Inkjet drives convergence of transactional and graphic arts applications

Inkjet has changed how printers define themselves. For the last 40 years five categories described the print industry. Companies would say their primary purpose was transactional, direct mail, financial, commercial or specialty print. Print buyers, procurement teams, lines of business staff, and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) sought services based on the category the company fit in.

CX drives content convergence

I started my career in print and mail in the 1980s. I remember when there were separate teams and budgets for print communications by application. Customer operations managed statements or invoices, a product team may have managed welcome kits, and marketing acquisition direct mail was managed by a third team, with email and digital communications handled by yet another team. The different teams often outsourced to separate print mail service providers for each application based on print category.

Organizations across most verticals have dedicated time and resources to improve customer experience (CX) across channels and throughout the customer journey. The drive to measure and improve CX has broken down some of the siloed walls in managing data and content for print and digital customer communications.

Fortune 500 companies have aligned on the need to improve CX and reduce their number of vendor partners. At the same time, companies are managing more complex environments for data and cyber security, while consumers demand more personalized content across more channels. These business issues have driven convergence on the content side from brands to their service providers.

Brands in highly regulated industries have pushed their service providers to streamline content and data management. Service providers have invested in tools and platforms to support multiple applications and channels of delivery. The newer platforms provide capabilities for consumer preference management and support a more consistent experience while increasing personalization. In addition, technical teams have invested in and developed sophisticated tools and platforms. Their goals are to mitigate risks associated with data security and compliance and enable non-technical staff to manage content and messaging across all communications.

Inkjet enables production convergence

The CX evolution has changed the way data and content is managed across many organizations. Simultaneously, production inkjet OEMs have spent the last ten years committed to delivering faster and better inkjet solutions to market. They have succeeded with both continuous feed and cutsheet platforms.

Early adopters of production inkjet were largely in transactional print facilities where cost and speed were better on inkjet compared to toner and the image quality was acceptable for statements and invoices. Most direct mail and commercial print applications required a level of image quality that could only achieved with offset, digital toner, and hybrid environments with inkjet heads mounted in-line with offset presses at that time. For the last five to eight years production inkjet has produced output that meets and exceeds the image quality of offset and toner for many applications.

Time to market wins

Newer production inkjet devices have significantly increased speed and stock flexibility, further driving convergence. At recent industry events, I have heard from direct mail companies that are now producing compliance letters and versioned books on inkjet. They have won the business by demonstrating their ability to handle the data, and turnaround with excellent image quality.

Transactional printers that produce low area coverage statements and letter applications are running second generation inkjet platforms. They have expanded their print applications because inkjet enables them to offer different options for image quality and speed. Now they can produce higher area coverage applications like postcards, and self-mailers.

Inkjet enables one print platform to support different types of applications with complete personalization, often replacing three to five toner printers. Inkjet has enabled offset, analog applications to migrate to digital and improve the value of the application with personalization and versioning. Commercial printers previously produced static booklets in different versions that shipped to a mail house for kitting with personalized letters. With inkjet many commercial printers have re-engineered applications and eliminated manual processing. They are now producing fully variable, multi-page documents in-line while improving time to market and eliminating obsolescence and waste in the production process.

The pandemic created unforeseen business challenges to do more, do it differently and print on different stocks. When daily operations and disaster recovery plans failed, print mail providers stepped up to serve customers and support a multitude of new communications. During these difficult times, inkjet presses ran many new jobs out of necessity. Print service providers and their customers began to understand how inkjet platforms expanded their capabilities to successfully handle new applications.

Inkjet enables one workflow

In the last few years, printers have made significant investments in workflow automation to complement production inkjet and improve time to market. I have spoken with several printers who have invested in workflow automation on both the front end from job order to print and the back end in finishing and mailing. They have reduced labor cost, increased personalization and versioning while also decreasing total time of manufacturing.

Inkjet delivers speed. Smarter printers understand they must streamline their entire workflow to maximize their ROI. A thorough workflow analysis will consider how to automate steps on the front end of receiving and prepping jobs to optimize pre-press steps as well as post printing. In many cases, the speed of inkjet printing has forced service providers to address the bottlenecks in finishing and insertion. A full workflow analysis of both the digital and physical steps in your workflow will enable informed decisions about the tools and components needed beyond the press to improve end to end workflow.

Automated finishing has the added benefit of ease of training for new operators. Read more inkjet success stories here.

One printer shared how they moved an offset job that had multiple rounds of proofs over days and weeks of production, to zero proofs and multiple versions that now ships the day after receipt of customer files. Zero proofs, and one-day turn down from a seven day turn, that’s their story of inkjet driving convergence.

I have heard many success stories about justifying inkjet based on a subset of clients and applications. The stories are more engaging when the owners share how inkjet has reduced cost, improved turnaround, and increased capabilities. The best inkjet stories demonstrate a cultural change in addition to workflow improvements. Inkjet success can be seen when walking through a facility and speaking with the operators and staff who are fully engaged. They are proud of an efficient and singular workflow process that supports many different applications

Convergence will continue. What will drive your inkjet success story?

This article was originally published on Inkjet Insight.