Key Takeaways From the Inkjet Summit

Several industry-leading analysts and consultants were among the more than 100 attendees at the annual Inkjet Summit. Because the rise of production inkjet printing has affected the printing industry in many different ways, these industry leaders all left the Summit with varying takeaways. Some of these individuals shared their insights with In-plant Graphics.

Elizabeth Gooding, Gooding Communications Group

Transaction printing continues to lead other print market segments in terms of annual inkjet pages printed. This is not surprising since early adopters in this segment tended to be very large players looking for the efficiency of driving many millions of pages per month through a “white-paper factory.”  Mid-tier players have been key adopters of inkjet over the past two to three years, and many of those companies are now shopping for additional devices.

To date, reaching an economic volume threshold to justify inkjet has been the biggest barrier to adoption. Without sufficient volume to drive high-productivity devices, many smaller transaction printing enterprises and in-plants could not make the business case for investment.

In 2015, new offerings from Canon, Memjet and Xerox came to market specifically targeted for lower volume customers. These machines may also serve as “risk mitigation” for customers hesitant to invest in two high-volume machines, yet concerned about the potential service level exposure of operating with a single inkjet device.

Risk assessment plays a major factor for all companies looking to invest in inkjet. For example, the time horizon in which an operation is expected to break even with their inkjet investment is pivotal in delivering a compelling business case. An in-plant operation within a large, for-profit company may be given a two- or three-year break-even window, while a smaller commercial company may need to break-even in six months to justify investment.

A critical factor in achieving break-even volumes quickly, according to many existing users, is the implementation and optimization of MIS software in advance of, or at least in parallel with, inkjet implementation. The ability to consolidate disparate jobs into large, efficient production runs with detailed reporting and quality controls can accelerate the process of achieving economic production volumes and avoid costly downtime on inkjet devices and related finishing equipment.

Transaction printing will soon reach a tipping point where inkjet efficiency will become “table stakes” for most commercial enterprises. That means inkjet-ready organizations should already be looking at surround services that will layer value onto the offer of full-color personalization and faster time-to-market. Companies with a portfolio of inkjet applications, data management and analytics services will have a leg up on the competition as inkjet becomes more widely adopted across the transaction printing marketplace.

Roger Gimbel, Gimbel Associates

At the Inkjet Summit, I spoke with several commercial printers who expressed that they see many opportunities with production inkjet platforms, and they still have a few concerns as they evaluative new investments in inkjet. There were several themes I heard:

• The first was a concern that the new cut-sheet inkjet printers will have a very limited media capability. If this limitation proves true, several printers indicated it would be a show stopper before moving forward, even if the running cost presented savings compared to their digital toner devices. Many commercial printers believe that the inkjet manufacturers and the paper companies will eventually resolve this limitation for media—the same way it was resolved in the ’90s with the launch of digital toner printers.
• The second topic shared by many commercial printers is the feeling that the manufacturers who sold them production digital toner devices must put some skin in the game. Printers are expecting some type of financial support for the transition to the new inkjet platforms now being sold.
• The third topic of many conversations was the need for more detailed information about the changes needed for workflow and the impact on their finishing equipment to support and connect to new inkjet platforms.

Barbara Pellow, InfoTrends

At the 2015 Inkjet Summit, a number of early inkjet adopters shared how they were addressing publishers’ requirements and delivering bottom-line business results with the use of high-speed production inkjet. Some applications include:

• Risk reduction: Production inkjet technologies are enabling the economical production of books in small quantities. The key for publishers is that they can monitor the demand and order only what is required to eliminate warehousing and return costs.
• Cycle time for on-demand: A number of sophisticated on-demand printers discussed how they are able to turn orders around within 24 hours. This means that the publishers they serve can quickly react to market demands for printed books.
• Specialty books and fresh content: Digital printing eliminates the minimum quantity requirements and is enabling the printing of books in very low quantities. Furthermore, every page that is digitally printed can be unique. Digital printing has opened up creative opportunities for online customization, personalization and real-time marketing activities such as cross-selling or promotional material inclusion.