Business - Knowledge

EskoArtwork Academy Gent has achieved the Qfor quality label for its training program. The highly respected label is awarded for customer satisfaction, and is a trusted third-party endorsement regarding the professional standard of the training provided by the company.

The EskoArtwork Academy in Gent is responsible for all training in the Benelux region, and offers specialist support to other countries. Training is available for EskoArtwork customers and employees, distributors, and educational institutes. “Training is essential for individuals’ professional development,” says Kurt Soreyn, Manager EskoArtwork Academy. “Companies also benefit from the wide range of training sessions available at the Academy. The skills that attendees develop can be applied directly in the workplace, and can help businesses operate more efficiently and productively.”

Stringent quality criteria prove customer satisfaction

The Qfor label underlines the high standards of the training sessions at EskoArtwork Academy Gent. The label is awarded only after a thorough quality evaluation of the program and after overall customer satisfaction has been proven.

Soreyn explains: “The Qfor evaluation process is extremely thorough. Our program was assessed against ten criteria, including training preparation, the quality of the training itself, reporting and tools, trainer competence, and price versus quality.”

To be awarded the Qfor label, at least four out of five customers must grade the training ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’. Moreover, all trainees must be at least 80% ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with all elements of the training program under assessment. Soreyn concludes: “A number of last year’s clients, from within and outside Benelux, were contacted by the Qfor organisation to evaluate their satisfaction. We’re very proud to land such a respected certification for our training program. It will help us attract even more people to the Academy, and in some cases – in Belgium, for example – even entitle them to special funding by the government.”

 

Ipex World [www.ipex.org], the easy-to-use online networking and resource portal dedicated to print professionals worldwide, has increased the functionality of Ipex Connect, its premium facility to enable greater interactive exchange. Ipex Connect provides a comprehensive list of printers, active dealers, suppliers, associations and consultants located throughout the world, offering Premium Members access to exclusive industry information, and more crucially, the opportunity to expand their businesses onto the global stage, at the touch of a button.

“Ipex Connect is all about encouraging the global print community to get connected and stay connected, as well as offer genuine new business development opportunities,” says Nick Craig Waller, Ipex World Marketing Director. “By utilising the power of the internet, we have tapped into the considerable resources generated at the last Ipex and have developed a global platform that replicates the networking and business development opportunities that are so successful at today’s international events.”

Online registration to become a Premium Member of Ipex World and gain access to Ipex Connect is free of charge, and opens up a host of exclusive benefits. These include direct access to a growing community of industry organisations, an exclusive library of useful industry information, videos, case studies and special offers as well as the latest new product and technology news from member companies.

Premium Members will gain access to the Printer2Printer Zone, the peer networking area within Ipex Connect. This community enables members to engage with other print professionals throughout the world, sharing advice, ideas, experiences and comment, as well as setting up global business partnerships.

According to Steve Wicks, Director of Greenprint, who has already made use of the Ipex Connect services says, “Ipex World has developed in a very short space of time into an excellent resource for anyone involved in print and I believe that Ipex Connect could be as useful as LinkedIn for identifying and developing relationships with potential partners worldwide in the near future.”

“I think that the Printer2Printer service on Ipex Connect will prove to be a useful online resource, continues Steve. “The database can be searched for contacts in the printing industry by company type, by country or via a keyword search. We hope to be supplying print to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change again later this year and the event will be in Durban, so I searched and found fifteen registered contacts in South Africa. As this global community builds, we will certainly use Ipex Connect as one of our marketing and communications tools to help us to build on our network of contacts and to stay on top of worldwide events in the printing industry.”

In addition, the online ‘Matchmaking Service’, based on the hugely successful Agent & Distributor Matchmaking Scheme introduced during Ipex 2006 and Ipex 2010, provides access to a comprehensive list of active dealers, agents and suppliers located throughout the world. Premium members can simply input specific search criteria to source relevant business partners throughout the world to further expand their international business reach.

Phil Moretti-Green, Managing Director of Kopykat Printing Ltd has already bookmarked the portal for quick reference. He adds, “I’ve found Ipex World to be both user friendly, and a reliable and trusted source of the kind of information we can really use to help develop our business. As the content and membership of Ipex World continues to grow, I can see it will become an invaluable research, networking and business building tool for us.”

“Print has become a truly global industry, and printers and suppliers recognise the need to expand beyond their own domestic market,” adds Nick Craig Waller. “When looking to expand your business into new territories, searching for and selecting the right agent or distributor to successfully represent both your brand and business is vital and yet, can be an extremely time consuming and costly exercise. Our Matchmaking Service is all geared towards making this process as simple and cost effective as possible. Once a potential partner has been located via our database, members can instantly communicate with the target company using our secure, inbuilt messaging facility.”

Premium Members can also develop their own personalised log-in zone, add web content, company and product specific details to their own profile, as well as compile and save a list of partner organisations, suppliers, associations and consultants as ‘favourites’ for future ease of use.

 

"UV-Curable Large Format Printers Technology Test & Guide" is a new Special Report from Digital Dots that evaluates and explains the importance of colour gamut and resolution and how they influence output quality and consistency across different wide-format UV printers and materials.

Researched and written by Michael Walker and Paul Lindström, "UV-Curable Large Format Printers Technology Test & Guide" provides an in-depth insight into how UV-curable wide-format machines and inks have developed. The thorough tests and clear analysis concentrate on the relevance and importance of colour gamut and resolution as a measure of the performance of a device.

Manufacturers EFI VUTEk, HP Scitex, Inca, Polytype, Océ and Mimaki provided test submissions of UV-curable output on selected media. As these companies have solutions that cover different areas of the wide-format production market, the test results cover most of the scenarios likely to be encountered by print service providers and display producers.

Two specific tests were used to assess the criteria which are key in wide-format ink-jet printers, namely colour gamut and resolution. For the first of these, Digital Dots used a standard IT-8 CMYK profiling chart whilst, for the second, a specially designed test  gauged line pairs at a wide range of spacings to determine the true resolving power relating to droplet size and placement.

The resulting research provides invaluable information for all those involved in the wide-format ink-jet sector, whether printer and ink manufacturers, or the end users or possible buyers of the machines themselves. The companies supplying test samples cover a strong cross-section of present-day systems and their market expectations, and readers of the report will glean relevant information to assist in their understanding of the principles which drive today's technologies.

"The Digital Dots' Special Report is the first of its kind which actually goes beyond explanations of how and why ink-jet printers function, and what they do. It delves deeper into the importance of gamut and why reliable colour matching is becoming increasingly vital to wide-format," says independent inkjet consultant, Sophie Matthews-Paul. "This document is an ambitious project yet is produced in a concise and informative manner so that people don't need to reach for a scientific dictionary to understand the content."

An independent graphic arts research organisation which was founded 12 years ago by a group of industry specialists, Digital Dots concentrates on producing research and information relating to the systems used throughout today's print sector.

86% of respondents to FESPA’s latest Economy Survey expect their businesses to grow in 2011, with more than half of those surveyed forecasting growth to exceed 10%. More than 17% anticipate growth above 25%.

Half of all respondents believe the wide format market has recovered from the economic downturn. Reflecting on sales in the fourth quarter of 2010, 25% reported them better than 2009, 19% said they were better than expected, and 39% thought they were as expected.

The Economy Survey, conducted on behalf of FESPA by its research partner InfoTrends, is the fourth of its kind to be undertaken by FESPA on behalf of its global wide format community. 432 respondents worldwide completed the electronic survey at the end of 2010, almost half representing the service provider community, with the remainder comprising manufacturers (22%), and resellers (18%). Three-quarters of respondents were evenly split between North America and Europe, with the remainder coming from the developing Asian, Middle Eastern, African and South American markets.

According to the Economy Survey 4, growth in demand among clients for environmentally sustainable print services is increasing as economic concerns abate, with 45% reporting a spike in interest for ‘green’ printing. Nearly half of printers responding to the Economy Survey have already re-engineered their wide format production practices to become more environmentally-friendly. For many this has been through attention to more eco-friendly media selection (71%), improved waste management (59%) and recycling (47%). 59% have also addressed environmental performance with investments in lowering solvent use through UV, latex or aqueous production. Similar numbers plan to address these issues in the future. Only 12% of respondents have adopted alternative energy sources, though a further 13.5% expect to do so going forward. The vendor community has responded accordingly, with 72% of manufacturers claiming to have developed or introduced products that support more environmentally responsible printing

The Survey offers evidence that printers are preparing their businesses for demand from clients for closer integration of print with digital marketing media. 40% report seeing an increase in requests for QR code and other variable data printing services, and 52% are equipped to meet this demand, though the remainder has no such capability.

76% of respondents see - or expect to see - digital signage impacting wide format digital graphics. Unsurprisingly, the applications deemed most affected by digital signage are backlit (24%), billboards (18%) and POP graphics (13%). There was strong agreement with the statement “My company is investigating ways to participate in digital signage advertising.”

FESPA Sales and Marketing Director Marcus Timson comments: “This fourth FESPA Economy Survey makes invigorating reading for our community. It shows an industry emerging with determination from the downturn, planning for growth, and anticipating and addressing shifts in customer demand.

“Such high levels of confidence auger very well for FESPA Digital 2011, our fourth dedicated Digital show in Europe (Messe Hamburg, 24-27 May 2011). The ‘Evolution’ message behind our cross-media campaign for this event chimes with the sentiments expressed in this research. Very few respondents consider the technology in our market to have reached maturity, with the majority believing that there is still scope for technology to deliver improved productivity and business performance. On that basis, and with the majority of respondents ambitious for growth this year, we expect a buzzing event in Hamburg in May, and we’ll be doing everything possible to ensure that our visitor programme helps printers to make the most of every opportunity.”

Timson adds: “Interestingly, the highest levels of optimism - namely those respondents who foresee growth in excess of 25% - are among US participants. It will be interesting to meet with US printers at our first FESPA Americas event in Orlando in February, and to explore what PSPs from both continents can learn from one another to take their businesses forward in 2011.”

SGIA recently released "How to Sell Large-Format Printing to Retail," the new book by Peter Ebner, an industry-recognised author, speaker and marketing consultant, as part of SGIA's effort to help specialty imagers access the retail market.

Retail sales have improved throughout the year, and this has helped many graphic producers increase their production levels. This new book provides proven techniques for imaging companies seeking to win more printing contracts within the lucrative retail industry.

"Peter Ebner's selling strategies will give a strong advantage to any company looking to sell wide-format printing into retail markets," said Dan Marx, SGIA's vice president of markets and technologies.

Ebner discusses how large-format printers are benefiting from the retail market and presents valuable business strategies for making sales, generating revenue and gaining an edge over the competition. The book includes:

• Ready-to-use lead generating scripts
• Power presentations that sell
• What retailers really want to hear
• Promotional ideas that drive retail sales
• And more

The book is sold exclusively through the SGIA eStore.

WhatTheyThink, the leading news and information source for the graphic communications industry, announces the immediate availability of its new October 2010 Business Conditions Report: The WhatTheyThink Overview of the Current Economic State of the Industry. This 65-page report provides the results of the Economics and Research Center’s September 2010 survey of print business owners, and compares these results to past quarterly surveys to provide an accurate gauge of how print businesses professionals perceive the economic landscape, how those perceptions are changing, and what actions they are likely to take in response to challenging economic times. In addition to our own survey results, we provide the most current data available on printing industry shipments and profits, employment, and other economic indicators.

To put the printing industry data in context, the report also provides a wealth of other economic data, such as GDP, unemployment, inflation, consumer confidence, and more, as well as our own commentary on what trends in these data tell us about prevailing economic conditions—and the market for print. The report also includes the ERC’s own hand-picked set of economic indicators that provide a “recovery roadmap” to let us know when the economy is on the upswing. The report suggests what industry businesspeople can look forward to for the remainder of 2010 and into 2011.

The October2010 Quarterly Business Conditions Report also looks at other trends affecting the industry, provides a quick rundown of some of the newest media and technologies, collates third-party data on the growth of such things as online and mobile advertising, and offers a feature called “Dark Clouds and Silver Linings,” a list of both immediate threats to the industry as well as opportunities for industry businesspeople.

Some of the topics covered in this report include:

• How commercial printers’ business conditions for the first half of 2010 have compared to those of 2009.
• How commercial printers expect business for the rest of 2010 to compare to business in 2009.
• Do printing companies’ plan to invest in new equipment, hardware, and software in 2010?2011?
• What are the top planned investment categories?
• How “committed” are printing companies to those investment plans?
• Do printing companies plan to hire any new employees?
• What is the general outlook for the economy—and for the printing industry—for the rest of 2010?

According to the report:

• Almost one-half (47%) of respondents to the ERC’s September 2010 survey said that they plan to make some sort of capital investment in the rest of 2010 or in 2011.
• 37% of those respondents have a high level of commitment to those purchases.
• Binding/Finishing, Web-to-print capabilities, and VDP software are the top investment categories.
• Printing shipments for the middle of 2010 have been better than expected, suggesting that 2010 will be an improvement over 2009.

The Report also provides WhatTheyThink’s outlook, conclusions, and recommendations.

“Graph Expo gave us a sense that there is a renewed vigour to the industry, and things do seem to be improving bit by little bit. But that should not lead industry companies to start singing ‘Happy Days Are Here Again.’ Significant challenges remain, and new and emerging media trends, as well as changing demographics, mean that we will need to stay on our guard and keep innovating our businesses.”