Business - Knowledge

Christmas has come early for PrintIT! as it celebrates having attracted more than 100,000 students to participate in the innovative school-based campaign. This year PrintIT!, which introduces young people to the potential of a career in print, reached a new audience of 13 -16 year olds with the introduction of a ‘Green’ supermarket theme focused on the printing industry’s commitment to sustainability and the environment.

Paul Evans, project director of PrintIT! commented on the achievement, “This figure is a landmark for PrintIT! and a milestone we are delighted to have achieved with the help of all our supporters in the industry. However, its significance extends farther than just PrintIT! itself. It is a triumph for UK print plc, as much of PrintIT!’s success can be attributed to the support, collaboration and funding of the print industry as a whole, in recognition of the contribution that young talent will make to its future.”

This year PrintIT! students have been challenged to create a print-based campaign to promote Fairtrade products in supermarkets. With the opportunity to engage with printing techniques from narrow-web to wide-format printing, each participant has been asked to produce a workbook of their proposals for submission to the annual PrintIT! competition.

“Each year, as the entries pour in, we are astounded by the quality and maturity displayed within each set of designs,” said Paul. “This year we gave the students a new theme and an even greater opportunity for creativity and variety in their concepts and we look forward to seeing exciting work of a high quality as the January deadline approaches.”

Judging will once again be divided into two stages, with finalist workbooks reviewed by some of the industry’s leading print and design experts. All finalists will be invited to attend IPEX 2010 on Saturday 22nd May at the NEC, Birmingham, where they will be given guided tours of the exhibition and the opportunity to experience the dynamic reality of the print industry first hand, before attending the prestigious annual PrintIT! Awards ceremony. Also in attendance at the awards will be many of the PrintIT! sponsors and Twinners (printers who have linked with PrintIT! schools), all of whom have had significant roles to play in attracting PrintIT!’s first 100,000 participants.

Aside from hosting the awards, IPEX 2010 will provide the platform for a number of exciting PrintIT! announcements. The achievements of PrintIT! over its first five years and the success of the new theme in 2009/10 will be recognised, while Proskills, the Sector Skills Council responsible for PrintIT!, plans to introduce a number of fresh new features, spin-off projects and communications tools.

“As the reputation of PrintIT! continues to grow, the initiative’s full potential has really become apparent,” says Terry Watts, chief executive of Proskills. The PrintIT! Awards ceremony at IPEX 2010 will provide an excellent opportunity for students, schools and the industry to celebrate five successful years and to look forward to the future with confidence”.

WhatTheyThink webinar highlights growth opportunities in Wide format and a review of HP Latex inks for wide format

WhatTheyThink.com today reported that nearly 200 industry professionals attended a free printing industry educational webinar. Eco-Friendly Large format Impressions, which was led by industry expert Barbara A. Pellow, Group Director of Production Services for research firm InfoTrends.  Sponsored by HP, the event was held December 2nd.

The no-charge archive may be accessed at the webinar archive page.

“As other aspects of the printing industry experience declines, wide format continues to grow,” said Pellow.  “It is an important element of a diversification strategy.  Dr. Allen was very thorough in his review of HP’s Latex inks, and Kyle and Brett’s experiences with leveraging wide format for business growth offered great insight for other print service providers who might be considering the addition of this technology.”

Pellow was joined by

• Dr. Ross Allen of HP.  Dr. Allen has in-depth personal knowledge and 28 years of experience in inkjet technology and digital imaging products.  As a Senior Technology Specialist at HP, he has more than 40 US patents to his name.  He will explain HP’s Latex ink technology, where it fits in the market and its environmental importance.
• Kyle Morrison, Project-Ink.com.  Project Ink is a progressive graphics agency providing organic design, innovative green media products and environmental graphic application/installations.
• Brett O’Connell, Quantum Digital Imaging.  Quantum Digital Imaging combines the latest in large format digital output technologies with advanced finishing equipmenbt and the highest regard for quality and craftsmanship.

“As we come out of the economic downturn, savvy printers will be looking for profitable offerings they can add to their businesses, and wide format is one that should be near the top of the list,” said Randy Davidson, President, WhatTheyThink. “We were also pleased to have Dr. Allen explain the new HP Latex inks.  We appreciate the fact that HP is sponsoring this important session, allowing us to make it available at no charge.”


About HP

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all customers. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world's largest IT companies. Featuring next-generation digital printing technologies that enable the professional printing of postage stamps to building wraps, and everything in between, HP Graphic Arts solutions include digital presses, wide and super wide-format printers, and custom inkjet solutions. Couple HP’s progressive portfolio with it's reputation for innovation, global responsibility and an industry-leading commitment to helping customers capture business success and you have a company that’s equipped to help you achieve profitable growth and thrive. www.hp.com/go/graphic-arts

About WhatTheyThink.com

WhatTheyThink is the printing and publishing industry's leading media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events as well as providing content through a syndication program, which delivers content directly to related websites.

About Barbara Pellow

Barbara Pellow recently assumed responsibility for the development and delivery of two new services at InfoTrends specifically focused on the evolution of the Graphic Communications Market – The Business Development Service and Custom Communications Service. Pellow has served in a number of roles including the Chief Marketing Officer of Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. In the role of Chief Marketing Officer, Pellow was responsible for all marketing activities for the division, including marketing communications, public relations, marketing intelligence and advertising strategy. She was an active participant in developing business strategy and helping define the group’s go-to-market organizational structure.

Prior to joining Kodak, Pellow was the Gannett chair in integrated publishing sciences in Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) School of Printing Management and Sciences (SPMS). She has also held senior marketing roles at IKON Office Solutions, InfoTrends, Xerox and IBM.

 

The results of FESPA’s first stakeholder Economy Survey suggest that wide format printers and their suppliers worldwide are broadly optimistic about the chances of business recovering to pre-recession levels within the next 12 months.

Some 14% of survey respondents already report signs of recovery, with a further 23% expecting fortunes to improve in the second half of 2009.  25.6% of the sample expects the upturn to come in early 2010, with a similar figure anticipating recovery by the end of 2010.  Less than 12% foresee current trading conditions lasting into 2011.   83% of respondents believe themselves to be well positioned to take advantage of the conditions if the market rebounds.

The electronic survey of some 400 individuals during July 2009 was conducted by FESPA in partnership with research organisation InfoTrends.  The research, which includes printers, manufacturers and resellers, will be repeated on a regular basis between now and FESPA 2010 (Munich, Germany, 22 - 26 June 2010), helping FESPA and exhibitors to reliably gauge the mood of the wide-format community.

FESPA marketing director Marcus Timson explains: “We found the intelligence from our recent Worldwide Survey so valuable that we decided it would benefit FESPA, our exhibitors and our global community of print service providers (PSPs) to test the temperature of the market more regularly.  With the Economy Survey, we’re questioning a meaningful sample of printers worldwide to assess how they’re managing the impact of the global economic downturn, and to understand the measures they’re putting in place to get through the difficult times and equip themselves for a positive future.”

While a quarter of those questioned indicated that their business had stagnated or experienced minimal impact, the majority had seen turnover affected, with 27% of respondents citing a negative effect of 25% or more.

The survey shows that print service providers are still looking to their operational processes for solutions to falling revenues.  76% of printers had developed production-led strategies to address the downturn, with many looking to reduce overheads with lower priced media (35.2%), lower priced ink (28.7%) and by cutting printer maintenance programmes (18.5%). Sustainability practices have benefited, however, with 46.3% of respondents having tightened their waste management practices.  Flatbed printing technology has also experienced a boost, with 22.2% of PSPs looking to this technology to trim labour costs.

Unfortunately, pricing is still a popular tactic to attract sales, with 41.3% of respondents resorting to rebates and price promotions to tackle the downturn.  Almost a third of those surveyed mentioned flexible payment terms as a means of attracting business, and more than a quarter indicated that their pricing strategy had been driven by aggressive pricing by competitors.

Encouragingly, however, many printers have responded positively to the challenges, optimising their product portfolios, or increasing their focus on different applications such as textile to grow margins (15.7%).  23.9% of printers questioned have implemented fresh sales or marketing strategies, and 12.2% have expanded sales resources to cope with the downturn.

Timson comments: “While the Economy Survey offers clear evidence of the impact of the economic downturn on FESPA’s stakeholder community, it also demonstrates that our community is robust and fundamentally optimistic, and sees the need to continue to innovate to build value and profitability.”

“As we start to shape the FESPA 2010 event, this Survey provides FESPA with an invaluable snapshot of the wide-format service provider community at this point. The results of this and future FESPA Economy Surveys will help us to understand the drivers for PSPs and monitor how the economic backdrop to their businesses is changing.  Those insights will allow us to adapt our events, products and services to offer relevant and meaningful support as they steer their businesses out of the current slump towards a more positive future.”

 

Sign-makers are being offered the opportunity to explore the full profit potential of their software and equipment with a two-for-one deal at the Roland DG Academy. The Academy’s hands-on SignLab and Adobe Photoshop courses are on offer as two-day training sessions and are focused on profit generation and cost reduction — vital as companies diversify and maximise their resources in the current economic situation. While time permits, companies can take advantage of putting two employees on the programme, covering knowledge gaps and ensuring that all staff are trained – particularly important when dealing with holiday cover or even redundancy cover.

“By addressing how the person uses these two key products, and what they achieve with their throughput, the Academy courses improve the company’s output quality and workflow,” explains Marc Jenkin, Academy Manager, who also leads on both of these courses. “Because of the high standard of our trainers, we can ensure that users return with the confidence built to tender for higher margin jobs, armed with an array of knowledge about special processes, vector design and image improvement.”

Jenkin is eager to highlight the importance of the purpose-built production environment where the courses take place. “An interruption-free space means pure hands-on time in the company of experts,” he points out. “Making use of smart boards with video recording equipment means that we can hone in on exactly how to perfect these processes and thereby improve return on investment.”

Escalating the business-client relationship is a vital part of the programmes, which also allow specific files or issues to be brought to the table. “There are some stunning effects that are possible that aren’t widely known or used,” hints Jenkin, who has been training at the Academy since its inception in 2006. “Companies can really get the most out of their existing customers and also move into new grounds by asking, simply, whether they knew that chrome effects or vector design were services that they supplied.”

The SignLab course, which can be split into two individual days, is led by experts who will ensure that the trainee knows menu control and shortcuts, progressing into the creation of vector graphics, cut paths and colour management. Day one will provide the knowledge needed to speed up the user’s workflow and improve co-ordination between the supplier and their customers. Day two progresses that skill base by targeting industry requirements and powerful image techniques, including the enhancement of poor quality bitmap or raster graphics while avoiding pixelation. By the end of the course the trainee student will be confident in using Half Cut to extract print and cuts, the management of badges and serialisation — known as VDP in similar packages — and special effects, such as ripple effects, chrome and borders.

Over the two day Adobe Photoshop course, users can become more rapid through their control of selections, layers and shortcuts. Having nailed down their own method alongside the trainer, students concrete their colour management skills by developing and implementing the use of correct colour processes, depending on the job, and appreciating all aspects of image correction. By reducing error and workflow times they will return with a greater enjoyment of the programme and a number of suggestions for diversifying the company’s chargeable services.

With plenty of time to network during attendance, delegates can share their experience and receive expert advice on any issues they may face regularly. “A person who’s in control and comfortable with the equipment they use will bring more to the company,” Jenkin concludes. “And that’s what these courses really provide — the confidence and ability to use these tools to their full advantage.” Prices, and a complete course offering with detailed contents, are available at www.rolanddg.co.uk/academy/

 

The trading record of UV light source manufacturer Integration Technology Ltd (ITL) was described as ‘worthy of a Harvard Business School case study’ during the official presentation on Tuesday (July 21st) of the 2009 Queens’s Award for International Trade by Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Tim Stevenson OBE.

Founded in 2000, Integration Technology designs and assembles compact, lightweight, modular UV systems for a variety of inkjet and industrial applications. “The record of this company is impressive,” said Mr. Stevenson. “An enormous amount of hard work and effort needs to go into what Integration Technology has achieved and it’s founded on quality, relentless focus on customer service and a determined approach to the international marketplace.”

Mr Stevenson suggested the record of the business over the last six years as “worthy of a Harvard Business School case study”, with the company scoring a compound rate of growth in turnover over the last six years not less than 43% of its net profit compound rate of growth of 58%.

Mr Stevenson took a tour to meet some 40 staff working on the development of UV curing systems at the company’s design and assembly facility at Upper Heyford near Oxford. After presenting the Queen’s Award to ITL managing director Adrian Lockwood at a reception on the company site attended by staff and special guests from local community and global industry, he congratulated the company on its achievement.

“Winning the Queen’s Award is by no means small beer,” said Mr Stevenson. “The award is not given lightly. It’s made on merit and given its prestigious nature, there is very strong competition for it. So this is a wonderful opportunity for Integration Technology to capitalise on its undoubted strengths.”

Guest speaker Tony Baldry, Conservative MP for Banbury said: “Around ninety-eight percent of ITL products are exported and that’s a phenomenal achievement given the competition in the global marketplace.

The Roland DG Academy has announced today it is adding a new one day finishing course to its growing portfolio of digital print courses. The new module, titled ‘Basic Application Finishing’ will be taught at the bespoke Roland DG Academy training facility
based at Walsall College and is designed to provide sign makers and printers with skills in the basic preparation, application and finishing of a range of vinyl, digital and lamination media.
 
Says Sam Sooialo, Head of Operations, Roland DG (UK): “Our new ‘Basic Application Finishing’ course, which goes live in May 2009, is the latest step in Roland DG’s drive to help our customers add value to the services they provide and generate new revenue streams.  The introduction of the finishing course to our ever-expanding training portfolio is also a reflection of the changing landscape in wide format printing.  It’s a great addition to the Roland DG Academy and offers a good range of ideas and skills needed to enhance any print product portfolio.
 
“Increasingly, sign makers and printers are looking to bring more specialist skills in-house as the technology, price and footprint of new finishing machines means they are now ideally suited for printers who wish to offer  their customers an in-house digital print one-stop-shop. Taking finishing in-house also enables the printer or sign maker to maintain greater control over both the quality of the finished product and the timeframe it can be produced in. In such an on-demand print world, it is important the printer can maintain control over as many parts of the production process as possible.”
 
The course consists of theory and practical sessions with question and answer opportunities throughout the day. Attendees  will learn finishing techniques including preparation, weed face and dry application of cut vinyl; application of: flood coating to board; wet and dry digital print to board; etch films to glass; and wet and dry digital print to glass, to glass, as well as basic lamination and mounting techniques, including application to contours and curves.
 
As the course is set at the introductory level, it is suitable for those who are still considering setting up a finishing department as well as printers who are currently finishing in-house but feel they may need to ‘brush up’ on their skills or enhance specific techniques. “A basic general knowledge of digital print production is obviously preferable in order to get the most out of the course,” continues Mr Sooialo. “Those who have already attended the Introduction to Digital Print or Intermediate Digital Print courses at the Roland DG Academy will also benefit, as both courses will have already touched on the finishing process.
 
“The skills gained on this course will help printers and sign makers to expand their print product portfolio and target new opportunities by adding finishing techniques to applications. When done properly, finishing is a great, cost-effective way to add profit to a print business’s bottom line,” concludes Sooialo.
 
Sign makers and printers interested in attending the course can either call the Roland directly, where the team will be present on the Roland DG stand to answer questions about this or any other course available at the Roland DG Academy.

Sponsored Link:
You can also download a complete Roland Academy 2009 Prospectus by clicking here.