Printing News - February 2018

February 2018

The h Resource for f Commercial, C i l Sign i & Digital Di i l Printing Pi i

B2 Press Update • GOA 2018 Sh P i Show Preview • Update on Web-to-Print & Storefront • Securing Your Customer's Data

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Table of Contents

February 2018

Good Things Still Come in Small Packages

On the Cover As the technology and customization opportunities in the B2 press market change, specialty applications that use synthetic materials such as vinyls and styrenes are being being used for more rigid applications.

09

As the technology for this small but mighty press evolves, experts are seeing high-speed, high-quality devices in the B2 class.

By Rebecca Marie Jo

11 Grow Your Business with Web-to-Print The web-to-print component is in lock step with how print service providers (PSPs) are trying to grow their business, beginning with the offer of new products to broaden revenue streams.

By Joann Whitcher

13 GOA Returns to Ft. Lauderdale to Host a Dynamic Showcase Industry experts from across the world will convene to discuss the latest trends and exciting new technologies.

By Michael Henry

16 Securing Customer Data – A Playbook for Print Service Providers PSPs are the stewards of vast amounts of data. Here’s how to pro tect sensitive data from the growing threat of cybercrime.

By Laurie Weller

18 Executive Q&A: Denise Wieand, Co-Owner, Allegra, Marmora, NJ

By Jennifer Wilberschied

Columns 06 Editor’s Note Special Delivery

By Jennifer Wilberschied

20 Association Insights Idealliance Affiliates Extend The Association’s Global Reach

By Dawn Lospaluto

21 Winning Strategies Why Are the Top Printers Growing By Strategic Acquisitions?

By Mitch Evans

22 Digital Original Loosening the Prepress Bottleneck

Departments 07 Printing Pulse 24 New Products 27 Classifieds/ Supplier Directory

By John GIles

23 Sales Clinic Selling Print is a Great Career

By Joe Rickard

28 Reality Cheick Making Sure the Big Fish Doesn’t Get Away

27 Ad Index

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By Paula Fargo

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SOCIAL MEDIA & ONLINE CONTENT PrintingNews com

February 2018

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In the Know

PrintingNews.com Social Media

Featured Publication February 2018

Events:

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Graphics of the Americas GOA is one of the graphic communications industry’s largest, annual, combined expositions and conferences, attracting printers, designers, and creative professionals from North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and all corners of the world.

February 23-24, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

The Resource Th R for f Commercial, C i l Sign Si & Digital Di i l Printing Pi i

@PrintingNews PrintingNews.com

• GOA 2018 Sh P i Show Preview • Update on Web-to-Print & Storefront • Securing Your Customer's Data

Printing News

Pure Digital Within one single and exclusive European event, Pure Digital will showcase and celebrate the very best of creative design within digitally printed applications.

April 17-19, Amsterdam Netherlands FTA 2018 Annual Forum & INFOFLEX Exhibition FTA Forum and INFOFLEX is Ground Zero for seeing up close and personal the newest machinery, consumables, soft ware, and numerous other components so crucial to flexography.

May 6-9, Indianapolis, IN

B2 Press Update PaperSpecs.com | Paper Inspiration #328: Dish Cookbook PrintingNews.com/ 12390236

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ince 1928, Printing News has focused on improving efficiency and increasing sales and profits in the print shop. Industry experts share their ideas and technical knowledge on ways to improve operations.

Sister Publications

Vol. 41, No. 5 Group Publisher Kelley Holmes Kelley@PrintingNews.com | 800-616-2252 x8511

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Focusing on Production Inkjet's Next Frontier

Expanding the Opportunities of Inkjet with the Creative Use of Media

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try news, trends, products, ser-

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vices, and management issues

Circulation

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business using this technology.

SOUTHCOMM, INC Printing News (ISSN 0191-4588) (USPS 500-850) Volume 41, Number 5 is published ten times per year in January, March, April, May, June, August, September, October, November and December by SouthComm Business Media, LLC, at 1233 Janesville Avenue, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Printing News, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. Canada Post PM40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Printing News, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Subscriptions: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. to qualified subscribers. Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Subscription prices: U.S. $47 per year, $91 two year; Canada/Mexico $69 per year, $128 two year. All other countries $101 per year, $191 two year. All subscriptions payable in U.S. funds, drawn on U.S. bank. Canadian GST#842773848. Back issue $10 prepaid, if available. Printed in the USA. Copyright 2018 SouthComm Business Media, LLC. 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 from the publisher. SouthComm Business Media, LLC does not assume and herby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident or any other cause whatsoever. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not to be taken as official expressions of the publishers, unless so stated. The publishers do not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, nor do they so warrant any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles.

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February 2018

The PPremier Th i SSource ffor th the Vi Visuall C Communications i i IIndustry d t

Trends in Retail/POP Signage

Article Reprints Brett Petillo Wright’s Media 877-652-5295, ext. 118 bpetillo@wrightsmedia.com

2018 January 2018 February

Specialty Inkjet Inks • Executive Q & A

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Editor’s Note

Special Delivery Can’t keep the good news from direct mail providers.

S

ometimes I feel like big brother is watching. Do you? Facebook knows what ads to present to me whilst I scroll through my friends’ posts by clicking into my recent internet search history. If I have been on a search for a new wardrobe, ads pop up from places like LOFT, Kohl’s, and Nordstrom.

While I was planning my wedding a couple years ago, I was inundated with ads from Etsy, wedding

venues, and florists. And, when I am in a cooking mood, I see tons of ads promoting Facebook pages loaded with healthy, and some not so healthy, but oh so good, recipes.

Direct mail can be just as sneaky, if you ask me.

However, I recently was astounded at how in-tune some of my mail can be. I am used to getting

By Jennifer Wilberschied Editor

direct mail?

I have since received a handful of informational

those coupons in my mailbox printed on quality

pamphlets and notices regarding pregnancy

cardstock, promoting the latest deal of the month.

from my insurance provider, and even some free

More times than not they are from somewhere

samples of things like prenatal vitamins from

like Kohl’s. Everyone loves the 30% off your entire

various companies out there that must be in cahoots

purchase deals-right?

with the insurance company to get my business.

But this time, my mail knew something about me that not even my parents were privy to at the

Jennifer Wilberschied is a seasoned journalist who brings her award-winning talent and fresh perspective to the ever-changing print and graphics industry, exploring the issues, challenges, and technology revolving around the commercial, digital, sign, and wide-and grand-format markets.

you certainly are on the ball, and who does your

I have even received a slew of coupons from baby megastore Buy Buy Baby. Now, how did they know?

time. In early November, I received a personalized

Direct mail is amazing and will never cease to

letter from my medical insurance company. I open

surprise me on the technology available to offer

it, expecting a bill or explanation of benefits, but it

such personalized service. Now that expectations

greeted me with “Congratulations, you’re having

have been set, I anticipate a similar message

a baby!” I was shocked-how did the good news get

congratulating me on the birth of my baby in early

back to me so quickly? I received this letter not more

July. Mail is great no doubt, but I’ll also accept a

than one week after finding out the news myself

bouquet of flowers-Blue Cross, are you listening?

and it kind of took me by surprise to read the words and connect with the statement. My doctor must have reported the news to my insurance company who hurriedly sent out the notice before I even went in for my first appointment. Blue Cross, Blue Shield-

Wonderful Web Opportunities for PSPs to capitalize on an eCommerce platform are numerous and growing. In the corporate marketing space, for example, it could be as basic as developing portals for key clients containing catalogs of frequently ordered items, as well as access to their complete order history, to make it easy to order and reorder materials. Find out what’s happening in the wonderful world of web-to-print, starting on page 11.

Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12392957

6

Printing News

February 2018

PrintingNews com

Printing Pulse NPES Rebrands as Association for Print Technologies

Epson America, Inc. and Epson Electronics America, Inc. Announce Operational Merger Effective April 1, 2018, Epson Electronics America, Inc. will

Heralding its bold new mission to drive printing industry growth,

merge with its sister company, Epson America, Inc. Both

NPES, The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and

companies are currently wholly owned subsidiaries of Seiko

Converting Technologies, announces a name change to the As-

Epson Corporation with headquarters in California. This

sociation for Print Technologies (APT). The new identity is both a

merger positions Epson’s micro device business for continued

nod to the association’s signature annual event—PRINT—which

long-term growth by integrating EEA into state-of-the art in-

it has produced since 1968, and also marks a defining moment

frastructure and operational systems that can accommodate

in the Association’s 85-year history. Additionally, the new name

our future business expansion plans. After the merger, EEA

signifies progress toward the completion of its Strategic Business

will cease to exist as a legal entity but its entire business will

Plan for the industry, which launched in January 2017.

continue to operate under EAI.

“This rebrand of the organization signals a significant turning

As part of Epson’s 2025 Mid Term Business Plan, Seiko

point, not just for our Association, but for the entire printing and

Epson Corporation (SEC) is making significant investments

imaging industry,” stated Thayer Long, president, Association for

to expand its Business-to-Business (B2B) portfolio. These

Print Technologies.

changes will ensure Epson’s on-going leadership in the mi-

PrintingNews.com/12391747

cro device markets.

PrintingNews.com/12391363

Proforma Introduces New Acquisition Company Proforma is excited to introduce The Proforma Acquisition Company, a new division that will directly purchase print, packaging and promotional products companies ranging in size from $5 million to $100 million and more in sales. Now, print, packaging and promotional products companies interested in selling their business or other strategic transactions can turn to an experienced industry leader with the organizational infrastructure and resources to acquire and manage companies of all sizes.

Historically, Proforma has pursued acquisition opportunities of industry companies with sales under $5 million on behalf of its Franchise Owners. Now, through The Proforma Acquisition Company, owners of all sized companies can turn to Proforma when they’re ready to sell or find other strategic options.

PrintingNews.com/12390033

For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10004688

February 2018

Printing News

7

Printing Pulse

Canon U.S.A. Kicks Off 2018 with Announcement of New Executive Appointments Personnel moves represent Canon’s commitment to elevating its own leaders and putting them in a position to succeed. “Every year, it is a great honor of mine to announce the well-deserved promotions of some of our cherished Canon team members,” said Joe Adachi, chairman and chief executive officer, Canon U.S.A., Inc. Ross Held has been promoted from vice president and general manager to senior vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies Communications Group.

Richard Antaya has been promoted from senior director and general manager to vice president, Imaging Technologies Communications Group. Robert Poseno has been promoted from senior director and general manager to vice president, Imaging Technologies Communications Group. Peter Kowalczuk has been promoted from executive vice president and general manager to president of

Konica Minolta, Epic Products International Announce Partnership to Promote Digital Inkjet Solutions Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc., announced the partnership with Epic Products International, an Arlington, TX-based designer and manufacturer of equipment that enhances the quality and productivity of the printing process. The venture will enhance Konica Minolta’s AccurioJet KM-1 program, which markets and promotes the KM-1 to print providers worldwide.

“At Konica Minolta, our vision is about helping our customers innovate their business and processes,” said Kevin Kern, senior vice president, Konica Minolta. “We want to open new opportunities for our customers to expand their business domains and adding the Epic Product to our portfolio will help them do that. The AccurioJet KM-1 program continues to offer them the

Canon Solutions America.

highest level of innovative solutions to produce high

PrintingNews.com/12391121

quality, improve productivity and control costs.”

PrintingNews.com/12389514

Crawford Technologies Releases Digital Transform Engine 4.6 Crawford Technologies released the latest upgrade of its software

“Crawford Technologies remains committed to its aggressive

based on CrawfordTech Digital Transform Engine (DTE) 4.6. New

semi-annual schedule for new software releases that further en-

capabilities in CrawfordTech DTE 4.6 include additional enhance-

hances our ability to provide a platform-independent approach,

ments and product extensions that further power Crawford Tech-

leading system performance, and superior innovation with all our

nologies’ broad range of software solutions designed to make doc-

solutions,” said Ernie Crawford, president and CEO of Crawford

uments of all formats—whether paper or electronic—accessible to

Technologies.

all customers, compliant and ready for omni-channel delivery.

PrintingNews.com/12387618

8

Printing News

February 2018

A peek inside Fujifilm’s Jet Press 720S.

Good Things Still Come in

SMALL Packages As the technology for this small but mighty press evolves, experts are seeing high-speed, high-quality devices in the B2 class.

S

omeone once said good things can come in small packages. The evolution of the B2 press is no exception.

As the technology for this press continues to evolve, industry experts and product managers alike are seeing high-speed, high-quality digital devices in the B2 class.

“The ultimate goal of a B2 digital press that PSP’s want is to have all of the quality (imaging, color uniformity, registration), features (colors, coating), substrate range, productivity, and sheet cost of present offset digital presses, but obviously with variable imaging capability,” said Dan Maurer, VP digital – Americas, at Heidelberg when Printing News spoke to him about the B2 press market. “Although the B2 press is exciting in its possibilities for innovation, the B2 will have to compete with B1 digital presses entering the market that will benefit from consistency of finishing processes, integrated workflow, and job cost economies afforded by that larger sheet size.

Some companies are staying ahead of the curve by pushing

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the definition of the B2 class even further, like Komori has with its Impremia IS29 UV inkjet press which can accommodate a 6-up imposition with an oversized B2 sheet of 23” x 29”,” Maurer continued. Other experts predict the morphing of B2 press types will be incorporate faster print speeds, additional, new UV ink formulations, lower ink costs, and the integration of new substrates into common B2 press use. The advantages of digital printing have been brought to the B2 sheet size, including variable data printing, economical short-run printing, and digital collation of book printing. In the past, B2 presses were limited in their production to applications such as marketing collateral, booklets, posters, promotional products, flyers, digital photobook, book covers, and folding cartons.

As the technology and customization opportunities in the B2 press market change, specialty applications that use synthetic materials such as vinyls and styrenes are being being used for more rigid applications such as credit cards, handicap placards, and translights.

February 2018

Printing News

9

“Finishing solutions are chasing to catch up to B2 size digital presses with quick makeready capability and that will drive additional applications to this format. Also, as inkjet quality and substrate capability improve this

most important,” Pierce explained.

Many other industry experts believe reduced cost of ownership, higher speed, improved quality in printing, and increased substrate printing capabilities are the top three influencing the

KBA Rapida 75 Pro.

will benefit the B2 size digital presses because of the inherent limitations of electrophotography’s consistency and uptime in the B2 format,” said Maurer.

“As is normally the case, PSP’s would like to see faster devices with even higher print quality. They are always looking for lower costs of ownership. In many cases they are looking for additional colors such as opaque white and metallic ink. For some specific applications, they are looking for inline coating and/or finishing capabilities,” explained Scott Robertz, digital printing systems product manager at Komori.

Robertz pointed to market demand as the main driver for new developments in the printing industry. “We will see most if not all of the improvements/ features described above in the near future,” he predicted. Ed Pierce, product marketing manager at Fujifilm, expects to see a growth in folding cartons due to short run needs and also variable data. “However, variable data is not a huge driver as so many in the market discuss. Yes, it is a desired feature/ability but delivering an offset quality print with a production inkjet press is what is

10

Printing News

Offset isn’t going away any time soon, but the adoption rate of production inkjet will continue to grow and pick up a faster and faster pace as the economics are better understood. market in the next 12-18 months. “As is normally the case, PSP’s would like to see faster devices with even higher print quality. They are always looking for lower costs of ownership.

All of these changes will ultimately lead to the commercialization of B2 presses as more manufacturers enter the market and price these solutions in a way where investment far outweighs cost. But what should we expect within the next 5 years?

February 2018

According to Pierce, we will see an increasing number of PSPs shift from offset to production inkjet. “Larger formats will arrive, faster speeds will be achieved. Offset isn’t going away any time soon but the adoption rate of production inkjet will continue to grow and pick up a faster and faster pace as the economics are better understood.”

Robertz predicts the market will transform with the introduction of larger-format (B1) technology, such as higher-speed devices that can print with offset quality on a vast array of substrates. “We’ve seen technology demonstrations of these devices at drupa 2016 with presses printing B1 sheets at rates as high as 13,000 sheets per hour. Once these devices successfully go into production environments, we will likely see a major impact in the industry. Komori introduced its Impremia NS40 at drupa 2016, a B1 digital press based on nanographic inkjet technology,” said Robertz. “Additionally, integration of coating, priming, and even hybrid applications are being incorporated into these platforms.

Speed and cost are most essential because in the end PSP’s have to make money with any investment, right?” added Maurer.

As far as the improvements and features print service providers are asking for? They’re what you’d expect. “Additional Colors, UV Gel Ink, improved faster DFE’s, and inline finishing device integration are first in demand,” said Ed Bokuniewicz, product marketing manager, Industrial Print Group for Konica Minolta. These technologies or product platforms tend to surpass each other about every four years (the average product development cycle of the manufacturers). Experts suggest looking for these presses to improve in price and performance in that time. “Inkjet will start to take over as the base platform over electrophography/electro-ink. But I don’t see a 15,000 sheet per hour B2 digital press being on the market in that timeframe at the cost of an offset sheet, so you can bet that the latest offset platforms will be viable for a long time to come,” concluded Maurer.

PrintingNews com

Grow Your Business with Web-to-Print

By Joann Whitcher

T

he web-to-print component is in lock step with how print service providers (PSPs) are trying to grow their business, beginning with the offer of new products to broaden revenue streams.

Opportunities for PSPs to capitalize on an eCommerce platform are numerous and growing. In the corporate marketing space, for example, it could be as basic as developing portals for key clients containing catalogs of frequently ordered items, as well as access to their complete order history, to make it easy to order and reorder materials.

“We have PressWise customers that started in web-to-print with only one or two key clients using custom storefronts, and with workflow automation on the back end, were able to create an environment where those customers could order and reorder jobs from online catalogs, with personalization of jobs where required, and rely on rapid turnarounds and consistency in their

PrintingNews com

orders, in turn generating great loyalty and repeat business. It also creates a central ordering facility for corporates with multiple locations,” said Tony Tarpey, COO at SmartSoft USA. Adding in new services and product offerings can be a significant investment, both in terms of staffing and technology. If a PSP wants to offer wide-format on their e-commerce portal, one solution is to follow a familiar industry path of first outsourcing the work before bringing in the technology and staff in-house. This allows the PSP to offer the product through their website and drive orders, while learning and understanding what their customers need to better focus their investment.

This also goes for PSPs who want to bring in marketing and cross media as a new service offering. “Even if they can’t perform the marketing service themselves, even if they can’t do the heavy lifting, they can build out the proposal and partner with someone else who can deliver it,” explained Charlotte Tueckmantel, GM/VP, web to print and value added products at EFI.

“It’s much easier to sell different things to the same customer, than to go out and find new revenue stream,” she added. “When your customers know you and trust you they will ask you for more things – ‘you’re doing all our corporate branding, can you do these posters as well?’ ” One ongoing trend in the web-to-print marketplace is the continued push toward workflow automation. Print providers want the ability to integrate their web-to-print workflow with other parts of their business, such as accounting, procurement, shipping, MIS/ERP, prepress, imposition, and more, in an effort to increase efficiencies, save time, and reduce errors, noted Theresa McGrady, who handles marketing for Aleyant.

“We are also finding that prospects want workflow solutions that will work for a wide audience as printers now are printing more than just traditional print materials.”

Web-to-print must become more relevant to a firm’s entire customer base, stressed Tarpey. “It’s not just about a catalog of business cards or brochures anymore. Every custom quote, and

February 2018

Printing News

11

every other interaction, should be possible within the W2P portal. That means a very deep integration into the back-end MIS is needed to deliver the most efficient process to the customer.

The printers that can offer this will win the customer acquisition game not only through cost efficiencies, but also responsiveness and ability to react to customers’ needs in a timely manner.”

Web-to-print is one aspect of PressWise’s browser-based print management system, which automates the

allows printers to cater to different markets, needs, and customers.”

Aleyant’s web-to-print solution, focused around its Pressero platform, includes as an add-on PrintJobManager, a cloud-based print job manager solution for estimating and market-driven pricing, job management, raw material, inventory tracking, and planning for a variety of print production technologies and applications. Additional add-ons include eDocBuilder, a web-based online design and variable data publishing

Aleyant’s web-to-print solution, focused around its Pressero platform, includes as an add-on PrintJobManager, a cloud-based print job manager solution for estimating and marketdriven pricing, job management, raw material, inventory tracking, and planning for a variety of print production technologies and applications. entire workflow and offers a single point of entry, to accomplish online orders, as well as custom walk-ins, or orders entered by reps in the field.

In addition to providing unlimited customer web-to-print storefronts, the PressWise platform features a fully integrated Print MIS. Print providers can reach out to their customers, to get a better understanding of what other types of products they may be interested in purchasing from them, said McGrady. Then PSPs can easily add these items to their current sites or create specific new sites for them.

“PSPs can create specific storefronts that zero in on niche products for both B2B and B2C customers,” McGrady continued. “This approach helps differentiate them from the masses and also aids with SEO rankings. Having the ability to create multiple storefronts enables printers to easily offer and market multiple niche product sites to expand offerings beyond just traditional print items. This approach

12

Printing News

(VDP) system, and Aleyant tFLOW, a digital workflow automation and customer service solution for commercial, large format, label, and specialty graphics.

With PSPs providing more design services, a new component of EFI’s Digital Storefront offering is SmartCanvas.

DSF administrators are able to create templates for banners, holiday cards, business cards, flyers, etc.

“One of the aspects we look at in terms of what printers are doing is that our customers are looking to be more self-sufficient,” said Tueckmantel. “We are all designers these days.

EFI’s Digital Storefront offers easy-touse online tools, allowing customers to upload their own art, change sizes and fonts, and complete that order without help. Customers will know what they are getting, both visually and from a price perspective.”

This straightforward workflow capability is not just for ordering holiday and birthday cards, Tueckmantel stressed, but also for the corporate cus-

February 2018

tomer. These customers can start on the web-to-print platform with their corporate approved brand templates, and order fliers for an event, for example.

This capability not only makes the life of the customer easy, but is also highly valuable for PSPs, as it makes their website that much sticker as well, said Tueckmantel.

At Connect 2018 in January, EFI’s user conference, the company announced upgrades to its design and cross-media marketing services, to give printers the ability to offer a full slate of marketing services, said Tuekmantel.

One issue for traditional printers looking to bring in cross platform marketing is ensuring the necessary staff is in place to take full advantage of the expanded opportunity. In fact, noted Tueckmantel, it’ s the number reason that prevents customers from making a decision.

“Until they have their resource plan in place, the investment will be wasted,” she said. The tools are becoming more simpler, more complete, and easier to use. While you may not need a full-time person for the job, you do need someone who understands the fundamentals of marketing and can talk to a customer about cross media.

“This is definitely a part of the investment for the customer, and a part of the conversation we are having.” explained Tueckmantel. “As we talk to printers, what I am finding is when they haven’t flushed out that resource plan to utilize a new technology, then they don’t move forward.

“But I do applaud owners for not investing in technology that they can’t use. They are savvy enough to recognize upfront that they have to a resource plan, and this has be part of their decision-making. You just don’t put in the technology and magical things start to happen.”

With that said, the approach that EFI has taken with cross media is to try to get the technology out of the way, so printers don’t have to be a HTML developer, said Tueckmantel.

PrintingNews com

Sean Pavone/iStock

GOA Returns to Ft. Lauderdale to Host Dynamic Showcase

Industry experts from across the world will convene to discuss the latest trends and exciting new technologies.

T

he Graphics of America Expo & Conference (GOA) hits the Fort Lauderdale/ Broward County Convention Center on February 22 – 24, 2018. GOA is one of the graphic communications industry’s largest annual combined expositions, attracting printers and designers from all corners of the world.

Industry experts from across the globe will convene to discuss the latest trends, exciting new technologies, and groundbreaking solutions to maximize revenue and growth of the print service providers in attendance.

The GOA Expo will showcase equipment and supplies for commercial printing, flexible label printing, wide-format inkjet printing, and industrial printing. Attendees will also enjoy an exclusive look at new technology related to 3D printed electronics, specialty printing, and decorative printing.

industry’s leading experts.

Session tracks span a variety of subjets, offering the latest information in the following tracks: Operations; Leadership; Sales; Photoshop & Design; and Adobe Creative Cloud.

A few highlighted sessions include, but are not limited to:

Education

Effective UX Design Tools: Concept To Visual Design Presented by: Jennifer Smith Thursday February 22 – 2:00–3:15pm In this session, you will discover how to use the tools in InDesign, Photoshop,

GOA’s seminars, offered in both English and Spanish, are a key factor of the show’s ongoing success. Attendees will be provided with the opportunity to discover new skills and learn from the

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and Adobe Illustrator to build website wireframes and more. Find out how UX pros use these essentials tools in order to wireframe a website and demonstrate interactivity. In this session, you’ll learn how to build pages in InDesign, Illustrator, and even Photoshop that represent separate screens and allow for a clickable prototype of your website design.

Top 10 Mistakes Printers Make with Customers…and How To Avoid Them!

Presented by: Dave Fellman Thursday, February 22 – 10:30-11:45am It’s been said that if you don’t have customers, you don’t really have a company. For a printing company, customers—especially good ones—are usually hard to get and often hard to keep. It’s bad enough that “outside” forces (read that: competitors) attack your customer relationships every day. Too many

February 2018

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printers make their problems even worse, though, by making “internal” mistakes—avoidable mistakes—which cost them customers and money. Dave Fellman will identify the 10 most common mistakes that printers make with their customers, and tell you something about how to keep from making them yourself.

So What? Why You? Who Cares?

Your Brand Makes the Difference.

Presented by: Ryan Sauers Thursday, February 22 – 2:00-3:15pm Attendees will learn that we live in a constantly connected and content

explosion world with little attention span. Thus, all messages must stand out. The session will review under the iceberg thinking and its role in sales and marketing to understand root level issues. Attendees will be asked to reflect on “why” they do what they have been doing, not just “how” or “what” they have been doing (i.e. Surface level vs. under the surface thinking). This session will explain why one’s brand makes all the difference in overcoming price wars and objections; and, how to sell on value and explain the difference between price and value.

Showstoppers Getting started on the expansive show floor may be a little overwhelming, but Printing News is here to help! The next few pages include some of the most cutting-edge products that will be on display. Check them out and make sure to stop by some of these booths for demonstrations and more at the Graphics of Americas Expo.

Attendees of GOA 2018 will be able to peruse the expo halls and learn about the hottest technologies in the printing and graphics industry. Be sure to check out these companies and their latest offerings while exploring the show floor:

Rollem International—Booth 301

MicroGlue—Booth 408

Rollem will preview the Insignia6 sheet-fed, rotary flexo-magnetic die cutter for short-long run production.

Benefits include ease of operation, quick changeovers, and run speeds up to 5,000 sph. Die cut, kiss-cut, cut score, perforate, crease, and emboss an unlimited number of shapes, sizes, and materials up to 30 pt. thickness; ideal for packaging and folded cartons with optional in-line folder/gluer system. Don’t miss the live demo on this production-driven die cutter offered at an affordable price point.

Designed to simplify and streamline the folding and gluing operation for mail applications, microgluer is the easiest to use tabletop folder with an integrated glue system. The microgluer features dot, line, or stitch patterns; patented output speed compensation, product batch counter, production rate meter, and an easy clean water purging system.

Uninet—Booth 327 The new UniNet iColor 550 is a multipurpose printing solution for transfer production of garments, labels, stationary, banners, hard surfaces, marketing customization, and more.

The versatility of this new printer allows users to create heat transfer prints with white overprint, right side reading with white underprint, and regular CMYK prints without white. The iColor 550’s capabilities can be further enhanced using UniNet’s specialty toner upgrade kits which includes fluorescent, clear, security, and dye sublimation toners.

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February 2018

Tec Lighting—Booth 421 Tec UV Coaters offer the ideal combination of performance and affordability. The TruCoat Offline UV Coater will give you the ability to Gloss and Satin coat almost any printed sheet. The system is offered in many configurations to fit your requirements, sizes range from 16” to 30” with a modular design to allow for added components such as an automatic feeder and stackers for increased production in the future.

PrintGuard—Booth 1008 PrintGuard introduces their newest addition to the Anti-Marking family—PerfectBlackPlus Impression Cylinder jackets are designed and manufactured for state-of-the-art long perfecting presses.

PerfectBlackPlus Nano Ceramic coatings are especially

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designed to meet high tolerances required for today’s most critical print jobs, to produce the highest print quality and deliver unequaled durability. Formats are available in basic half and letter fold, hot melt or cold glue, also more complex mailers including Z fold and micro perforation.

Gluefast—Booth 1100 Gluefast’s business card duplexing system can be completed in three easy steps: First, the glue machine applies a water-based mounting glue to cardstock.

Next, align cardstock with a matching sheet using an alignment board and magnetic corner brackets. Last, place the weighted board over the sheets for 30 minutes until glue has dried. Simple to maintain and efficient; one operator can produce 150 glued sheets per hour.

iJetColor—Booth 1206 The iJetColorPro is the first light industrial class printer that uses a highly reliable vacuum conveyor system to deliver products for personalization, text, and imaging utilizing the Memjet single page wide head that delivers 6 ips and 12 ips full color inkjet imaging. A flexible and easy to adjust imager position over a rugged and reliable conveyor provides maximum feed capability of 12” by 17” media with an 8.7” maximum imaging width and maximum product thickness of up to 1”.

Thiele Technologies, Inc.—Booth 1302 The Thiele EZPrint-1 and EZPrint-2 systems are cost effective solutions for static inkjet printing of text messages, dates, lot codes, logos, barcodes, pre-canceled or bulk rate permits, indicias, graphics, and more. Using standard HP ink jet cartridges printing is easier and more affordable than ever. Simply create your image or text on the software provided, download from your PC or laptop computer to the print head, and you’re ready to print!

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Stuebing Automatic Machine Co.—Booth 1305 Established in 1894, Steubing is a world leading producer and supplier of specialty binding materials, including calendar slides/hangers, and calendar slide binding machines. Stuebing has developed innovative, customer-focused solutions for worldwide markets. With versatile manufacturing, unsurpassed product knowledge and technical capabilities, and a strong service orientation, Stuebing is the North American printing industry’s supplier of choice.

Mimaki—Booth 1521 The Mimaki UCJV Series UV-LED cut-and-print devices are the only 64-inch UV printers offering in-line cutting capability and models featuring white ink to enable four-layer printing. Available in two models: four-color UCJV150-160 and the UCJV300-160 that can accommodate up to seven colors to offer an enhanced print capability that allows designers to build layered, transformative graphics that ‘changes’ its image or color scheme depending on the light source.

Unifoil Printer—Booth 1827 The UniFoil Printer allows you to personalize your books, notebooks, agenda, contracts, etc. If you are about to present an offer, a contract or even yourself in a meeting, with the UniFoil Printer your work will always stand out. The UniFoil Printer is a digital printer that prints foil directly from a digital file on any flat surface. Just connect the UniFoil Printer to your computer, download the software, and start printing.

Xante—Booth 1921 The X-32 from Xante is revolutionizing UV printing.

This heavy-duty, 6-color, high-speed flatbed inkjet printer easily handles large objects and irregular surfaces up to 24” x 36” x 11.02” tall (up to 66 lbs). The X-32’s solid metal construction, heavy-duty vacuum bed, and industrial lead screw ensures precision output at 118 sq.ft./hr. Print on virtually any substrate at 720 x 1200 dpi.

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Securing Customer Data –

A Playbook for Print Service Providers PSPs are the stewards of vast amounts nts of data.

Here’s how to protect sensitive data me. from the growing threat of cybercrime.

By Laurie Weller

F

rom Target to Home Depot, Equifax, and Uber, it seems that consumer data is an easy target for cybercriminals today.

While consumers routinely surrender scores of personal information to retailers, healthcare providers, financial institutions, and social media sites, one can’t help but wonder: Who has access to this information – and how is it being protected?

As a print service provider (PSP), you have an obligation to secure customer data according to a host of government and industry standards. And, with fraud ever-expanding across the consumer landscape, the cry for data security across your systems and applications is louder than ever.

“For today’s printer, securing data is paramount,” said Ryan Kiley, director, strategic production services, commercial and industrial printing group for Ricoh. “Every single printer handling even potentially sensitive data needs to develop and adhere to a set of security protocols.”

Tim Coker, information security practice manager for All Covered, the IT division of Konica Minolta, added, “It could be very important to a PSP’s business if the data it is receiving from clients contains PII (personally identifiable information) or other confidential data. If you have that kind of data, you become subject to federal, state, and local regulations as to how to protect it.”

Kristen McKiernan, president of AccuZIP, Inc., notes that security mandates are particularly important for PSPs that conduct mailings for clients or offer data quality services. “Data must be protected and stored in a secure physical environment and encrypted in digital communications,” she said.

For most PSPs, securing data is a complex task, though, says Kiley. “Because print systems have monsitj/iStock

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February 2018

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so many moving parts, there is a large threat surface,” he said. “Production hardware often has several servers, network controllers, hard drives, and so on. Security needs to be baked in or added to each of these. It’s also important to remember that implementing security is not solely limited to the print device itself, but also, and equally importantly, to the main elements of workflow that the job interacts with.”

Choose the right partners To ensure customer data remains secure, Thomas Schnettler, head of business development in Europe for locr GmbH, advises PSPs to only partner with businesses whose operations meet the highest data security standards. He notes that locr adheres to the rules and restrictions of the German Federal Data Protection Act (also called the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz or BDSG), “one of the strictest data protection regulations in the world,” he said.

AccuZIP software is SOC (Service Organization Control) 2 compliant today, and will soon be HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) compliant as well, a certification, McKiernan affirms, that will “ensure that AccuZIP has all the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards in place as required of a HIPAA-compliant data center and business associate.”

Conduct a thorough security audit To ensure that the right tools and practices are in place, says Schnettler, PSPs should conduct a comprehensive security audit.

“A company needs a working and serviced firewall, working and serviced virus detection software, and a company security policy based on the existing laws and regulations for data security in the country in which that business operates,” he said, adding that security needs to be kept up to date, as well. “It is basically not a question of what types of hardware or software are implemented. It is mainly a question of how they are maintained.”

Patch your systems According to Kiley, to protect data well across the environment, physical security, network security, and employee training all work together – and must be actively managed.

“Physical security involves restricted access, unique passwords, chain of custody audit trails, and secure hard drive disposal, among other things,” he said.

“Network security includes developing a patch plan that keeps operating systems and applications up to date, implementing firewalls, and conducting vulnerability assessments. Employee training should show employees both security best practices in their day-to-day work and how to identify vulnerabilities as they arise.”

Schnettler also recommends limiting data access to

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only those employees who absolutely need it. “Any customer data that is used needs to be handled securely during the whole production cycle,” he said. “Only a few people should have access to this data and prepare it for production.”

Respond swiftly to a breach While no PSP wants to grapple with the aftermath of a security breach, cyberattacks can happen, even when precautions are taken. Here’s how to minimize the damages. “The first thing a PSP needs to do is go through the process of determining if there was a breach,” said Coker.

“This requires forensic investigations into the incident, and a lot of times printers do not have the internal expertise to do this. If that is the case, they should reach out to a third party to conduct the investigation.”

Once a breach has been confirmed, McKiernan advises PSPs to take immediate action to mitigate or eliminate a continued breach. “Change credentials of the digital systems that have been hacked, and contact legal counsel on how to proceed,” she said.

And, communicate, says Schnettler. “Don’t play games.

Tell your customer the truth. You may not like it. Your customer may not like it. But show them how you solved this case.” Kiley added, “All you can do at that point is mitigate the damage and show what steps you’re taking to prevent a similar breach from happening again.”

Today’s data revolution While embracing proven security tools and tactics is essential, McKiernan reminds PSPs that the industry is changing. In the era of Big Data, brands continue to deliver even more information into the hands of PSPs. “With the increased popularity and effectiveness of personalized variable data printing, more and more customers are trusting their printers with personal data that must be protected,” she said.

With so much data at stake today, says Coker, print buyers are also calling on PSPs to verify their security practices. “Very soon, to win or even keep contracts, a PSP will have to meet vendor assessment requirements, and will have to conduct vulnerability assessments to prove that its environment is secure,” said Coker. “A lot of printers have not had to do this before.”

Schnettler added, “Everyone thinks that more data is more effective. But, is this really true? Is it better to mail to thousands of addresses, even if most of them are not in a location to do business with you? Our concept is this: Send out less, but gain more by investing in other means of marketing like better paper, additional colors, varnish technologies, and personal URLs. It’s not always important to have more data, but to use the data you have more wisely by segmenting it either by geography or other demographics.”

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Executive Q&A:

By Jennifer Wilberschied

Denise Wieand Co-Owner, Allegra, Marmora, NJ We often hear about the digital age, but we must not forget that understanding your target market and the variety of ways they receive information is key.

PN: Tell us a little about your

company, the segment of the market it serves, and what you consider to be your “core” users/ customers.

Wieand: The right timing, location, and opportunity converged in March of 2010 when my husband and I took ownership of an independent print shop, OCS Printing, which had been in existence for more than 25 years. We immediately transformed the company to Allegra Marketing, Print and Mail of Marmora with the vision of being the leading value-added marketing communications provider to businesses within our southern Jersey Shore geographic area. Allegra is part of a larger franchise organization, Alliance Franchise Brands, out of Plymouth, MI. Our plan continues with maintaining the core printing and bindery services that have been offered for more than 30 years and to also invest in new technologies that present more sophisticated marketing services. Some of our expanded services have included things like strategic and targeted marketing campaigns, graphic design, digital marketing, websites, promotional prod-

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ucts, wide-format printing services, list sourcing, and direct mail management that will allow area businesses to reach new customers they might not understand how to reach or even know exist.

Our clients range from many small seasonal and non-seasonal businesses, real estate companies, non-profit organizations, large professional firms, and contractors to healthcare facilities.

Changes in the marketplace and seeing the expansion of the seasonal business community at the South Jersey Shore have made more sophisticated marketing strategies a necessity for companies of all sizes. For some smaller organizations, accessing the talent and tools that they need can be cost-prohibitive.

We are able to pass along numerous efficiencies in time savings and dollars by having full-service printing technologies and access to other services that reduce costs. We thank the Lord for this opportunity and pray that this will be a long term adventure!

PN: How did you get in-

volved with the company? What is your background before that?

Wieand: I bring a wide range of professional experience and expertise mostly gained through business consulting in the area of business processes associated to print and marketing. I was in the US Army for several years and then worked as a director, specializing in marketing and merchandising solutions for several North American

February 2018

consulting firms providing expertise to many national and global retailers with helping them to improve their business processes, technology, organizational structures, strategic marketing, and merchandising. I was burnt out from spending an average of 60 hours or more working and traveling, mostly by plane, every week and wanted to reduce my time away from home and be more involved with my family on a day to day basis. I was seeking the right business opportunity that would let me be more in control of my schedule, selfworth, financial gain, and future. Since I had experience within marketing and found a franchise solution that provided additional support for growth and fit what I was looking for, I made the move to business ownership a reality.

PN:

What do you consider your greatest achievement in this market to be?

Wieand: I feel that our greatest achievement has been our ability to always be open to seeking a solution for our clients and seeking new services to offer that make sense based on the changing environment.

PN:

If there as anything you could change, either about your career in regards to the print industry, your company, or the market as a whole, what would it be and why?

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Wieand: It’s become evident to me that to be successful in the marketplace, the typical brand awareness tactics from the past are no longer enough.

I’d like to educate and help businesses understand their market and audience; current and potential customers and then be strategic about where to spend their time and money when trying to gain attention to their products or services. With this, multi-channel marketing is a must which can include print but cannot stand by itself. I am hopeful that we can continue gaining the confidence of prospects and convey that we are the right choice to help them get noticed and grow.

PN:

What do you consider the greatest challenge to be for the industry right now? Why? Wieand: Th ings are moving so rapidly with technology these days!

There is so much to know, learn, and it’s always changing, making it difficult to be on the cutting edge or be aware of all that you need to know to best represent your company’s talents and service your customers.

PN:

What do you consider the greatest asset to be for the industry right now? Why? Wieand: The greatest asset is our updated technology and equipment, our team of people, and our ongoing ability of identifying how to be as efficient as possible! We strive to provide our customers with the right solution and if we don’t find one, we reach out to our resources for help. We don’t give up!

PN: In your opinion, what

have been the biggest changes to the way we communicate with one another in the past few years? How would you recommend this industry take advantage of that?

Wieand: We often hear about the digital age; email, texting, and social media being just some of the primary

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The team at Allegra Maroma is talented, dedicated, and clearly a fun bunch.

ways we communicate today, but we must not forget that understanding your target market and the variety of ways they receive information is key.

Much of our audience is still tuned into printed media or other traditional touchpoints. Even large companies with huge budgets still use direct mail, print, and other traditional media as they are aware and understand the importance of many different vehicles that appear throughout our daily activities and routine interactions. I’d recommend keeping focused on how to use a variety of media for a consistent message so that all audiences are reached.

PN: Looking ahead, what

major innovations or technologies do you believe will shape the future of the industry? Why?

Wieand: As we continue to be more driven by solutions that reduce time, enhance speed, and streamline output, we are likely to see more advanced systems that provide less interaction with people and that provide more automation. The digital age continues to enhance these offerings and fine tune results to ensure speed and accuracy are obtained.

PN:

What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to printers and others involved in this industry?

Wieand: Print is not dead but who are we kidding, we all know that times are changing and we need to change with the times. Seek additional services that you can offer, expand your knowledge, don’t hesitate to be a solution provider. You might stumble through it, but get back up and try again until you fi nd what works for you and your business.

PN: Is there anything else

you would like to share with our readers?

Wieand: I have met some wonderful and smart people from all backgrounds in this industry, I’m never bored. If I am not working in the business, I am working on the business. No regrets and it sure feels good when you are successful in helping a business meet their goals and grow.

February 2018

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Association Insights:

Idealliance Affiliates Extend The Association’s Global Reach Idealliance extends reach with recent launches of new affiliates across the globe.

By Dawn Lospaluto Managing Editor, Idealliance Dawn Lospaluto is Idealliance Managing Editor. Reach her at (703) 837-1063 or dlospaluto@ idealliance.org.

Chinese guide cover

Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12374639

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I

dealliance continued to extend its global reach with the launching of two new Idealliance Europe affiliates in Dublin and Madrid in December, broadening an Idealliance Global Offices network that now comprises nine international affiliates.

In addition to the new European offices, the association’s international affiliates now include units in China, Korea, India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and Brazil. The offices in Ireland and Spain bring to five the new international affiliates opened by Idealliance in 2017 — last fall, Idealliance launched Idealliance Pakistan in Karachi, Idealliance Latin America in São Paulo, and Idealliance Middle East/North Africa in Dubai.

“We are a global industry serving a global marketplace, and Idealliance is a global organization taking its services and initiatives in education and innovation to printers worldwide who are eager to learn the latest technological advances, employ automation, increase efficiency, improve workflow, and meet today’s most advanced standards,” said David J. Steinhardt, Idealliance president & CEO. Idealliance affiliates offer companies in their geographic areas access to Idealliance technical and management training and related educational and business management services. Services provided by the global non-profit for the visual communications and media industry include industry certifications, webinars, and other

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February 2018

educational programs, and information on specifications, color management, process control, and workflow efficiency.

While global offices work independently within their regions to meet the specific needs of their respective areas, they communicate regularly with each other and with Idealliance in the United States to share information and insights. Each office also draws on a network of educators and consultants within its region.

“We are entering and expanding in areas where printing, packaging, and publishing are strong and where we can help support the industry’s global growth,” said Tim Baechle, Idealliance VP, Global Print Technologies & Workflows. “Everyone needs both innovation and education — one can’t survive without the other — and our ability to educate the world about the latest innovations is paramount.

“No matter where you are in the world,” he continued, “you need to know how to be more competitive to be successful. Only the strongest, best educated, and most streamlined, automated, strategic, and cost-conscious printers and converters will survive in our tremendously competitive industry.”

China Activities The breadth of activities at the association’s international offices is exemplified by its China global affiliate office, the association’s first international unit. In recent months, the China affiliate translated and released the Chinese version of the association’s “Guide to Print Production, v. 13.0,” certified 26 new G7 Experts, held two G7 Summits that together drew nearly 300 attendees, and co-developed with Idealliance a new dataset Continued on page 26

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Winning Strategies:

Why Are the Top Printers Growing By Strategic Acquisitions?

The search for growth through acquisitions is on the rise. Why?

I

n a survey conducted by one of the leading trade organizations in 2012, 30% of the respondents indicated that they will be looking to expand their business by acquiring another printer. Today, the same survey results would most likely find that 50% or more were looking to grow by acquisition.

By Mitch Evans Director and senior team member at Graphic Arts Advisors, LLC Formerly a VP with NAQP/NAPL (Epicomm), Mitch Evans is now a director and senior team member at Graphic Arts Advisors, LLC (GAA), concentrating on working with quick and small commercial printers (PrintingNews.com/12065696).

Contact him at 561-351-6950 or mitch@graphicartsadvisors.com.

Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12390658

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Recently, I marketed a commercial printing company located in a suburb of a major city and we had three dozen printers respond to our marketing efforts which, in the end, resulted in five offers.

Why the change? I believe its two fold – organic growth is become more and more difficult due to current customers ordering less, there is more competition, pricing pressures are mounting, etc., and the old philosophy that “if we build it, they will come” no longer works. Sure, adding new services and equipment may bring in new business, but not enough like the good old days.

For the 50% who are not looking to grow through acquisition, many are still doing fine and a few might like to explore the possibility of an acquisition but they simply didn’t know how the best way to get started. Others think it can be expensive and some actually feel that it could be risky.

Here’s why the top printers are looking to expand by acquisition: • Consolidate overhead and other expenses • Expand their business & client base within markets they are already serving • Fill excess capacity • Add new products/services, expand capabilities • Diversify their client base • Enter a new geographic market The overwhelmingly majority of printers who had done an acquisition and who were asked was

it successful or not, almost 90% felt the acquisition at least met some or all of the expectations and was overall positive. Only a handful of printers have felt that their acquisition fell far short of meeting expectations and was unsuccessful.

As to the current state of mergers and acquisitions, I continue to see mostly sales of standalone entities. The sale of intangibles (the book of business primarily) combined with orderly liquidation of the seller can be about the only game in town if you have to sell. Prices for general intangibles remain good and we some upward momentum for royalty percentages and number of years that a buyer will pay royalties.

One recent trend is that some printers will take on the seller’s location if it is in a geographic location that they want to grow or if the existing plant is set up to do work they can’t easily integrate into their existing facility.

Sellers continue to misunderstand how price and structure of a deal works as it relates to what they believe is the total valuation of their business. Buyers are still looking for bargains and some sellers continue to cling to the hope that someone will buy their business intact and pay cash. Sellers who have great clients whose sales are remaining consistent will attract the most attention and get the best deals.

Many of the national print franchisors facilitate consolidation among their franchisees and a the top franchisors are very active in looking for “tuck in” opportunities for their franchisees to grow.

Financial results of over the past few years are finally trending upward for a lot of printers although growth is 2-3% growth on average but not uniformly distributed. The psychological Continued on page 26

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Digital Original:

Loosening the

Prepress Bottleneck If your prepress department isn’t moving fast, neither is your product.

D

By John Giles Senior Consultant for CPrint International John Giles is a senior consultant for CPrint International (cprint.com). He helps printers prosper and understand how to sell technology services.

Giles is the author of “12 Secrets for Digital Success” and “The DTP PriceList.”

He can be reached at 954-224-1942 or john@cprint.com.

Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12390620

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id your printing company take advantage of last year’s economy and increase sales and profits? If you didn’t, you might want to look at what profit leaders were doing to make their companies more efficient, especially with customer-created files and prepress procedures.

These simple changes will increase profits.

Require a PDF workflow. PDF files should be the only “ready-to-print” file you accept from a customer. It is the easiest file format to preflight, fix, and print. There are so many PDF editing tools now available that almost any file mistake can be automatically fixed. Even Enfocus Pitstop can automatically fix bleed problems on many PDF files. Most printers have PDF editing tools on their print server RIPs as well as a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro that comes with a Creative Cloud subscription. Callas pdfToolbox is another PDF tool that makes fixing PDF files easier. Most digital presses and CTP systems have been optimized for PDF files. If you don’t have PDF software that preflights and edits PDF files, invest in it. The profitable printers already have.

Charge for everything else. Other file formats, even the InDesign and Quark formats, require staff time to get it to print correctly. Profitable printers treat these formats like typesetting and charge for the additional time. There isn’t a pricing advantage for accepting native application files because it might be less expensive to just reset the job yourself properly. Just because the customer gives you a digital file doesn’t mean you automatically drop the price.

Make the staff use PDFs. It is still surprising the number of prepress people who want to work with a customer’s native file. A customer should be submitting PDF files. If they can’t or won’t, the profitable printer charges more to get the file to print properly. YouTube.com has literally hours of PDF preflight training online. Owners should make sure their prepress staff are PDF experts and allow them time to review online material.

Use the right tools. Look for bad habits that could be adding to your costs. For example, some people try to use Illustrator as a PDF editor. It

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February 2018

can work sometime, but Dov Isaacs, principal scientist at Adobe Systems Incorporated, has been posting for years on prepress internet forums that “Adobe Illustrator is not a general-purpose PDF file editor.” According to Isaacs, “opening any arbitrary PDF file in Adobe Illustrator other than PDF files saved in that version or later of Adobe Illustrator with the editability option (which saves the Illustrator document editing data as private data within the PDF file) may result in content loss or corruption.”

Invest in special prepress productivity software you might need. All printers face the same issues and software developers have stepped up with solutions. Most equipment vendors already provide an array of productivity soft ware on the servers that drive the machines and automate the file handling process. Make sure you know what software came with your equipment and how it helps. In addition to PDF software vendors such as Enfocus, Callas, and Quite (for imposing), check out the tools that work with native applications. Markzware offers FlightCheck, a Mac application that checks native and PDF files for printing quality and conversion plug-ins for QuarkXpress and InDesign. The plug-ins can convert PDFs to InDesign files for editing or open Quark files in InDesign files or vice versa.

Use the industry print standards. Idealliance. org offers the Guide to Print Production on its resource page. Every printer should download a copy and make sure it is following the industry standards for print production. It makes it easier when everyone is on the same page about how things will print. It is also a resource to use to train the customer on the industry standards when they say, “my last printer didn’t do that.”

Continued on page 25

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Sales Clinic:

SELLING PRINT is a GREAT CAREER

There are thousands of students and professionals capable of selling print within the graphic communications industry.

O

ur industry, like many others, is undergoing a major transition. What makes the graphic communications industry a good choice for a career in sales is that we are accustomed to change and innovation. Offset is giving way to exciting new production inkjet technology, new consumer and industrial applications are being developed every day, and many print providers are a driving force in cross-media communications.

Joe Rickard Founder, Intellective Solutions Joe Rickard is the founder of Intellective Solutions (intellectives. com), a consulting and training company that works with printing and technology organizations to improve their sales, marketing, and operational effectiveness. Follow him on Twitter @joerickardIS.

We continually hear from print providers across the US who are looking for confident and creative salespeople to help drive new revenues and profits. For many printing companies, sales and marketing is their number one priority.

Having the ability to produce great products and services is not enough.

Sales jobs currently available in the printing industry range from direct sales positions presenting complex printing solutions to customers, to inside telemarketing salespeople who generate leads for new products and services. We have trained thousands of printing salespeople. We are always impressed with their commitment not only to make high commissions, but also their commitment to customers and their pride in the printing industry.

Here are some reasons why selling printing is a great career:

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Print is a huge business. If you consider print and related industries such as paper, ink, and industrial printing, there are close to one million workers currently employed within the industry.

Almost all of the 45,000 print locations nationwide require salespeople. It is among the largest manufacturing industries in the United States.

Print is exciting. The industry is a technology-driven business. Imaging innovations, along with the constant stream of new advancements and uses of print, will keep salespeople very busy for a very long time. Whether a new packaging application or a beautiful personalized direct

mail piece, printing salespeople always have something compelling to talk about with their customers.

Print works well with others. Most marketing and business executives agree that no one channel can gain awareness and generate business.

New communication marketing platforms and data analytics allow customers to track which factors drive customers to buy. Emails, social media, and digital marketing alone are not enough.

Print can be personalized, customized, and effective for each recipient when combined with other forms of communications.

Print is green. Industry champion, Two Sides (www.twosidesna.org) has done a great job overcoming the myths surrounding print’s negative impact on the environment. It is a great story for salespeople to share with the many millennials who have misconceptions about print. Print is sustainable and is unique among communication channels.

Print selling builds skills. In addition to deep knowledge of printing and customer buying models, successful printing salespeople possess great listening, negotiating, presentation, and closing skills. Developing these and other selling skills makes a professional salesperson a vital component of any printing organization and can ensure a long term career.

Print selling is a great profession. Print selling is a perfect fit for those who have the self-discipline to work both independently and on teams.

Continued on page 25

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New

Products Flint Group rotec Sleeves and Bridges Flint Group introduces a new, lightweight family of rotec Sleeves and Bridges designed to increase press efficiency. The new rotec product line provides the same proven polyurethane coating that is wellknown for its durability and solvent resistance in a series of sleeves and adapters that are lighter and easier to handle.

The rotec Lightweight Premium Sleeve exhibits excellent dimensional stability for high printing speeds, making it particularly effective in the wide web printing sector. The key to its superior all-around performance is the combination of its light weight and ease of use coupled with the premium construction that provides added strength and stability. The sleeve is further enhanced with an aluminum end plate that seals the edges for extra protection against inks, cleaning liquids and humidity and provides optimum performance and longevity to the sleeve life.

PrintingNews.com/12387828

RICOH Ri 100 Ricoh unveiled a compact, af-

SunCure Aspire UV by Sun Chemical

fordable Direct to Garment (DTG)

Sun Chemical has launched a new UV offset ink that was devel-

to quickly and easily produce

oped to make sophisticated graphics look stunning and vibrant

high-quality applications on a variety of fabrics. The RICOH

on high-end luxury folding cartons while at the same time pro-

Ri 100 ďŹ ts easily on desks and counters, combining with its

viding the longer-term shelf appeal brand owners require.

ease-of-use to make it a perfect ďŹ t for environments not tradi-

printer that empowers users

The new ink system, SunCure Aspire UV, has been formulat-

tionally dedicated to print, such as souvenir shops and small

ed to exhibit immense color transparency to help create vivid

businesses. As many organizations and individuals seek

color graphic effects on metallized, lenticular, and holographic

ways to expand their portfolios or enhance brand loyalty, the

board stocks frequently used for pharmaceutical, perfume, li-

RICOH Ri 100 is a cost-effective way to achieve these goals.

quor, cosmetic, and POP applications.

PrintingNews.com/12389921

PrintingNews.com/12391072

Tower Compliance Suite Tower Products, Inc. is introducing a compliance suite of products for food packaging printers that fully comply with the Nestle Guidance Note on Packaging Inks.

The Tower Compliance Suite contains three fountain solutions, including Millennium 7000, which is the recognized standard for UV/HUV/LED printing in the large format packaging market, a Nestle list compliant alcohol replacement, AR-9500 and a conventional and UV plate cleaner.

Currently, the Nestle Guidance Note and FDA rules apply primarily to inks and coatings used in food packaging printing applications. The use of the Tower Compliance Suite further increases the compliance to these guidelines and provides the packaging printer a full compliance scenario to report to their clients.

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February 2018

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New

Products Continued from page 22

HP PageWide C500 HP Inc. announced the first delivery of an HP PageWide C500 Press for digital mainstream corrugated direct-toboard printing to a customer

Some printers will be making a lot of money this year because they make it easy for the customer to submit an order and pull it through the shop. Don’t let your prepress department be the bottleneck that sucks away profits. Having a trained prepress staff that knows how to properly use what you already have and follow the accepted industry standards will make work easier throughout the entire organization. It is up to management to make it happen.

site, as HP continues to expand its portfolio of innovative package printing solu-

Continued from page 23

tions. Carmel Frenkel will serve as the customer testing site for the HP PageWide C500 Press, now moving a step closer toward commercialization. The Caesarea, Israel-based converter supplies packaging solutions for leading brands, including in the food and beverage industry.

“The installation marks a significant milestone in the launch of the HP PageWide C500 Press. This groundbreaking technology can address the broadest range of digitally post-printed corrugated packaging applications, including the growing segment of food packaging,” said Eric Wiesner, general manager, HP PageWide Industrial Division, HP Inc. PrintingNews.com/12386751

Epson SureColor F2100 Printer Epson announced its next-generation direct-to-garment printer—the SureColor F2100. Designed exclusively for direct-to-garment printing, the SureColor F2100 offers an entirely purpose-built system for high-quality prints at production speeds. Leveraging the Epson PrecisionCore TFP printhead and UltraChrome DG garment ink technology, the SureColor F2100 achieves up to twice the speeds of the previous generation DTG printer. Successor to the renowned SureColor F2000, the new SureColor F2100 offers four color ink technology, plus White ink, to deliver improved image quality, speed, and efficiency. Additional improvements, including a quick-load platen and robust Epson Garment Creator Software, take productivity even further, while the all-new integrated self-cleaning system means less downtime.

Building on the industry leading SureColor F2000, the new SureColor F2100 leverages an all-new integrated inline self-cleaning system designed for reliability and reduced maintenance time. The SureColor F2100 transports cleaning solution through the printhead, allowing the printer to perform daily maintenance to reduce downtime. In addition, White ink is triple filtered before reaching the printhead, designed to help reduce White ink nozzle clogging for greater up-time and reliability.

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Many have moved from sales to management and executive positions throughout the graphic communication industry.

Print is profitable. Through the ebb and flow of economic upturns and downturns, we see changing fortunes for many print providers. At any time, there are countless graphic communications companies and salespeople achieving great financial rewards. Through hard work and skill, salespeople can earn a substantial income commensurate with their sales and achievements. Selling has been in the past, and will continue to be, a lucrative career.

Print selling is the future. There will always be a job for a great printing salesperson. Though customer buying cycles and attitudes may change, the selling process and the skills required to close sales do not. As our industry continues to change and transform, successful salespeople learn and adapt. They are the ones who will take the message about the exciting changes in our industry to their customers.

Finding opportunities is not very difficult. There are thousands of openings. Every national and local print industry trade association has a “job bank” with ample opportunities. In addition, public websites and executive recruiters are constantly on the lookout for new and existing salespeople.

The best news is there are positions for any level of salesperson. Recent graduates or those desiring to enter sales can launch their careers as inside salespeople, customer service reps or front counter workers.

More experienced salespeople can work in a very large variety of sales positions selling products, services, and software. Also, vendors who sell equipment, paper, ink, and software are always looking for new salespeople.

For someone like me, who has been in a sales and sales executive role for many years, I cannot think of a better career than selling in the graphic communications industry.

February 2018

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25

Continued from page 20

and profile for the packaging industry.

The translation of the “Guide to Print Production, v. 13.0,” an industry standard guide to best practices and specifications for printing, was done through the generous contribution of The Hong Kong Printers Association, an organization funded by the SME Development Fund of the Trade and Industry Department, HKSAR Government. Idealliance is pleased to recognize APTEC/ Idealliance China as an implementing organization for the translation project and to extend special acknowledgement to the Hung Hing Printing Group Limited and Fuji Xerox (Hong Kong) Limited for their contributions.

“Through the years the Idealliance Guide to Print Production has been an invaluable tool and resource for the industry around the world,” said Baechle. “This newly translated version now makes this essential resource available to a massive region of the world in its

native language, significantly enhancing its usefulness and expanding Idealliance’s international education efforts.”

The new CCNB GRACoL2013 M1 (90.27,1.28,-2.79) Datasets and Profi le (Clay Coated News Black) is an important milestone for proof-to-press color matching of CCNB and the fi rst official profi le and dataset for CCNB. International brand owners have started to work with China printers by using this profi le.

The China affiliate has also been engaged in ongoing work on an XCMYK project for Starlite Holdings, a multinational group of companies that design and manufacture printed packaging, books, and paper products. Starlite is the pioneer adopter of XCMYK into actual print jobs. XCMYK, developed by Idealliance, is a colorspace representing CMYK Expanded Gamut printing that can be achieved on offset and digital devices.

“Our international presence gives us a true perspective of what’s happening in the world marketplace,” said Baechle, “and our Idealliance Global Offices network serves as a tremendous resource for everyone who works within the industry. We function as an industry ‘think tank,’ providing a wide range of technical and strategic information, as well as specific ‘on-the-ground’ knowledge about how to understand, operate in, and market to key regions around the globe.

“Our aim has always been to build a bridge across the world,” he continued.

“When you think of the innovations we’ve developed for the industry — things like GRACoL, SWOP, G7, and ISO specifications that have changed the industry — Idealliance has always served the global market in a unique fashion — and we are continuing to raise the bar.”

creditors in an orderly manner; some will achieve value for their general intangibles; some want to convert assets to cash for some other reason (retirement, divorce, estate, partners exiting business); some owners are burnout; some want to expand into larger space and add equipment without risks of personal guarantees; and some are simply distressed business who are considering bankruptcy or liquidation.

There are several critical and tactical decisions you will need to make before exploring acquisition opportunities.

First, do you want to do a proactive search versus being reactive which is simply waiting for a competitor to call you? You need to put a time limit or time frame on looking to do an acquisition.

You need to create a pipeline of acquisition candidates. You need to minimize other distractions and put off other major decisions while searching. Finally, you need to set goals and expectations.

Nowadays, I spend a majority of my consulting time dealing with printers who are either want to sell their business or are looking to acquire. Activity has continued to increase. Many print owners are aging and want or need to retire. Others are calling because they see opportunity in doing a “tuck-in” acquisition or they have had competitors contact them wanting to merge or sell.

A few see the opportunity to sell now is good as they fear that the economic upturn will not last.

Finally, we see that sellers today are getting more value than at any time since the recession. Partly this is due to the strong demand from buyers looking to acquire and in part to the fact that their businesses are more stable in terms of revenue and profits.

If you are looking to sell there are many tips that will help you prepare to get the most attention and value.

I will be sharing those ideas in a future column.

Continued from page 21

climate continues to be much more positive as the economy continues to improve. Banking conditions are much better and financing is available albeit for financially healthy printers.

Here are some proven strategies for printers who want to grow both the top and bottom lines: • Strengthen your offering by adding expertise (data management, creative services, marketing services, signage, promotional products, etc.) and equipment (wide format, large format sheet-fed offset press, sign making, high volume color digital device, etc.) without starting from scratch • Increase profitability by purchase of another printer’s customer base • Expand market presence by acquiring additional locations in desirable geographic areas • Gain greater scale by a “merger” with a compatible “equal partner” Keep in mind, why are printers selling? Some need the cash to satisfy

26

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February 2018

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Reality Cheick:

Making Sure the Big Fish Doesn’t Get Away Here are more subtle costs that can fly under the radar in estimates and invoices.

I

By Paula Fargo Owner of Curry Print quick printing company in Baltimore, Md Paula Fargo has managed tens of employees and satisfied slightly more customers than that over the past 29 years. In Reality Chick, she draws on her experiences to offer blunt, honest, and hopefully witty observations and advice for fellow printing veterans who think they’ve heard it all. She can be reached at paula@curryprint.com or 410-685-2679.

don’t fish. I think fishing looks boring. The sitting. The waiting. The bugs. The worms. There’s no excitement until there IS excitement, like a fish on your hook! Oh, but they sometimes get away.

They don’t call them “fish stories” for nothing. Yet, what is more elusive to capture than the big one that got away?

All costs associated with the quote on your desk. Like pursuing Moby Dick, attempting to capture all costs associated with printing quotes is not for the faint of heart. Producing custom manufactured, time-sensitive jobs can involve unexpected or unforeseen expenses that will take your already razor thin margin over to the dark side of loss.

Just in case you need a refresher, let’s make a cheat-sheet of some of the elusive costs for which many print-owners fail to account when pricing jobs.

First, a reminder: we are in a high-pressure, fast-turnaround manufacturing business. What we do is difficult, guys, so let’s keep that in mind as we price our jobs and work up our estimates.

You all know your basic costs: Paper. Ink. Plates. Click charges. Here are more subtle costs that can fly under the radar in estimates and invoices:

Time In my opinion, this is the most important cost of all. You can always make more money…but time?

Nope, that’s finite and thus infinitely more valuable. Make sure you capture all of the legitimate time for this job that is not reflected in your budgeted hourly rates. Include proofs, proofreading, author changes, quality control, packing up the job, and delivery.

Shipping and delivery Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12381181

28

Do you have this as a pass-through cost and charge your client exactly what is being charged to you? This may not allow you to capture all of your true shipping costs. What about all of your

Printing News

February 2018

packing material, custom boxes, labels, and any giveaways you include in the jobs? What if the packages come back because of a bad shipping address provided by the client? Or if your client makes the messenger wait and you get charged an additional amount for that time?

All of those possibilities and associated costs can be included by putting a markup on your shipping costs.

Miscellaneous overlooked expenses Stock photos, shipping multiple proofs, ordering/delivering samples, payment delays, credit card fees, deadlines changed, being unexpectedly charged for “overs” from a third party vendor. The quoting phase is the time to think around corners.

Perhaps the most important note: on’t forget to compare your quote to previously-printed jobs. Did your team make production notes to remind you of past issues with this particular project? If you didn’t capture all of the costs previously, now’s your chance! Additionally, you don’t want to charge less than you did before; reorders after a reasonable amount of time should have a nominal increase in price to your client anyway.

Do you want to “nickel and dime” your customers, charging them for every one of these items as they arise, or do you want “cover” many of these contingencies up front in your quote, and simply invoice the quoted amount?

Once you start accounting for these real-life costs, your bottom line should rise, your stress level should fall, and they won’t get away.

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