Written by Chris Irick
Worldwide Marketing Manager, Xerox Corporation

Xerox DocuColor 8080 Digital Press

Whether you are a seasoned digital print provider or new to the world of digital print after making the leap from offset lithography – one thing remains constant: your customers of today and tomorrow have choices. To remain competitive and capture their business, you must stay on the cusp of the latest technology and provide customers and prospects with a compelling reason to choose your offerings. What sets your business apart? Is it print quality, outstanding service, a wide gamut of substrate offerings, the fastest turnaround times in town, web-to-print capabilities, or variable data services? What about expanding your business’ offerings by becoming a one-stop service provider to your clients?

In an early 2013 PrintWeek feature, the Staffordshire-based British printer, KJB, shared their experience of this first-hand when they decided that the £1,000 worth of work per month they were outsourcing to local digital printers warranted a conversation of acquiring a digital press of their own. This was completely unchartered waters for KJB, who in their twenty-year history had owned nothing but offset lithographic presses. Commercial Director, Stephen Egerton, described the need to venture into digital offerings as one that would allow the company to “better serve the clients we had and also to expand that list of clients.” KJB began a rigorous search for the right digital press for their business, and found many advantageous offerings with the Xerox DocuColor 8080 Digital Press, including the ability to produce 80 A4 pages per minute at a resolution of 2,400dpi, and auto duplex capabilities at rated speeds on all weights and sizes up to 300gsm.

Quality-driven automation is also a key component of the DocuColor 8080, as its Automated Color Quality Suite helps to streamline automation within your print shop. This is done by delivering excellent color quality that is consistent and repeatable; reducing operator intervention and increasing uptime through auto calibration, advanced profiling and spot color calibration. While KJB initially began by just producing the £1,000 worth of jobs they had previously been outsourcing, the company slowly began moving some of the shorter-run offset jobs onto the DocuColor 8080, opening the company to new growth opportunities. They slowly began to see a steady increase in the usage of their digital press – from three hours a day, to five hours a day – making way to the now daily 10 hours of print runs that have become commonplace – with roughly 300,000 impressions per month. Egerton states that quality has been the key differentiator, as it has “meant existing customers have increased their work with us and have kept coming back. It has also meant we have won work from the customers of print shops with older digital gear, looking for the highest quality possible.”

With the addition of their new Xerox DocuColor 8080, KJB was able to grow their business by expanding their offerings to clients. How do you differentiate your print business? Is it through superior print quality, streamlined automation, or the ability to deliver a wide range of specialty substrates to clients such as polyester, vellum, magnet, NeverTear and vinyl?

Interested more posts related to delivering value to your customers? You may also like:

• How do I Market Better and Offer Marketing Services?
• Productivity and Versatility: Meet the New Xerox J75 and C75 Color Presses
• You Don’t Have to Become a Marketing Services Provider to Offer Marketing Services
• Tough Questions about the PSP-MSP Evolution
• Business Development: Everything you Need to Grow your Digital Printing Business

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Visit Xerox.com to see how the Xerox DocuColor 8080 can help you grow your business, reduce costs through automation and expand your offerings  – delivering a commanding ROI to your business

Written by Bill Michael
eMarketing Manager
Xerox Corporation

I’m sure by now you’ve heard it all. Whether trying to convince management to invest in digital printing or trying to maintain the attention of your customers – facing the ‘myths’ of digital printing may still be a lingering reality you face today.

Well, we’re here to dispel some of those myths and provide you with information to better engage with your customers and management. If ‘that doesn’t look like offset’, ‘that run length will cost a fortune’, and ‘the paper options are so limited’ are phrases that sound like a broken record – then keep reading!

Today, more than ever, printers are looking for ways to grow their business and better serve their customer base with fast, efficient, and high quality solutions. Digital printing has helped many do just that.

A recent study found that 4 out of 5 printers state that digital has helped them navigate to new profits. Advancements in the technology behind digital printing, workflow solutions, and the web have certainly helped drive this growth. Short runs, VI, high image quality, and the ability to run on countless stocks are just a few of the major selling points for digital. Productivity is what turns those selling points into realized revenue for the printer. The iGen4 EXP Press, for example, was recently found to have an 85% availability, meaning that 85% of its day the machine is producing sellable prints and generating revenue…to the tune of 5,610 sellable prints an hour.

The fast turn-around times, high image quality, ability to cost effectively produce short-runs, and value-added services such as variable data all contribute to creating interest with customers and generating revenue for printers. In fact, that same study found that 60% of recipients said digital services have improved their customer acquisition and retention.

Visit www.xerox.com/digitaltruths2 to learn more about how Xerox and digital printing are helping to dispel the myths that digital is too costly, can’t produce high enough quality, and can’t be profitable. You could also be entered for a chance to win a free truckload of Xerox Digital Color Xpressions paper.

Do you face any of the digital ‘myths’ with your customers today? What is the ‘myth’ that you spend the most time debunking?

Interested in similar topics to Digital Printing and its place in today’s market? You may want to check out:

Written by Kevin Horey
Vice President, Product Marketing Solutions
Xerox Graphic Communications Business Group

At Graph Expo inChicago next week, we’re reminding the graphic communications industry that in a world full of color, black and white still brings in the green.

We’re doing this to support the introduction of the Nuvera^® 157EA Production System and the Xerox Nuvera^® 314EA Production Perfecting System.

We’re bullish on black-and-white printing.  Why? According to InfoTrends, digital production black-and-white cut-sheet volumes for short-run and on-demand books will grow at a nearly 10 percent rate through 2016.

Delivering technology that delivers superior black-and-white output has long been a Xerox commitment – the new Nuvera production systems speak to that focus.

A long-time user of the Nuvera line, Andrew Liszewski, production manager, Matrix Imaging Solutions, agreed to test the Nuvera 314EA system, which produces 314 pages-per-minute in its dual-engine format.

The system has improved continuous tone image quality, a more powerful controller, and productivity enhancers like the IntegratedPLUS Finishing Solution for Booklets offering both automatic in-line and off-line finishing.

And we’re making it easier for users with a new ergonomically friendly production stacker that unloads finished applications while the system is still operating.

The system’s overall productivity boost enabled Matrix Imaging Solutions to apply a 5-to1 ratio of machines to operators as compared its usual 2-to-1 ratio.

For many businesses, these are the kind of advancements needed to ensure black-and-white printers make significant revenue and profit contribution well into the future.

How is your black-and-white business? What applications are you producing? Are you taking advantage of the digital book publishing surge?

Written By Bill Michael
Marketing Analyst
Xerox Corporation

You know them: hearing, sight, touch, smell, taste. At drupa, each of your senses will be put to great use, as you will:

• Hear: The excitement of the 1000s of attendees in the print industry having conversations on a variety of topics.
• See: Technology and software that represents the future of our industry
• Touch: Printed samples with specialty media, innovative finishing, and special toner
• Smell: toner, ink and paper in the air as you walk by every vendors stand.
• Taste: German cuisine (maybe for the first time) and perhaps a few brands of German beer with some friends and colleagues.

At the Xerox stand (Hall 8b), your senses can best be used by seeing and touching the applications that we’ll be showcasing live in our stand, including many Best-of-the-Best winners. These winners include: IOS (Digital and Offset), Mediaware (Digital Packaging), MBA Group Limited (TransPromo), Telemail, S.L. (TransPromo), Easy Print (Photo Publishing), Printshop (Photo Publishing). Three additional winners include:

	DG3 Europe Limited (Best Overall Solution, case study) The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the largest youth charity in the UK, wanted to enable their award winners to create and order personalized Achievement Packs online. They approached DG3 Europe Limited, who mapped out an end-to-end solution using FreeFlow Process Manager™ and the iGen4 with a Xerox FreeFlow™ Print Server – resulting in a 637% increase in usage of the achievement pack.
	De Budelse (Digital Packaging, case study) Recognizing the growing area of digital packaging, De Budelse built FotoChoco.nl to enable orders of personalized boxes of chocolate. Using the iGen4 and FreeFlow Print Server, they were able to sell over 11,000 boxes of chocolate. (your sense of taste!)
	CopyCat (Direct Marketing, case study) Using the Xerox Color 1000 Press, CopyCat used clear dry ink and personalized cross media to drive new business. The campaign generated a 10% response rate and helped bring in 20 new orders from new customers.

Please stop by Xerox Stand in Hall 8B to see and touch these great applications. We’ll find other ways to exercise your other senses!

Written by Bill Michael
Marketing Analyst
Xerox Corporation

How do you generate new ideas? Are you inspired by reading? By listening to others? By seeing other work? Inspiration of new ideas may come from a variety of sources.

In my role, I have the privilege of seeing dozens of print applications through programs such as Best-of-the-Best as well as coordinating applications to run at tradeshows such as drupa 2012. I see these applications not only as great examples of the power of digital printing, but as ideas that can help others in the print industry expand their offerings to their customers.

I wanted to share an assortment of applications that were recently selected as Gold award winning submissions in the 2011 IAPHC Award Program. Below you’ll find 3 print applications that I hope will inspire thoughts and ideas to implement in your own shop.

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Experiential Gatefold

This direct marketing piece created an experience for its recipients. The oversized carrier was printed on a 26” sheet and included a large gatefold. Inside were high-quality samples that were printed on a variety of substrates, all of which had a matte look and feel.

Key Concepts: Oversized Sheet, Matte Look, Experiential, Substrate Latitude

Technology:  Xerox iGen4 EXP Press with Matte Dry Ink

Thought Starters: Are you taking advantage of unique substrates?

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Dimensional Mailer (You Can Almost Eat)

Produced by Mailshop of New Zealand, this direct mail piece takes dimensional to another level by immediately becoming a conversation starter. Creative usage of Clear Dry Ink and personalization throughout help create relevance and captivates interest. The piece looks “delicious”….pun intended.

Key Concepts: Dimensional, Clear Dry Ink, Personalization

Technology: Xerox Color 800/1000 Press, Xerox FreeFlow Print Server, XMPie

Thought Starters: Have you thought of creating dimensional mailers to captivate a select audience? Can you enhance your work with Clear Dry Ink?

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University Parking Permit

This application is an example of using digital print in areas you might not expect. By combining Specialty Imaging, including micro-fonts and UV, along with personalized QR codes using Lytrod Software, this parking ticket raises the bar on digital printing – all while empowering parking enforcement!  This is a fantastic example of a unique application that creates high-value by utilizing personalization, specialty imaging, and outstanding quality.

Key Concepts: Personalization, QR Codes, Specialty Imaging

Technology: Xerox 550/560, Lytrod Software

Thought Starters: Can you think of ways to enhance seemingly everyday print applications? In what ways can your applications benefit from?

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Here’s a video that shares more detail about some of the other winning Xerox applications in the IAPHC Program.

Written by:
Joel Basa
eMarketing Manager
Xerox Corporation

Once in a blue moon, a print application will cross my desk that catches my eye. The reasons differ: stunning design, elaborate finishing, personalization, or maybe its vivid color. However, a particular photo book titled, “Anthony’s Prayers,” caught my eye because of the simplicity of its design and more importantly because of story and the content within. I’ve always believed, “content is king.” This was proof.

The Author, Anthony Torrone, has an intriguing story. Anthony is developmentally disabled, the result of a flu-like sickness when he was a young boy.  One day, he decided to write about all those things for which he was thankful.  His writing is simple but so profound and the photo book pairs his writing with photos that have been taken of Anthony through his interesting life.

I could put my “print industry” hat on and comment on the quality of the finishing and how Color House Graphics did an outstanding job of creating a high quality application using the iGen4 but for me Anthony’s story and the writing he has developed is the bigger story. Color House Graphics and others were enablers for Anthony and his amazing story.

Content is king. Creating bodies of work that capture amazing stories is what makes the print industry so appealing. We are very privileged to not be just print operators, marketers and graphic designers but story tellers and dream makers that enable others to tell an even better story.

Have any other examples of great print applications that tell a story? I’m sure you have many…please share your stories.

Written by:
Fred Ramsey
Worldwide Marketing Product Manager
Xerox Corporation

This week the Xerox 700i/770 was certified by the IDEAlliance certified to GRACoL – General Requirements for Applications in Commercial Offset Lithography.

I have always found some irony in the fact that one of our premier press certifications is pronounced the same as a black bird, the “grackle.”  (This is the same grackle that is eating in my wife’s garden). The GRACoL standard and my grackle friends share some traits—Yes, both are predictable, repetitive and both are durable—I suppose we need birds.  Certainly this is where the similarity ends!

The GRACoL certification provides an assurance in the areas of Accuracy, Uniformity, Repeatability, Durability, and Registration.  This certification is great news for people that know color management—And, even if you are not a color “guru”, the value is predictability in your production—You can be assured of hitting a repeatable sellable prints and this is good for anyone’s bottom-line.

In other words, this helps answer the question, “How do I get sellable, quality prints in a repeatable manner?” There are a set of steps.

While I can do without grackles in my daily life. Does GRACoL or another such standard add to your list of customers?