ON MAY 29, 2008, an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal called “Ink-jet Printers Get Set to Turn the Page.” According to author William Bulkeley, “Ink-jet printing technology that dominates inexpensive desktop printers is about to enter the world of commercial print shops. If the new technology succeeds, it could spell trouble for Xerox Corp. and lead to expanded business for Eastman Kodak Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., Ricoh Co. and other ink-jet makers.” That article, published on the first day of Drupa, as well as statements from industry experts Andy Tribute and Frank Romano, created a buzz suggesting that ink-jet printing would displace offset and toner-based printing as the dominant printing technologies. I’d like to discuss the facts behind the buzz and offer some conclusions about the real state of competing technologies.
Xerox Corp.
In a little over a month from now, the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) will hold its 50th conference. On this momentous occasion, it’s only fitting that this event will take place in the home town of two of the association’s main supporters. That town is Rochester, N.Y., and those supporters are, of course, Kodak and Xerox. IPMA plans to visit both companies’ facilities as part of a packed agenda of events.
To support school districts in a four-county area in southwestern New York State, the Cattaraugus-Allegany-Erie-Wyoming Board of Cooperative Educational Services (CABOCES) had outsourced its printing for years. This arrangement, though, came at a cost. The newsletters, brochures, postcards, posters and other pieces were output on an offset press at a BOCES in another county, and then shipped back, which added to the cost. Mike Graf, director of Communications and Print Services for CABOCES knew there had to be a better way.
At the awards ceremony this afternoon at the On Demand Conference & Expo, InfoTrends, a leading market research and consulting firm in the digital imaging and document solutions industry, announced the winners of the fourth annual On Demand Best of Show Awards program.
If you were planning to attend the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association's conference in June but haven't gotten around to registering yet, you have just over a week to do it and save $300. The group extended its early bird discount to March 15.
This year's event, to be held in Rochester, N.Y., is set to be a big one, with seven keynote, 28 sessions, a two-day vendor fair, tours of Kodak and Xerox facilities and an awards banquet.
Even successful digital printing operations need a little offset sometimes. Take Simon Fraser University Document Solutions. In 2006, IPG detailed how this in-plant had moved from antiquated offset equipment to state-of-the-art digital printers like a Xerox iGen3. The shop didn’t completely abandon offset, though. It retained a four-color 20x29? Heidelberg Speedmaster 74. Now the in-plant has replaced that press with a five-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 with a coater. Not only has the shop’s productivity soared, the in-plant is keeping more work in-house as a result.
Sustainability starts at the corporate level. Several vendors are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, use alternative energy sources, recycle and more.
You don’t always have to wait until you get new equipment to start finding work for it. That’s how Bill Neff managed to bring the printing and mailing of county tax and revenue statements into his in-plant—a major job comprising more than 230,000 pieces a year. “I sold [the job] as a package, and as soon as I got a guarantee that it was going to come in, I went right out and bought the Maximailer,” says Neff, printing manager for the General Services Division of Arlington County, Virginia.
Xerox offers 10 tips to help you make your in-plant more environmentally friendly. Adopt the latest workflow technologies. Understand your environmental impacts and set goals to reduce them. Embrace print on demand.
Plans for the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association's 50th conference are coming along well, according to IPMA officials. Registration numbers are looking good, which is great news at a time when some industry events are struggling to fill seats. "We're ahead of where we were last year at this point," says IPMA President Debbie Pavletich. "Vendor participation is going very, very well."
