For commercial printers, there is a must-have aspect to digital printing – either in adding a digital operation to an existing offset offering or starting up as a standalone digital enterprise. For those adding digital, the motivation can either be to start a fresh revenue stream that draws in new customers or simply to extend the order-books from existing customers by becoming the only address they need to go to for all their print.
However you view it, there are some essentials to consider before dipping a toe into digital. Of course, you will need some quality digital output kit – and the choices today are plentiful.
But you might also consider a web-to-print (W2P) portal, some dedicated digital workflow software, developed inhouse by your IT team or someone handy in that field, or else purchased as a shrinkwrapped product off the vendor’s shelf, and some database management, if you are considering an entry into variable- data printing. You will find that most of the major commercial digital presses on offer today will have some form of inline finishing, either included, or available as an option. But you might still want to consider reconfiguring your bindery to introduce digital-dedicated cutters, folders, laminators, and such like, depending, of course, on how seriously you intend to embrace digital print production and also depending on the volumes you anticipate.
Vendors’ advice
There are many factors to consider in going digital, states Liet Fokari, solutions marketing manager at Fuji Xerox Australia, and the first is to achieve management buy-in, that is, getting all the top people at your company on board with the idea. He
advises to consider the finances to seed a digital operation, look at available space on the production floor, your production team and your sales team.
And whether it is cutsheet or wide-format, a digital operation has to be truly compatible with the company’s offset production, fulfilling best what offset cannot do best. A close working relationship with a technology vendor such as Fuji Xerox is essential..
W2P solutions are becoming quite common as options for print enterprises expanding their offerings, notes Fokari, and these vary “from simple internal submission platforms for education, corporate or government print rooms, to complex B2B and B2C solutions that can be totally customised to enhance and automate the user experience. We conduct a comprehensive assessment with our clients to fully understand the exact requirements, and ensure there is the capability to expand their services if required into the future.”
Once a digital press is chosen, the compatible finishing equipment needs to be selected, says Fokari.
He suggests a sum of around $50,000 as a basic entry cost into a simple digital print operation, but expect to pay more for greater levels of sophistication.
Marketing your new digital print service will generally require a website, B2B to existing clients, face-to-face sales with professional sample applications, and client referrals.
A wide array of market areas are open to digital pint, says Fokari. “Everything except a percentage of the larger runs that are still the domain of offset from a cost perspective. In particular, direct-mail applications, and collateral fulfilment are the heartland and sweet spot of digital.”
Anybody starting a digital printing operation needs to start modestly, without over-committing, cautions Henryk Kraszewski, senior product and marketing manager, production print, Ricoh Australia. A sound business plan and strong vendor partners are the main requirements, he adds.
“If starting from scratch, there are so many things to consider: location, target market, print product offerings, sales and marketing plans, headcount, equipment list, overheads – the list continues. It is rare to find a new digital cutsheet print operation that is a greenfield site. Such a situation may occur if someone is branching out on their own, usually with a clear idea of what they want to do and who to target.
“More likely, a new digital cutsheet operation is an adjunct to an existing print business (such as offset, signage or wide format). The prime reason for adding digital is to be able to offer customers more print offerings – and prevent leakage of short-run work to competitors. The key challenge in this scenario is managing the different nature of the work. For example, offset printers are apt at managing a small number of longer run jobs whilst the nature of digital is large volumes of small – to very small – print runs.”
A well-equipped, mid-range digital colour press like the Ricoh Pro C7100X will cost around $2,000 per month rental fee, estimates Kraszewski. “It would give the printer the capability to offer a large range of applications on stock up to 360gsm, differentiation with white or clear ink, and perhaps banner printing on sheets up to 700mm in length and/or inline saddle-stitching.”
After investing in the optimal hardware, the next step, he says, is to determine specifically what type of service will be provided and the scale of operations.
“A greenfield site needs to start modestly and add capability as the business grows. Such a site could not justify the significant investment required in web-to-print software and/ or database management. A larger, established offset operation – that is adding digital – may also consider adding a web-to-print solution, but it is usually best to successfully incorporate one new service (digital) before providing another (web-to-print).
“An established offset operation is likely to have bindery operations in place. Depending on the size of the business, the bindery section may accept digital work – but some businesses prefer to add a digital finishing section to the operations. This usually includes a card cutter, saddle-stitch line, perfect binder and celloglazer. A greenfield digital operation is likely to start with limited bindery. Until the business has enough print volume, these sites will more likely outsource bindery,” he says.
Peter Brittliff at Canon says that when it comes to the specific requirements for a start-up operation – and separately, for a new revenue stream in an existing print enterprise it all starts with great people who believe in the services the business provides and how these services truly help their customers.
He says, “These are the people who bring a customer-centric focus from all areas of the operation – sales, operations, administration, production and despatch. From a technology level this all depends on the type of business but at a minimum it has to be easy to use, delivers top-notch quality, reliably and consistently. For those existing organisations it is a two-step process. First to maximise profit so they can re-invest and grow it is about managing cost and optimising their existing investments. A common approach and one that is proven is through workflow automation. And second it is growing revenue by finding new customers or share-of-wallet from existing ones. This is all about helping customers solve their challenges and your product/services can make this a reality.
He says that for the essential components “It is about your customers, what tools/technologies will help them to achieve their goals – is it helping them to reach their sales goals by having a targeting communications campaign, then database management, personalisation, and marketing analytics is a must. I think it is equally important not to just think about the production side of the business but the full end-to-end customers experience from the initial inquiry, proof, production, finishing, delivery through measurement and reporting to invoice/ collections.
Brittliff reckons that the kind of sum that would need to be invested in order to start an operation as described above from scratch would be upwards of $100,000.
In terms of the kind of marketing which works best for digital printers he says, “In the old days marketing had less than a handful of channels, but with the Internet and mobile devices the number of channels are in the hundreds. Taking a pragmatic approach it is about finding out where your prospective customers hang-out and find information – is it in a specific industry magazine, a social channel like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Pinterest.
The best markets to target with digital printing nowadays according to Brittliff depend on what you specialise in. He says, “If it is high volume low margin it is the traditional publishing, catalogue, POS. But with the flexibility of digital higher-margins are a reality in packaging, and other key niche verticals that are selling/marketing high value products. According to Brittliff on-demand personalised printing is the specific digital print services that continues to grow work.
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