was already great about Beachmont and identify the things that would bring about needed change. 1. Bring in the specialists. Beachmont already had an outstanding team, but in order to go forward, it needed to add new

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skill sets. For years, Beachmont had relied on its dedicated staff to handle increasingly specialized tasks that had gradually outgrown the ability of non-specialists to do them. Now it needed to make new hires, but there was risk, since its pre-Beachmont-Better revenue stream did not support an expanded staff. But my husband saw this challenge as “strategic investment” rather than “spending money.” If the right people were hired, he argued, these staff would not only pay for themselves over time but would help Beachmont reinvent and retool in ways that would support its growth well into the future. Beachmont now has specialists in key areas who have magnified the organization’s effectiveness exponentially. What staffing and new areas of expertise do you need to add in order to support today’s market needs? 2. Revamp the infrastructure. The physical infrastructure at Beachmont was aging, and the volume of use of the campus had grown exponentially over the years. If Beachmont was going to continue to serve the community with excellence, it needed to make significant investments, including upgrades in facilities, IT and telecommunications. Some of these upgrades were “face to the public” while others related to efficiency, security and long-term function, such as focusing on multi- (rather than single) use. All of these investments supported Beachmont’s core mission, whether directly or indirectly. There would be growing pains, but the pay-off would be that Beachmont would have the base infrastructure to serve the needs of the ministry not just

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now, but well into the future. The old way just didn’t work anymore. What outdated infrastructure are you hanging onto? Which legacy systems still lurk in your workflow and undermine your ability to fully support the types of workflows and applications you know that you need? 3. Reimagine the programming. For Beachmont to truly serve the community, its programming had to be reviewed with a critical eye. It couldn’t be everything to everybody. It had to determine which programs were most closely aligned with its mission and which best served the community. Non-aligned programs were not just under-utilized, but they were draining the organization’s ability to support its core programs. As difficult as it was, Beachmont had to be willing to shut down certain programs, even if it had been part of the organization’s programming for years. What services do you still have that aren’t truly aligned with your company’s core value proposition and that need to be eliminated in order to free up resources that can be better utilized elsewhere?

Enter the Pandemic In the midst of these changes, enter the COVID19 pandemic. Most summer camps in our area closed down for the season. By being willing to make hard choices, Beachmont stayed open. Some of these required no capital or staffing resources at all. BCM simply had to be willing to challenge the status quo and think differently about the resources it already had. For example, in addition to strictly enforcing the need to follow the CDC and state requirements even though doing so would often be inconvenient, the team reimagined the logistics to reduce group sizes, increase the number of outdoor activities, and find ways to lower or eliminate risk. Beachmont also changed its drop-off and pick-up procedures to minimize in-person interaction and maintain social distancing. While some of these changes did require more capital, many of them cost nothing, and although necessitated by the pandemic, vastly improved the camper and parent (aka “the decision-makers”) experience. As a

result, most will outlive the pandemic and become part of the new normal. As the pandemic extended into the fall, the same dynamic occurred with the Beachmont annual corn maze. Areas of the campus were reimagined. Certain facilities, such as portable restrooms, were relocated to eliminate congestion (and, in the process, moved to a more user-friendly location). A large push was made to move ticketing to e-tickets, streamlining the overall guest experience. The pandemic brought about challenges, but it also fast-tracked changes that ultimately benefitted the organization and everyone served by it. What at your printing company suffers from “this is the way we’ve always done it,” whether it’s the most efficient way Read More… to do it or not? Have you taken the Find article at time to interview your staff—at all PrintingNews. com/21148040 levels—to solicit input about bottlenecks and areas of needed change, as well as their ideas for fixing them? Note that while some of these changes required significant financial investment, many of them didn’t. Some cost nothing at all. What the pandemic did was stop Beachmont—as it did all businesses and organizations—in its tracks and forced the organization to take a hard look at how it was doing things and what needed to change. Beachmont took the opportunity and ran with it, vastly improving everything from staffing to infrastructure to programming. Ultimately, as my husband points out, everything ties back to and is filtered through Beachmont’s mission. When asked to read this article, he annotated in the margins: “What are your core customers telling you—directly and indirectly? How are you responding to what you hear?” What changes have you made to pandemic-proof your company and set it up for long-term success? I’d love to hear. ● Heidi Tolliver-Walker has been a commercial and digital printing industry analyst, feature writer, and author for more than 20 years. Her industry commentary can be found in national printing publications, blogs, and marketing publications.

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MANAGEMENT ─ Exit Interviews

NEW YEAR, NEW

ADVENTURES

Marc Olin, Ken Garner and Michael Makin make their exits - for now.

s a year wraps up and a new one begins, many people choose to make a new beginning. We spoke with three printing industry veterans who have done just that. While the three individuals we are recognizing here – Marc Olin, formerly COO at EFI; Michael Makin, former CEO of PIA and EVP at PRINTING United Alliance; and Ken Garner, formerly SVP for Content Creation at the Association for Print Technologies – are not the only printing professionals who are starting the new year with a new adventure, we wanted to give them special recognition for all of their contributions and years of service.

Michael Makin I’m pretty sure all of our readers know or have interacted with Michael Makin over the years. Back in 1995, he was President of the Canadian Printing Association, and then joined PIA in 2001 as COO, ultimately becoming CEO, a role he held Michael Makin for almost two decades. In May of 2020, he became Executive Vice President at PRINTING United Alliance, when PIA and PRINTING United Alliance completed their much expected merger. As we move into 2021, Makin takes a look back and a look ahead. Over the years, there have been several attempts at mergers of printing industry associations that have not made it over the finish line. Makin notes that

this one made the most sense, and the board agreed with him. Getting the merger done was not easy, but they persevered and made it happen. For the PIA Affiliates, Makin believes that the PRINTING United Alliance has many resources that will be made available to them beyond what PIA alone could do. “One of the greatest things we did, both before and after the merger,” Makin said, “was providing information to members about how to navigate the pandemic from an HR perspective, how to make their plants safer, and also great advice on how to access and use Federal government resources such as PPP. Thousands of printing companies came to rely on that information, particularly when it came to PPP and HR. It is in times of crisis like this that an association is most valuable.” As for Makin’s future plans, he’ll take some welldeserved time off to consider his options. He notes that he’s been working since he was 15 years old, so it’s time to smell the roses. “I’m happy to report that I am going to take time to take it easy, enjoy time with family and see what my future holds,” Makin said. “I think the organization [PRINTING United Alliance] is in phenomenal hands with Ford [Bowers]. He’s one of the brightest people I have ever had the privilege of working with, spot on vision about where they industry needs to go and has brought together a powerhouse team to deliver it.” Looking ahead for the industry, Makin agrees with Joel Quadracci’s assessment that this is the golden age of print – he referred to it as a renaissance of print – and pointed out that the fact that the associations were able to get print established as an essential business during the pandemic really

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speaks to its import. “We’re Zoomed out and deluged with electronic communications,” he said. “And it’s not just print anymore. Companies are adding other services like augmented reality and multichannel strategies that will embrace print. Print is not just the ‘oh, gee,’ it’s the ‘oh, my!’ I’m very bullish about the future.”

Marc Olin Marc Olin co-founded ProGraph in 1989 right out of college and has basically stayed with the same company through its many iterations since, through formation of PrintCafe and acquisition by EFI. Effective Dec. 1, 2020, Olin left EFI to explore his next chapter. Like Makin, he’s taking some time off to decide what’s next, but he is also keeping his toes in the water with a new company he established, Nilo Enterprises (Nilo is Olin spelled backward). The idea is to Marc Olin use the skills he developed over the years with EFI to help companies with ERP/MIS decisions, M&A, and with companies trying to go public or private, or to acquire or sell their businesses, in a consulting role. “It’s either that,” he said, “or spend my time practicing to qualify for the Senior PGA tour; but if you’ve seen my golf swing, you’ll know it’s a much safer bet to stick to consulting!” During his long tenure at EFI, Olin oversaw more than 25 acquisitions as the company significantly broadened its portfolio, from its primarily OEM-based business to a direct sales model with software and inkjet. Ultimately, Olin was serving as CFO

when EFI was acquired by Siris, and then migrated into the COO role. So he certainly had expertise in this area. He also clearly has a lot of expertise in the MIS/ERP area. I clearly remember when I first met Olin. It was at Seybold Boston in 1999 when the roll-up organization PrintCafe was announced. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what they were talking about, but it was clearly an important announcement. And there was a lot of drama associated with the company in the ensuing years, including a public battle between Creo and EFI to acquire PrintCafe. Olin described EFI as the “white knight” that helped them bring their vision to reality, “bringing digital technology to the industry to help move it from a craft industry to a more modern manufacturing industry. Software was part of that, but so Read More… was digital printing, and EFI was Find article at the perfect vehicle to allow that PrintingNews. com/21147658 to happen. It’s amazing that, 20 years later, much of our vision has been accomplished; and one of those original six company CEOs—Udi Arieli—was there the whole time with me at EFI, and he happens to be retiring this year as well.” He also gives a great deal of credit to then CEO of EFI, Guy Gecht. “People said we were crazy to go into the hardware business with the acquisition of VUTEk. Even the software business with PrintCafe was a big departure for EFI at the time. As a provider of Fiery solutions to OEMs, EFI only had to deal Continued on page 63 Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries.

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ CNC Routers

MAIN ROUTS Options for adding traditional signmaking capabilities

By Richard Romano

e mostly focus on the printing aspects of sign and display graphics, but there is an essential tool for signmaking that predates inkjet printers. Companies that are expanding into signmaking

should be aware of the capabilities these types of machines can offer your business. I’m speaking of course about CNC routers. When most of us see or hear the word “router,” we immediately think of the electronic device that provides WiFi to our home or office. That device

Find article at PrintingNews. com/21147956 derives its name from the verb “route,” as it is routing a signal. A “router” in the signage sense derives from the verb “rout,” which Merriam-Webster defines as “to gouge out or make a furrow in (something, such as wood or metal).” As for the initials CNC, they stand for “computer numerical control”—basically, the automated operating of these machines vs. hand tooling or carving. CNC routers are the modern equivalent of traditional woodworking.

Applications for Routers

An example of the kind of signage that a CNC router can produce. (Image via CAMaster.)

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Printed signage is actually a fairly new application; traditionally, signage tends to comprise channel letters or some kind of routing or milling capabilities. Routers are dominant in wayfinding signage as well as ADAcompliant signage—signs that use a combination of raised lettering and Braille (not all blind people read Braille and instead prefer relief lettering). There are two basic ways of adding routing capabilities to your arsenal of services: routing tools that can be attached to wide-format cutting tables and dedicated routing machines.

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AXYZ Infinite Series

Cutting Table Accessories Colex, Gerber, Kongsberg, Zünd and other cutting tables have a range of milling and routing tools, and even specific milling and routing units. So if you already have a cutting table, or have been considering one to handle other kinds of wide-format finishing, the tooling and accessories available for these machines may suit your purpose. If you plan to take a deep dive into traditional signmaking, a dedicated routing machine may be a more practical option.

signmakers—the highly configurable Infinite (which handles material widths from 28 to 128 inches) and the routerknife hybrid Trident Series. They also can custom manufacture bespoke units for specific signage requirements. CAMaster (www.camaster.

com), based in Cartersville, Ga., offers four basic series of routers, from the “desktop” Stinger 1 Series all the way up to the high-production Cobra Elite Series. For signage, they offer two units in their SignPro line: the affordable Panther SignPro and the high-production Cobra SignPro. The Panther is available in three table sizes: 4 x 8 feet, 5 x 8 feet, and 5 x 10 feet, while the Cobra is available in 5 x 8 feet and 5 x 10 feet. Laguna Tools (https://lagunatools.com) based in Irvine, Calif., offers a few options for signmaking, from the “desktop” IQ Series designed for small-scale and hobbyist production to the larger and more productive Swift Series. ShopSabre (www.shopsabre.com), based in Irvine, Calif., produces routing machines for

Routing Machines There are a number of routing machine manufacturers who have units specifically designed for the requirements of signmaking. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but is a good place to start to find a solution that fits your specific needs. AXYZ (www.axyz.com), based in Burlington, Ontario, has two CNC router series targeted to

CAMaster’s SignPro Cobra.

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ CNC Routers

Laguna Tools’ Swift Series.

a wide variety of applications, from hobbyists, to signmaking, to high-end industrial production. The three models in the IS-M Series offers high production and versatility at an affordable cost (around $50,000, depending on configuration and accessories), while the three models in the PRO Series are an even more affordable option (~$25,000 to $30,000). The two units in the entry-level RC Series can be had for under $20,000.

Things to Look for in a Router Routers are designed to cut and mill a wide variety of materials in a wide variety of industries, so the first question to ask

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yourself when shopping for a router is, what do you want to use it for? Sure, “signage,” but that can mean a lot of things. Is it ADA signage? Channel letters? Raised signage? Engraved signage? Some units do remarkably specific things, while others (often also called milling machines) have more multifunction capabilities. What kinds of materials or substrates will you be cutting? Wood? Metal? Acrylic? Plastic? Foam? Different bits (the parts that do the actual cutting and carving) are suitable for different materials, so make sure you have substrate flexibility if you need it. Do you also need it to perform any other functions, like

print finishing? What size do you need? Will you be doing small, indoor wayfinding signage such as room labels or elevator, exit or emergency exit signs, or will you need to produce large-scale exterior signage? How much volume do you plan to run through it? Would an entry-level machine suit you better than a high-production one? But, that said, will the model you choose be able to grow as your volume grows? What is your budget? There are a zillion variables, but the least expensive routers can be had for under $1,000 and a topof-the-line machine can easily get in the $50,000+ range or

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even higher. Would a used or refurbished unit be a better option? You may have little experience with CNC routers and a low-cost or used machine would be a good and inexpensive way to teach yourself how to use it, giving you the option to upgrade as you (or your staff’s) skills improve. What about software? CNC routers are driven by CAD files and some systems are more turnkey than others. So if you are unfamiliar with working with CAD files and software, take that

into account when you do your shopping. (You’ll notice that these are the same basic questions you would ask yourself about just about any major equipment purchase.)

Rout of No Evil If you don’t offer non-printed signage, you are missing out on an extremely large part of the market, and this is a good time to start expanding your range of capabilities. You may recall from recent articles on

the economic state of signage (see “ISA Quarterly Economic Report Finds Improvement in Q3, but Recovery Is Still a Long Ways Off” in our November/ December 2020 issue) that new construction projects (a big driver of demand for new signage) have been slow but are expected to pick up steam later this year. Adding a CNC router and developing traditional signmaking capabilities can go a long way toward helping take advantage of the new opportunities that will arise. ●

ShopSabre PRO Series.

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Smart Signage

GET AHEAD OF THE

TECH CURVE

Smart signage expands experiential marketing opportunity. By Larry Oberly, President & CEO SpeedPro

peed, convenience, information and connectivity are currency in today’s fastpaced, high-tech culture. As we move toward a virtualfirst environment, brands are strategically positioning themselves as “one-ofa-kind” to entice customers and increase brand recognition. Brands are using smart signage to connect traditional signage and graphics to the online customer experience by

using near field communication (NFC) tags. This technology allows a user to place their phone near an NFC tag where a brand’s information (a link, a text message, email and more) is immediately transferred to the user’s device. With SpeedPro InfoLnkX NFC application, there are a multitude of new options to connect brands to

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consumers and to continue to engage with them and remarket to them long after the individual has passed the sign. SpeedPro’s proximity-based, touchless NFC technology not only invites you to a website but allows a consumer to FaceTime someone, make a phone call, visit a brand’s social network and even create a pre-written email.

Connect to a URL One of the most common uses of NFC tags is to direct users to a website by simply holding the phone up to the sign where the tag is installed. A perfect example of bringing brands closer to consumers through print is in the restaurant industry -- eliminating the use of physical menus by allowing customers to link to the online version of the menu through the individual’s smartphone. When you perfectly marry the elimination of a menu and an interaction of a brand on your device, you get a seamless customer experience. In this application, NFC tags are similar to quick response (QR) codes except they are triggered by proximity instead of through the camera and they are more durable, secure and aesthetically pleasing, because they do not require a barcode.

FaceTime Now that we are all used to video face-to-face calls, connect with clients and prospective clients over FaceTIme.

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Considering 64% of Americans have an Apple product, this is a great way for customers to have a personalized and human experience with a business. In the real estate world, it’s critical to have the agent walking next to you to answer questions. But what if the consumer and the agent are unable to be on the tour in-person together? InfoLnkX can be placed on a “For Sale” sign in front of a home, directing consumers to place their phone by the NFC tag. Once the phone hovers over the NFC tag, the iPhone asks the user if they want to proceed with a FaceTime call.

Phone Calls A phone call is often necessary in the consultative sales process or to solve client problems and provide excellent customer service. One industry that requires a lot of research and information is health and fitness. Should someone focus on diet more than lifting weights? What’s the best training method for someone who is new to working out? All of these questions can be answered with a quick consultation. A fitness center can place an InfoLnkX tag on their advertisement. A gym-goer will see the ad, place their phone near the print and speak directly with a personal trainer right then and there.

Social Media Seeing what influencers are promoting on Instagram, finding out the latest news on Twitter and checking reviews online is second nature. Now, more than ever, brands are taking over social media with their creative captions and visuallypleasing photos. And with another access point to drive consumers to a brand, InfoLnkX can bring customers right to a desired social media platform. Instead of the awkward “go like our

Facebook page” messaging, businesses can tell customers to place their phone near an InfoLnkX tag and it will bring the consumer right to a brand’s social network page. Once consumers are on that page and follow it, they’re more likely to keep buying - nine out of 10 people say they buy from companies they follow on social networks.

Email Email is the number-one way of communication in business. Why not make it easier than ever? No need to think of a clever subject line. InfoLnkX can prepopulate and write the email for the consumer. All they have to do is press “send.” If the consumer would like to request a white paper or submit an inquiry, the individual can now do so by simply holding up their phone to the NFC tag, and a prepopulated email message will appear. Now is the perfect time to get ahead of the technological curve. Connecting brands to consumers, especially in a time where we are craving connection in our quarantined world, is incredibly important. In the print and sign industry, it’s all about making consumers feel a part of something larger than themselves. If a brand can make that process easier and quicker, why not dive in? SpeedPro’s new smart signage solution can be used for any organization or company. We are excited that businesses can use all these capabilities to connect to consumers in such an exciting way. ●

Read More… Find article at PrintingNews. com/21145840

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ Pre- and Post-COVID Trends Drive Change

AUTOMATION IS KEY Pre- and post-COVID trends drive changes in wide-format print software. By Richard Romano

rior to the “Year of COVID,” one of the biggest industry trends in wide format and elsewhere had been automation, be it the physical automation of wide-format production using robotic arms and other mechanical means to move materials around, or the moving of files from intake through prepress, to production, and even to finishing—all untouched by human hands. A lot of this drive to automation had been due to difficulties in finding qualified staff to manually handle all of these processes. Color management is also not immune from the automation trend, especially as it requires more skill and knowledge than a lot of other prepress and produc-

Read More… Find article at is that color management and PrintingNews. color matching are difficult, and com/21147941 require training. There’s a lot of this now new normal where owners are becoming operators, new people coming into the market are younger and they don’t have the time or maybe even the patience to do six months of color management research in order to fine-tune something.” Late last year, Onyx released version 21 of its flagship ONYX suite of prepress solutions. ONYX 21 includes Swatch Books 2.0, allowing users to print, scan, iterate and report on an ideal color match, with options to add print mode-defined colors in a single click. “With [Swatch Books 2.0], we’ve tried to make it as simple, frontward-facing and as interactive as possible,” Rogers said, “the idea being, how do we make it easier to match color? The main thing is to let ONYX do the work for you and take the guesswork out.” That problem has only been exacerbated by the pandemic, with staff being discouraged or prevented from coming into the plant full-time (or at all). Having machines do as much of the work as possible minimizes the number of employees that

Swatch Books 2.0, part of the new ONYX 21, aims to automate color management as much as possible.

tion functions. And even in the realm of the experienced printer, color management—after all these years—remains a gray area. “As we’ve seen over the last several years, the types of people that are working with print shops and working with RIP software has changed and evolved,” said Jonathan Rogers, international marketing manager for Onyx Graphics. “The reality

Tile Maps are kind of an instruction manual for installing what can be complicated graphic displays,

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RSA’s QDirect is a job and output management system that streamlines the acquisition of jobs in the print shop and routing to the best printer available. It integrates with ImpactVDP.

RSA’s WebCRD is a web-to-print software solution specifically tailored to in-plant printing departments.

need to be on-site at any given moment. Another interesting feature in ONYX 21 is a way of not automating, but guiding the final graphic installation process via Tile Maps, an interactive PDF file used to guide installation crews (or even store employees) on how to install, say, a retail display, which can be like unboxing a jigsaw puzzle without a cover image for guidance. “The install crew don’t print the job, if they don’t necessarily know where all those tiles go,” Rogers said. “So they go to the business and they’re rolling stuff out on the ground trying to figure it out. Well, now we have the ability to just say, look, here’s the map, here’s the tile, here’s a list of where those tiles go.” Software has also been helping companies take advantage of the new applications that came out of the pandemic—safety and distancing signage, PPE and so forth. Rochester Software Associates (RSA) offers software applications predominantly for the inplant market, and the forces that affected in-plants mirror those that impacted everyone else. In-plants had a bit of a leg up over general commercial shops because wide-format printing has been a big application area for in-plants for a while now. “We’ve been doing a lot more with customers who created a separate shop just for the sign business, which is its own entity,” said Vincent Tutino, director of product management for RSA. RSA’s ImpactVDP, version two of which was released late last year, offers variable-data-printing templates for online ordering of print products, and also a variety of templates for wide-format graphics and signage. During COVID, it offered template help for “parking signs and other things that people

needed,” Tutino said, “as well as signage for parks and recreation.” “[In-plants] are printing tons of COVID material,” added Anthony Leccese, product manager for RSA, “as a lot of the rest

of their business has dried up.” RSA’s WebCRD is web-to-print software specifically tailored to in-plant printing departments. The new materials could then be loaded directly into WebCRD and an online storefront. As for the trends that had been in motion prepandemic, count automation and a heightened emphasis on data security among the big ones. The pandemic has also pointed out the importance of an online storefront, as consumers throughout the economy became more comfortable with e-commerce, and e-commerce Benson became a Integrated greater and Marketing greater percreated their B2C centage of COVID estore overall retail using EFI’s MarketDirect sales. Print StoreFront. buying is not appreciably different, and many print businesses have set up B2B and/or B2C sites, some specifically for COVID products. What will 2021 bring in terms of software? More automation, more attempts to make color management as easy as possible, and more taking people out of the prepress and production processes. All sorts of new applications are going to be emerging, so shops need to be able to turn on a dime and produce new stuff as the market demands it—and sell it through an e-store. ●

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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE ─ New Opportunities

WIDEFORMAT ’21: REASONS TO BE OVER-OPTIMISTIC

Let’s look at some of the substantial new opportunities for wide-format graphics and signage. What can we be over-optimistic about? By Richard Romano Got a feeling ’21 Is going to be a good year Especially if you and me See it in together… I had no reason to be over-optimistic But somehow, when you smiled I could brave bad weather —Pete Townshend, “1921”

hew! We made it. For a while, it was touch and go. Would we make it to the end of 2020, and, if so, in what kind of shape would we—as an industry, as individuals, as a society—be? Some of us emerged on the other side of 2020 relatively unscathed, others slightly scathed, and some, alas, didn’t emerge at all. At no point has the thought of “2020 hindsight” been more welcome. But, we’re in a new year, and while the same problems are still with us (the pandemic is still raging, further shutdowns are possible, and many businesses are teetering on the brink of failure), there is a vaccine (two of them, actually, with a third one on the way), there is more PPP funding ostensibly coming, and the past year taught many print businesses how to quickly develop new products and services. As we enter 2021, we have reasons to be optimistic, maybe even over-optimistic. So let’s

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put the old year behind us (to the extent that we can), jump feet-first into the new one, and resolve never to use terms like “the new normal” or “pivot” ever again. Instead, let’s look at some of the substantial opportunities for wide-format graphics and signage producers in 2021. What can we be over-optimistic about?

Ever-Evolving Safety Signage/New Messaging As we saw throughout last year, safety signage and messaging evolved rapidly to communicate the two primary prescribed public health practices: social distancing and mask-wearing. Some locations required temperature-taking, and installed signage communicating that. Some retail locations tried valiantly to control customer traffic flow, and had signage attempting to communicate that. All of this messaging communicated a particular establishment’s specific policies. Now that we have a vaccine, there will likely be new policies and new messaging to communicate. For example, will restaurants, bars, concert venues, theaters, etc., etc., etc., require proof of vaccination before requiring admittance? If so, they will need signage to communicate this. It’s worth clarifying a recent story that made the rounds via Billboard that Ticketmaster will require proof of vaccination in order to buy tickets to events. A subsequent clarification pointed out that that was not in fact true, that it would be up to individual event planners and organizers or venues to

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determine admission policy vis-à-vis entry. Still, the point is not who will ultimately be devising the policy, but that someone will likely stipulate some kind of policy regarding events, if only for liability purposes. Likewise, as corporate offices continue to reopen, will they require employees to be vaccinated? At this stage, we don’t know what policies will emerge in the wake of a vaccine, so it’s worth staying on top of these issues, especially if you serve the events, travel and hospitality industries, to help them reopen safely.

Divisional Graphics We have a forthcoming white paper on this topic (keep an eye on our Newsfeed this week), but “Divisional Graphics” (the term was trademarked by EFI) refers to graphics printed on all those plastic barriers in retail locations, gyms and other public spaces that emerged last year. Making these look more professional with high-quality graphics, either using direct-to-plastic printing (such as via UV flatbeds), labels or window clings will become more and more important for retail and other locations, especially as these barriers start to become permanent fixtures.

been on their way out for a while). It’s thus vital to understand how prospective customers prefer to be contacted. It’s not going back to the way it was. Oh, and if you do not have an online storefront, tsk tsk. No one is going to abandon e-commerce; in fact. It’s only going to become more prevalent.

Your Own Eyes You no doubt get out in the world on a somewhat regular basis. Even if you are exceedingly diligent about quarantining and distancing, you still occasionally get out, at least for curbside pickup. So when you’re out and relatively about, pay attention to the display graphics and signage you see. If you know you can produce it better, add that particular business to a prospects list. I wouldn’t accost the owner Read More… or manager in person right on Find article at the spot, but a follow-up phone PrintingNews. com/21147672 call or email might break the ice. Remember, businesses have many other things to be preoccupied with, so if you can help them with that portion of it, it could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

New Business Creation

Be Flexible in the Products You Offer

One of the many sad consequences of the pandemic has been—and will continue to be—businesses failing. On the plus side, new businesses are moving in to fill those empty spaces. As per a story in The Guardian last September, “A report found that more than 100,000 restaurants have closed this year, but another says new business applications are up by 19%.” So as some businesses close, others will open in their places. These are of course new opportunities for brand new signage and display graphics of all sorts, in addition to safety signage. It’s worth keeping an eye on new business registrations in your area and/or, if you are a member of your local Chamber of Commerce, checking new member listings. These are always good business prospects.

One of the strategies that my erstwhile coauthor Dr. Joe Webb and I used to stress in all of the books we wrote dating back to 2010s, is that print businesses need to focus on producing the kinds of print products that the market demands, which are constantly changing. The adoption of digital printing capabilities has made that an easier proposition for general commercial printers, but certainly the versatility of today’s wide-format printing equipment gives shops the ability to add all sorts of new products to their portfolios. Keep close track of what kind of products you are selling the most of and what are languishing. As I mentioned above, use your own eyes: as you are out and about in the world, what kinds of new graphics do you see popping up that you may not currently offer? So I do have a feeling ’21 is going to be a good year, and while there may be no reason to be overoptimistic, we should at least not be deaf, dumb and blind to the opportunities around us. ●

Get Used to the New Sales Process I’m just going to reiterate what Jen Matt wrote last month: “Selling print is never going back to normal.” Face-to-face meetings are a thing of the past (and had

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TEXTILES ─ What A Significant Role It Has Played

SPINNING A YARN The book, “The Fabric of Civilization,” weaves a fascinating tale. By Cary Sherburne

extiles are such a part of the fabric of our lives (pun intended) that we take them for granted. But when you understand how fabric is woven throughout the development of civilization, it’s pretty amazing what a significant role it has played. I recently read a fascinating book, “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World,” by Virginia Postrel. It’s a literal encyclopedia of the impact of fibers and fabrics on human development going back thousands of years. And while it’s probably more information than you really need at any given time, it’s an excellent reference book to have around – and very, very well-written. The language of fabric is also interwoven into our language. Here’s a brief excerpt from the book that demonstrates this: “We no more imagine a world without cloth than one without sunlight or rain. We drag out heirloom metaphors –’on tenterhooks,’ ‘towheaded,’ ‘frazzled’ – with no idea that we are talking about fabric and fibers. We repeat threadbare clichés: ‘whole cloth,’ ‘hanging by a thread,’ ‘dyed in the wool.’ We catch airline shuttles, weave through traffic, follow comment threads. We speak of life spans and spinoffs and never wonder why drawing out fibers and twirling them into thread looms so large in our language. Surrounded by textiles, we’re largely oblivious to their existence and to the knowledge and efforts embodied in every scrap of fabric. Yet the story of textiles is the story of human ingenuity.” For those of you who are professionals in the

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textiles and apparel industry, you may already know much of the history that’s included in the book. While I write about the industry, I am not a professional practitioner. But I am a lifelong fiber artist – everything from spinning and weaving to knitting and needlework. So for me, the book was fascinating. Take cotton, for example -- the story about how cotton developed from two different wild versions found in Africa and Mexico, and how humans cultivated them in each of these regions to encourage the growth of cotton with longer fibers. Then, somehow, an African seed crossed the ocean to Mexico and cross-bred with the Mexican version, which gave rise to the beginnings of cotton as we know it. This is not just a seed with a few wispy strands, but a cotton boll with long staple suitable for spinning. No one really knows how that happened. They do know it was thousands of years ago before humans were making that trek. Theories abound, though we may never know the truth. And silk is another interesting story documented in the book. Chinese learned to breed silkworms, fed them just the right amount of fresh mulberry leaves, watched them spin their little cocoons and then destroyed the worm before it could destroy the cocoon. The story of how silk production traveled around the world, how silk was once a form of currency, and how the production of silk has progressed over the years is also fascinating. And it’s a story that continues today with a company in Silicon Valley, Bolt Threads, creating silk from fermented yeast that delivers a white

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powder. Bolt has developed a process to wet spin this powder into “silk” fibers that can be dyed, and then knitted or woven into cloth. While this type of silk is probably a few years from going mainstream, it is, according to Postrel, the main ingredient in the first entirely new fiber in decades. Beyond the various types of fibers discussed in the book, Postrel also goes into great detail about how the crafts of knitting and weaving developed over the years and how automation has changed everything. For example, she cites African kente cloth, strips of cloth that are hand woven and then sewn together to form a larger piece of cloth, or worn in one piece as a head cloth or shawl. These fabrics could take months, or even years, to complete. But with today’s automated looms, the same patterns can be woven in minutes or hours. Knitting also has a fascinating history. Again, it started as a completely manual process, but today there are 3D knitting machines that can knit a fully formed garment, such as a sweater, all in one piece with virtually no manual labor required. I have to admit, though, from a craftsperson point of view, I still like selecting and preparing the yarn and watching the patterns emerge from my needles. That being said, this ability to automate knitting to the extent that’s being done today is one way we will re-shore knitting and reestablish its manufacturing in North America. Just as one example, with a regular knitting machine, all of the pieces of the sweater are knitted separately, and workers, called linkers, assemble the final garment manually. 3D knitting machines eliminate that manual step. It not only takes time out of the process, but also reduces waste, enables knitting on demand for customized items and the ability to reduce inventory risk. Postrel also goes into great detail about the development and evolution of dyeing. Dyes, of course, are one of the worst polluters in the textile manufacturing process, not to mention the water waste. One U.S. dye house, Swisstex, focuses on reducing the amount of water, electricity, gas and labor needed to dye each pound of cloth, continually modifying machines and processes, while taking advantage of robots. One example is water use. In a regular dyeing process, the dye house might use

as much as 25 gallons of water to dye on pound of fabric. Swisstex has gotten it down to 3 gallons. And now we are seeing spray dying emerging as well, which could bring water usage – and wastewater pollution – down even further. All of this also reduces carbon emissions, something we will hear more and more about in 2021 and beyond as the world (hopefully) tries to get a handle on the effects of climate change. “This is something that’s become very important this year [2019],” said Keith Dartley of Swisstex. “This year is the first time where I’ve begun to see brands and retailers making sourcing decisions on sustainability. Why? Because the consumer is no longer accepting irresponsible environmental practices.” Adding further to that drive is the impact of the pandemic and how it has laid bare the frailties of global textile supply chains. Brands and retailers are working to figure out how best to restructure supply chains – not as quickly as we would like, for sure, but it is a massive task. It took decades to get those processes in place, and hopefully it won’t take decades to make them more sustainable. While the history of fabrics and human civilization is fascinating, there are also many lessons to be learned. As the world has become more digitally enabled, the textiles and apparel industry has been able to Read More… benefit from those technologies. Find article at Although everything from how PrintingNews. com/21147671 fabric designs are created and garments are designed, to digitally printing fabrics with less waste and pollution, to magical cutting technologies that can make a huge difference in automating a factory, the last mile, of course, is sewing, which still requires manual labor. But even there, advances are being made that are quite incredible. I encourage everyone to read “The Fabric of Civilization.” It’s fascinating, educational and a great research resource. And let’s all keep pushing toward a more sustainable industry. There is much we can do, step by step, until the wave of change becomes a tsunami, and the industry emerges almost unrecognizable from a century ago. ●

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TEXTILES ─ Future Of Textile Printing

THE DIGITAL SPRINT

(Image courtesy of Texintel.)

Simplifying printed textile production to deliver increased sales and a sustainable future

s the world’s population increases to reach eight billion by 2023, so does global affluence—increasing disposable income—creating the pressing requirement for more and more printed products and, unfortunately, potentially even more waste. The textile landscape has changed forever and industrial innovations have been evolving for the last decade. We now face a digital sprint to meet our clients’ demands as a direct result of the challenges faced during a global pandemic. Accelerated by the impact of supply chain disruption on some of the world’s biggest brands, the print client now requires a collaborative, transparent and inherently agile service from the textile printing industry. As we move forward into the

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interrupted beginnings of a new decade, new buying behaviors have been quickly established, both by the consumer and the retailer, and the online marketplace is gaining ground on traditional bricks-and-mortar business models. This will now continue to shift toward customized production in-line with retail trends. Manufacturing for the mass marketplace in the traditional format is no longer commercially viable. A recent report from McKinsey stated that 58% of fashion executives expected that assortment planning was a key area for 2021. The direct result means “less is more” -- holding less stock and replenishing at speed in tune with data and sales analytics. In getting closer to the consumer, the brand can identify trending sales and replenish stock to meet demand, and

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even produce on demand. All of that changes the future of textile printing. Traditional technology cannot offer the agility required for post-pandemic production. The future safe business must incorporate digital textile printing technology and ensure that it is seamlessly connected to the supply chain. To do so, the textile industry and the retail industry must rethink their footprint, and they must collaborate to forge deep strategic partnerships—partnerships that are not merely transactional. In order to adapt for commercial and sustainable success, the industry must now move to a digitized platform, upstream and downstream. Customized textile production requires manufacturing agility and a tailored blend of technology and software to maximize manufacturing efficiency. What are the challenges and how do we invest wisely to meet our clients’ expectations? The challenge for the traditional textile printer or the entrepreneurial brand lies in its ability to flex to meet demand. The consumer is becoming increasingly aware of their own footprint—sustainability is now a mainstream requirement. That’s good news for all of us, but it also puts a focus onto the technologies used during the manufacture of every garment that we wear, every purchase that we make for our homes, interiors and in our commercial transactions. Choosing the correct technology now will deliver commercial success. The industrial textile landscape holds a great responsibility. In switching to digital technologies such as those provided by Kornit Digital, we can make a hugely positive impact by reducing water consumption by using waterless printing technologies, choosing certified inks that are green and kind to the environment with no loss of product quality, and removing toxic chemicals and heavy metals from the production process. Printing using sustainable technologies offers a whole host of environmentally positive attributes, but perhaps the biggest is in offering the ability to reduce stock and to print on demand and to do so in close proximity to the consumer. The savings for all partners are immense, and choosing the correct technology partner is an important factor. To take advantage of the commercial

opportunities offered by global affluence, supply chain demand, and our increasing requirement for personalization, we have seen many new entrants into the textile space. These businesses are often not burdened by a textile legacy—they offer a refreshing and disruptive sector that is democratizing the textile industry. The footprint of traditional textiles is a thing of the past. Production agility will be a key factor for the next decade. As the consumer increasingly continues to navigate online, the requirement for design has also accelerRead More… ated. Freed from the shackFind article at les of mass production, the PrintingNews. com/21147848 designer and consumer demand a diversity that can only be delivered using digital technology at speed. Digital textile printing has injected a new energy into the design community, and we see a plethora of creative brands utilizing on-demand print. Buying direct from the print source and often using third party fulfillment, products range from apparel, sportswear and childrens wear, to customized interiors, home furnishings, furniture and accessories. Equally, we also see many industrial textile mills shifting to digital technologies to meet the demands of the commercial market for high-volume production and product diversity at speed. Simplifying the production process offers the designer, brand owner, the consumer and the planet a sustainable future. Innovative digital textile printing technologies, such as the Kornit Presto, offer a sustainable digital textile printing solution: a singlestep production process that enables agile, efficient and economical manufacturing. Green technologies will ensure a future where on-demand production removes excessive waste from the textile industry and the retail sector to offer an environmentally secure pathway for our industry and the planet. For more information, visit the Kornit website. ●

Debbie McKeegan is the CEO of TexIntel. As a multi-disciplinary creative and renowned digital print pioneer, she holds over 25 years’ experience within the Textile manufacturing industry.

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TEXTILES ─ Bolt Threads

WILL THE HUMBLE SILKWORM SOON BE

OUT OF A JOB? How Bolt Threads is changing silk. By Cary Sherburne

ho doesn’t love the feel of silk against the skin? In “The Fabric of Civilization,” author Virginia Postrel, spends some time discussing this ancient material. Let’s have just a brief bit of history here from Postrel’s book before we take a peek at the potential future of silk in a hightech world. Postrel explains that “sericulture” is the ancient art of raising and harvesting of silkworms. She notes that silk proteins have been found under bodies in Chinese tombs 8,500 years old, suggesting these bodies were wrapped or dressed in silk even way back then. Most likely, these fabrics were created from wild silk, but a few thousand years later, the Chinese were actually cultivating silkworms to gain more silk filaments. The oldest actual silk fabrics date back about 5,500 years, according to Postrel). Silkworms were

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“domesticated,” if that’s the right word. When silkworms hatched Microsilk from eggs, they (Image sourced from were placed BoltThreads.com) in trays full of chopped up mulberry leaves and ate their little hearts out until it was time to spin a nice silky cocoon. These cocoons were kept under close observation, and heated to kill the moth inside before it could break out of its silky prison and destroy the fibers the worm worked so hard to create. It truly was an art that required close observation of time, temperature, humidity and, of course, those yummy mulberry leaves. Over time, silk and the fabrics woven from it became prized commodities around the globe and was one of the factors in generating a system of world trade. Ultimately, silk production took place in other countries, including Japan and India. In the early days, the silk filaments carefully unwound from

Mycelium, the vegetable part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments.

the cocoon by hand, a laborintensive process that required great skill. Over the years, things became more mechanized, but silk has remained a valuable commodity, both for its strength and hand-feel and for the way it absorbs dyes to make brilliant colors. Now fast forward to 2009 in Silicon Valley. A company called Bolt Threads was founded by Dan Widmaier. He has a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from UC San Francisco. Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder David Breslauer earned his PhD in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley and UCSF, where he developed his obsession with silk research.

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Although the company was probably not out specifically to protect silkworms or their jobs, they did come up with a process for bioengineering yeast that, when fermented, yields silk proteins rather than alcohol. When she visited Bolt, Postrel had this to say: “As we tour Bolt’s labs, David Breslauer, the company’s chief scientific officer, takes a onepound jar out of a cabinet and scoops out some off-white protein powder. The stuff looks ready for a smoothie. But this isn’t a health food. Composed of the protein found in superstrong dragline spider silk, it’s the main ingredient in the first entirely new fiber in decades.” That one jar, Bolt’s Chief Commercial Officer Sue Levin, told Postrel, “is more silk protein powder than had ever been in one place at a time.” Bolt has developed a process to wet spin this powder into “silk” fibers that can be dyed, and then knitted or woven into cloth. The first commercial product to be made from these fibers, which the company refers to as Microsilk, was launched in 2017: a Microsilk tie that was a collaboration between Stella McCartney and the Museum of Modern Art. In further collaboration with Stella McCartney, Microsilk is also being used in skincare products. Bolt Threads hasn’t stopped with yeast, however. It’s also turned its attention to the humble mushroom, or more

specifically, mycelium, the vegetable part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments. Both yeast and mycelium are renewable resources, so that’s an important element in an industry that depends on a lot of petroleum for making fabrics. And it doesn’t require feeding animals. With mycelium, Bolt is engineering a leather-like material with a mycelium base that, according to the company’s site, “is made from predominantly renewable ingredients that can be found in nature.” They state that this material, which they are calling Mylo, is everything you love about leather without everything you don’t. Neither product is likely to be available in your local Macy’s anytime soon, but the scientists at Bolt Threads are working to bring both Microsilk and Mylo to the general marketplace through a consortium of partners. With all of the issues the

(Image sourced from BoltThreads.com)

textiles industry has with respect to sustainability and supply chain weaknesses these days, all of which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, it’s heartening to see these kinds of efforts being made to bring to market sustainable materials that will add new life to the Fabric of Civilization— and perhaps even have a role Read More… in preserving Find article at civilization. PrintingNews. com/21147847 We’ll keep tabs on Bolt Threads Meanwhile, I highly recommend reading “The Fabric of Civilization,” and, of course, visiting www.BoltThreads.com. ●

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...

TEXTILE INDUSTRY NEWS MGX Now Stocking B2-Size BOPP Indigo 10k and 12K-Compatible Pressure Sensitive Material Empire Screen Printing Leads Industry in Sustainable Production With Development of UV LED Ink Curing Technology Empire Screen Printing, a nationally recognized manufacturer of screen printed products, leads the industry in environmentally-friendly practices thanks to the UV LED ink curing technology it has pioneered over the last decade. Developed to replace UV curing via mercury bulbs, UV LED curing technology is now used across 80% of Empire’s business. UV LED is 98% more energy efficient than traditional UV mercury curing. www.printingnews.com/21147649

Massive Digital + Static Signage Unveiled at Broadway Plaza in Times Square SNA Displays built what’s being dubbed the Broadway Plaza Digital, a new LED spectacular in the Times Square bowtie. The new digital, from SNA Displays’ EMPIRE line of exterior display products, is installed just outside H&M’s Times Square flagship location at 151 West 42nd Street. The Broadway Plaza Digital measures 19’8” high by 85” wide and employs a 10 mm pixel pitch. www.printingnews.com/21148023

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MGX is now stocking the B2-size (20.75” x 29.5”) biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) pressure sensitive material compatible for Indigo 10000 and 12000 presses. BOPP presents an economical alternative to vinyl that has outdoor application durability for up to 12 months. MGX offers 2.3 mil white and 2 mil clear BOPP options with permanent and removable adhesives and backed with an 8pt tag liner on one-side to help ensure sheets’ layflatness and to maximize production ease and efficiency. This material has a higher gloss for improved reprographic quality and has exceptional strength to withstand all conventional processing operations, including die-cutting/laser die-cutting, perforating, fanfolding, and refolding processes. MGX is a specialty substrate manufacturer. MGX’s portfolio includes synthetic papers, rigid vinyls, polyesters, styrenes, pressure sensitive films, metallized, and more. www.printingnews.com/21147641

Fisher Textiles Introduces Full Lineup of Home Furnishing Fabric Media Fisher Textiles has introduced a new printable fabric line for Home Furnishing applications that are ideal for interior and exterior home décor. These durable fabrics are long lasting and suitable for soft textile applications including throw pillows, window treatments, table linens, upholstery, bedding linens, shower curtains and bath towels; wall art including canvas gallery wraps and wallpaper; and floor décor including rugs and mats. All are either 100% Polyester or Poly blends, stocked in a variety of textures and weights. Printed throw pillows, made with Fisher Textiles’ 1010 Element give a unique look and feel to home environments. Blankets-On-Demand, a subcategory of this fabric line, includes fully finished plush flannel and polar fleece blankets available in three sizes for sublimation printing. The finishing is a self-edge folded/bordered edge with a twin needle coverseam. Finished sizes are 30” x 40”, 50” x 60”, and 60” x 80”. These soft and cozy blankets are perfect for personalized throw blankets, baby milestone blankets, and promotional blankets. Blankets-On-Demand are sold by the case and are also available in unfinished roll good form ranging from 61-inches to 63-inches-wide. www.printingnews.com/21147869

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Vycom Vintec Clear PVC Sheets Ideal for Use as a Barrier in a Variety of Environments Vycom has seen an uptick in demand for its Vintec Clear PVC sheets, for use as a barrier material in retail, hospitality, education, and consumer-facing environments where safeguards are required. Vintec Clear is part of the Vycom CorrtecT chemical- and corrosion-resistant family of materials, designed to meet requirements in industrial applications. Vintec Clear PVC sheets offer superior ink adhesion for digital and screen printing processes, and can be thermoformed and cut. They can be used as a stand-alone barrier or as part of a system utilizing other Vycom products including Celtec expanded or solid PVC sheets. The slight blue tint provides an immediately recognizable boundary that reduces unintentional contact because of its visibility. The improved chemical resistance of this product line enables it to hold up better than traditional clear plastic materials against commonly used cleaning products and disinfectants. While cleaning solutions are effective in sanitizing plastic surfaces, some chemicals will cause polycarbonate and acrylic materials to haze, stresscrack and degrade over time. Vintec Clear PVC sheets are designed to stand up to these products for reliable, longer term use. www.printingnews.com/21148020

Substrate Bank, the New Digital Tool to Source Print Substrates DIPA Global B.V. has announced the launch of its online platform of substrates for digital printing, Substrate Bank.Substrate Bank brings together print media manufacturers and their products on a pure B2B industry platform, making the sourcing and specifying of substrates easy, fast and transparent. Substrate Bank takes into account the intended usage to find and source products in a digital way. Users of the platform can easily source print substrates with the use of industry-specific search criteria. After registration, users are able to connect with manufacturers directly - to request samples, ask for directions to the nearest distributor, ask about print settings, technical datasheets, and more. Substrate Bank strives for more transparency by bringing key information on brands online in one place. Creating a reliable resource for professionals from different industries to select print materials and discover new brands. www.printingnews.com/21147768

Kernow FloorSharK Achieves Anti-Slip R10 Rating for Floor Graphics on Xeikon 3000 Series Xeikon has announced that Kernow Coatings’ recently launched FloorSharK Dry Toner has successfully passed the R10 slip test after being tried and tested on a Xeikon 3500 digital press. The two companies have been involved in a rigorous testing program to achieve the R10 anti-slip rating for floor graphics. Printer OEMs and national brands certify Kernow for wide format and narrow format specialized print media – synthetics, self-adhesives, colors, metallic and floor graphics. FloorSharK Dry Toner is a textured white R10 slip-resistant PET film that is receptive to dry toner print, with an optimized pressure sensitive adhesive for floor graphic applications. www.printingnews.com/21147975

Fashion Incubator Reaches Sustainable PPE Milestone The Fashion and Business Resource Innovation Center (FABRIC) announced that partners operating within its facility during the pandemic have collaborated to make 500,000 FDA-approved, reusable, level 2 and 3 isolation gowns for medical professionals. AZ Fashion Source, Falcon Engineering, Wulff Contracting, On Point Manufacturing and Katchina Apparel Manufacturing collaborated with FABRIC to produce the American-made and reusable isolation gowns, which can be worn and washed 100 times. The ramped-up manufacturing efforts also provided hundreds of essential manufacturing jobs. www.printingnews.com/21148025

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ASSOCIATION INSIGHTS ─ More Content For 2021

APTECH BRINGS RESEARCH, STANDARDS AND EDUCATION TO 2021

e all hope that 2021 will bring a fresh start and new promise, yet at this juncture, nothing indicates that it will be any different than the year we have just left behind. The pandemic continues to challenge policy makers, while global economic uncertainty and fragility hover closely overhead, and consumer behavior and business practices are forever altered. First, it’s important that I thank the countless volunteers, members, colleagues and industry leaders who guided our industry and association through a very interesting and challenging 2020. The Association for PRINT Technologies (APTech) would not be in the advantageous position it is in today without the support of these individuals who believe in the value APTech can bring to its members and the printing community. Speaking of which, our start to 2021 was a little more exciting than usual, since on Jan. 1, APTech officially joined forces with the Innovatis Group, an association management company, headquartered in Nashville, Tenn. While joining a prestigious client lineup of industry leaders such as Canon, Dell Technologies Read More… and VMware, APTech also benFind article at efits enormously from Innovatis’ PrintingNews. com/21147827 unique strengths in community, innovation, customer engagement and brand loyalty, as well as their extensive experience in the print industry. Even as the incoming New Year has not yet shed the continuum of uncertain and accelerated change that was 2020, we must all adjust and take opportunities as they present themselves, creating our own roadmap, and continuing to operate and thrive. APTech is forging ahead, knowing that within our community of 20K plus printers and suppliers, connections need to be

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made, businesses seek to transform, and people crave interaction. To this end, in 2021, we have a slew of activities in store to make this happen, including two new virtual events in spring and fall, topical monthly webcasts, LeadingPRINT magazine, “LeadingPRINT” podcasts, educational programming, member insight offerings, sponsored content, quantitative and qualitative research and our current catalog of program offerings, including industry research, vertical content and our important and ongoing Standards program. There is no better way to generate new ideas, opportunities, and contacts than by being in the same place at the same time with like-minded people, even virtually. APTech plans to hold two major virtual events in spring and fall 2021: the Variable Data Mail Super Users Summit on April 14 and APTech’s Industrial Print Users Summit on Sept. 15. APTech’s monthly 60-minute live webcasts also provide educational content directly to members, while LeadingPRINT is a content platform to serve the more progressive, most optimistic CEOs and leaders in the industry who are transforming their businesses and standing out from the competition. We also offer qualitative and quantitative research opportunities where OEMs can tap into our members’ industry insights. For OEMS and printers looking to generate leads, announce products, seek sponsorship opportunities, or position themselves as a thought leader in the industry, APTech is a compelling platform to enable you to bring your technology and ideas to the market. We believe there is no better time to be in the print industry than RIGHT NOW. ●

Thayer Long is president of the Association for Print Technologies (APTech) and serves as president of the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF).

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time is right to do the rebrand, because we’ve actually got some good stuff to talk about. WTT: What is some of that good stuff? JM: As I mentioned, Xaar printheads typically have not been able to print aqueous fluids, and we now have a way to make our heads aqueous-compatible. We’re starting to work with customers in alpha and beta testing. The product is about 18 months away, but I think it’s a significant step forward. The other thing is around the speed of the heads, because of the shared-wall technology that Xaar adopts. WTT: Briefly explain “shared-wall” technology. JM: If you were to ask, what’s one of the problems with Xaar heads—people would say they’re very slow because they only print one in three nozzles at a time. Each channel has a wall on either side. When the walls move to eject a drop from the nozzle, they move in such a way that the wall they share with the neighboring channel cannot also move in the same way. So whilst you’re ejecting a drop in one channel, you cannot eject a drop from the channel on either side. So you’ve got what we call “three-phase printing.” You’re printing every third nozzle, and that has been one of the limitations of the Xaar technology. However, the benefit of Xaar’s technology is that the ink is continually flowing directly past the back of the nozzles; bubbles don’t get trapped to block the printhead. They just continue to flow through, and debris and particles do the exact same thing. The reason we do really well in ceramics is because you have heavily pigmented inks, and those are difficult to keep in suspension. That’s what the “through-flow” [TF] technology is all about. The printheads are very

reliable when it comes to heavily pigmented, highly viscous inks because you get a huge amount of power from those walls moving in and out to fire drops out. However, we have now found a way to print every single drop at the same time, which gives us a three-times improvement in speed. I said that I would never have bought a Xaar printhead while I was at Inca Digital because it didn’t have a robust nozzle plate, it was too slow, and it didn’t do aqueous inks. Well, now we’ve got a way to use water-based inks, we’ve got a way to actually get higher speeds, which exceed the competition, and we’re going to have a robust nozzle plate. Plus, we get all the benefits of Xaar printheads in terms of the re-circulation technology and the ability to print pigmented inks. If we pull all of this off, we’ll have the best printhead on the market. If you look at the range of inks that we can print, it’s far in excess of what somebody else can print. If you’ve got a difficult ink, if it’s quite viscous, if it’s pigmented, or if it has some functionality that requires additives, which makes it more difficult to print, then Xaar technology is absolutely the way to go. We’ve won over 30 accounts in the last nine months with companies where there is a requirement to print more challenging inks. WTT: To circle back to the start, is Inca Digital going to be a customer of yours at some point? JM: I do hope so. If I look at the product that I described to you, if I could take that product and put it into an onset, I think it would be an incredible product. So a lot of what we’re doing now is thinking about what are the products that I would have wanted at Inca Digital, and if we can deliver those, then we know we’re on the right track. ●

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MANAGEMENT ─ Data-driven Business Continued from page 37

order to compile source data and determine the most effective way to present it back to the business leaders. Interactive data-presentation tools are plentiful and can be integrated with your database(s) for the purpose of reviewing, drillinginto, cross-referencing and analyzing organizational metrics. In taking this first important step you will see uncertainty replaced by an informed confidence, and your organizational performance will be reflective of your maturing decision-making systems. You have begun a critical step in the iterative process of creating new agility by advancing a data-driven culture that will be more proactive and precise in its business performance.

Forge Predictable Outcomes, Not Professional Guesstimates How will you know if you are on the right metrics and analytics trajectory? Your departments will begin to share information and insight cross-functionally. Teams will discover the interdependency of the business units illuminated by the insight of maturing analytics. Further, teams will become more collaborative in helping solve each other’s problems knowing that the results will show in metrics trending. Accountability, arguably a key cultural characteristic, between departments and individuals, becomes a transparent process in the presence of performance metrics and analytics. The progression of maturing insight is the development of new foresight. With foresight

comes scenario modelFind article at ing that is the cornerstone PrintingNews. com/21147615 to forging predictable outcomes. Leadership throughout the company can create new diagnostic tools that predict outcomes in a variety of practical scenarios. Instead of arbitrarily guesstimating growth and performance objectives, model the possible outcomes based on current and optimal performance metrics. Where do you need improvement or new investment to accelerate growth? Where can product or channel diversity become a growth accelerant? Where can top-grading your talent pool lead to improved outcomes? By pulling the correct business levers and modeling the required resources you will be able to confidently predict and future-proof outcomes on your quest to attain new growth and performance. Data is overwhelming in its abundance in our businesses. Harnessed and forged into meaningful metrics and analytics, it can create a shield of protection for your business and your people. Each department and individual will progress at a different pace through the information maturation process. Undergird a well-formulated decision logic with analytics and experiential wisdom and then develop it into a traceable, teachable and repeatable system. In doing so, you will settle an old saying, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Further, you will be able to adopt a new ethos: Accurate analysis accelerates agile achievement. It is agility, after all, that holds the key to future responsiveness and success. So, go on and wield the data sword with confidence. ●

ACCESS EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS, INDUSTRY DATA, AND MARKET INTELLIGENCE IMPORTANT TO INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES. Member benefits include: Unbiased, real-time Market Inteliigence, Industry, Economic and Trend Analysis, peer-to-peer communication, special reports, webinars and the largest database of industry products.

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with six OEMs as customers and never really had interaction with end customers. So here was a much smaller and less profitable company, but we had thousands of customers and dozens of products. Guy Gecht had the vision to take that risk and carry it forward to the diverse company EFI is today. He truly completely transformed the company, which is something very few CEOs have been able to do.” I’ll admit, I was one of those that thought the VUTEk move was a little crazy but in the end, Gecht was much smarter than I was. Over the past 18 months, Olin has focused on putting in place a global manufacturing and service strategy for the company’s inkjet business with more consolidated and standardized manufacturing across the different inkjet groups. “Once that was in place,” he said, “it was a natural time to explore something new.” We’ll stay in touch with Olin as the next chapter develops. Meanwhile, take a look at Nilo Enterprises if you’re looking for some consulting help.

Ken Garner Ken Garner began his career at United Litho in 1975, where he became President and COO. In 2008, Garner joined MFSA, later renamed to the Association of Marketing Service Providers, where he was President and CEO. In 2014, that association was rolled up with NAPL/NAQP, and subsequently renamed to Epicomm, where he was President and CEO. Epicomm was absorbed into Idealliance, and Garner left to join NPES, which was then renamed APTech. His career reflects the magnitude of change the industry has undergone over all those years, especially in the association world. As 2021 unfolds, Garner is taking on a new adventure.

“I’m going back to school,” he said. “Over 40 years in the industry, I have had the opportunity and privilege to provide counsel and guidance to many people, and I got a great deal of satisfaction out of that. I want to learn how to do that more effectively, so I will be starting a concentrated program at the George Mason University School of Business that will result in my certification as a business coach. It’s a combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning with cohorts no larger than 20. It is promoted as being interactive and engaging, and by June will lead to a certification with one of the professional organizations in the coaching field. That certification makes a big Ken Garner difference to a potential client. “The most valuable thing I am taking away from my decades in the industry is the relationships I have been able to build. It is an industry that has been characterized by solid people. I have never been embarrassed ever in my career to say I am a printer. I am proud of the work the industry does and the contribution we have made.” We’ll check back in with Garner in the summer to see how he survived this intense virtual educational venture and what he plans to do next. The industry owes a debt of gratitude to these three gentlemen who, each in their own way, have made very significant contributions and have made the industry better in so many ways. They are thought leaders, unafraid to make bold changes, and they have each made a big difference. They will be missed, but I have a feeling they’ll each be back, touching the industry again in their own way. We wish them well. ●

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JOHNSON’S WORLD ─ I Do Love My Customers

BE MY VALENTINE Ask your customers to be your Valentine.

t feels as though the new year has barely begun, but here it is Valentine’s Day. I presume that you, as good citizens of Johnson’s World, have already sent out your Valentine’s Day cards. What’s that you say? You don’t celebrate St. Valentine’s Day? You haven’t given a Valentine since grade school? Shame on you. I’m not suggesting that you send roses to your customers, but how about a card? Does a sending a Valentine’s card to a client sound strange to you? Stop and think for a moment. Why do you give a Valentine gift to a loved one? To make that person feel loved and appreciated. Now don’t you want your clients to feel loved and appreciated as well? “But Steve,” I hear you cry, “that’s different!” Of course it is. It is a different kind of love, but I do love my customers. Don’t you? I love working with them. I love producing award-winning printed materials for them. I love helping them, in turn, make their customers look good. And I certainly appreciate them for their loyalty and professionalism. It is a different kind of love, yes, so send a different kind of card. Forget the construction paper, doilies, paste and crayons, and whip up something that looks professionally designed and printed, because, well, because you are a professional designer and printer. In last month’s Johnson’s World I demonstrated the power of Christmas cards.

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Look at all the cards I received Find article at at home! Gee, I feel loved and PrintingNews. com/21148099 appreciated by my friends. If you look closely at the photo you’ll see there are a couple Thanksgiving and New Years cards amongst all the traditional holiday greetings. Why do some people send cards for non-traditional holidays? By mailing a month early (Thanksgiving) or a week late (New Years) they stand out from the herd. This is even more important in business. I promise you, none of your clients are expecting a Valentine’s card. Do you have a new machine, a new employee, a new process or a new address? It is great to have a reason to reach out to prospects and customers, but we don’t have big news every day. What we need is something to get us in front of our clients when nothing is going on. Now don’t you wish you had remembered Valentine’s Day? Never fear, in the next 30 days we’ll celebrate President’s Day, Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday; also National Pig Day and National Chili Day. Like this idea? No need to send me flowers or chocolate. A thank-you card will do. ●

Steve Johnson is a successful print owner and digital pioneer. Each month in Johnson’s World, he offers up his take on the day-to-day world of graphic communications.

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1/19/21 3:37 PM

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Wide-Format & Signage January/February 2021

Articles inside

JOHNSON'S WORLD

THE DIGITAL SPRINT

WILL THE HUMBLE SILKWORM SOON BE OUT OF A JOB?

MAIN ROUTS

EXECUTIVE Q&A

AUTOMATION IS KEY

EXIT INTERVIEWS

SPINNING A YARN

PROSPECTING SKILLS