Xplor Conference

Disaster recovery was one of the hottest topics at Xplor this year, for understandable reasons.

More than 5,700 people from around the world headed to Orlando, Fla., recently to attend the Xplor 2001 Global Electronic Document Systems Conference & Exhibit.

Held at the Orange County Convention Center, the 22nd annual Xplor conference drew document and printing professionals, industry consultants and nearly 150 exhibitors.

"Despite world events and economic challenges, the electronic document industry will move forward in positive and exciting new ways," noted James Shand, commercial director of edotech Limited, and Xplor International chairman of the board.

Directions And Visions

In one powerful presentation, CEOs from seven of the industry's leading companies shared the stage to present their companies' directions and visions. These companies included: Adobe Systems, IBM Printing Systems, Heidelberg Digital/NexPress, Hewlett-Packard, Océ Printing Systems USA, Scitex Digital Printing and Xerox.

The conference featured numerous educational sessions. Two significant topics were document convergence and disaster recovery.

"The convergence of transactional documents with the marketing and promotional document is finally becoming a reality," declared Toby Cobrin, technology advisor for Xplor International. "At Xplor 2001, it was clear that true 1:1 document creation is changing the way organizations personalize their traditional transaction-based documents—such as statements and invoices—which are being produced in the data center. Likewise, the promotional document is taking on a more customer-centric appearance with the help of new digital equipment and software, which rivals the features of many offset presses."

On the Xplor 2001 exhibit floor, attendees witnessed some of the top companies using front-end functionality and back-end finishing capabilities to create both transactional and promotional documents from the same equipment.

The industry is also seeing a convergence in the types of output medium that can be delivered.

"Customers are demanding information in a form that is convenient and acceptable to the individual," said Shand. "Delivery of documents can be interchanged according to the customer preference—over the Internet in applications like electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), on paper customized to the customer preferences, or via wireless devices for customer convenience."

Xplor's 2001 Innovator of the Year, Clarica Life Insurance Company, is a prime example of convergence and the types of applications being produced. Clarica, based in Canada, has been developing applications for insurance policies, customized marketing material, and statement processing that takes advantage of the convergence of transactional and promotional features of documents to deliver customer-oriented materials. Clarica received Xplor's Innovator of the Year Award during the opening General Session.

Disaster Recovery

Heightened concern and awareness about disaster recovery was also evident at Xplor 2001—a direct result of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. Although the subject is heavily explored every year at the conference, many attendees were placing a greater emphasis on the issue as part of their overall document strategy.

Xplor 2001 featured a free 90-minute session to help organizations evaluate and update their disaster recovery plans for organizational documents. The standing-room only session ("Document Strategy After the Attack") featured expert Pat McGrew, of the McGrew + McDaniel Group, with panelists Jerry Dattilo, of FileNET Professional Services, and Jerry Montella, of Mail-Gard Concepts.

According to Shand, organizations often pay lip service to the preparation of disaster recovery plans until the invertible happens. Many attendees were seeking confirmation of their plans and looking for ways to verify what they had in place. Typically, organizations will short-cut disaster recovery plans because they seek to reduce costs, and regard it as an insurance policy that will never be called upon.

Xplor 2002 will take place October 27-November 1 in Anaheim, Calif. For more information, visit www.xplor.org .