In a press release announcing the investment, the companies said the money would be used to further the development of new marketing collateral management tools to help enterprises and commercial printers boost efficiency and growth.

“We see the need in the market to help commercial printers move to a marketing service provider type of approach — because they need to provide more value to their customers,” Theresa Lang, vice president for Solutions & Services at Ricoh, told ProPrint‘s sister title, PrintWeek.

“There are quite a few printers that have web-to-print, but you’d be surprised how many either don’t have it or maybe have an older version that doesn’t really provide any additional value. Our goal – with this investment and partnership with PTI – is to provide printers with features such as templates they can use with customers that are vertical and industry specific.”

PTI chief executive Coleman Kane said: “Commercial printers are looking for ways to work closer with the customers – because most print as you know is not under contract, it’s a one-off and you’re done.”

He said PTI would now be able to accelerate its international expansion.

“We had plans to enter Europe at the beginning of next year but we’re a small software company,” he said. “Now with Ricoh naming us their platform of record, we’re going to start going into Europe hand and hand with them at the end of this year, beginning of next year – and Asia Pacific hopefully by the end of next year.”

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This article originally appeared at printweek.com

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