Archive for April, 2010

On Demand = On Fire!

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

I think I can speak for a number of people who attended On Demand this year when I say – wow!  To say that I was pleasantly surprised when the doors opened on Tuesday and floods of people began entering the exhibit hall would be an understatement.  I must admit it was a huge relief.  As the event progressed you could sense a real positive buzz in the building, like a cloud had lifted.

Yes, this year there was much more foot traffic throughout the hall.  But was most impressive to me was that these folks were serious shoppers.  Mostly everyone I spoke with was looking for a specific solution for their business that would enable cost-savings, increase the operational productivity and eventually show true ROI.  These folks came to the right place.

Busy InfoPrint Solutions On Demand booth!

At the InfoPrint Solutions booth, we highlighted three key areas of our business that we felt our audience would be looking to see – Automated Document Factory, TransPromo and MICR capabilities on cutsheet printers.

ADF has been a consistently strong and simple way for companies to save money.  Between our latest ADF ROI Calculator, Intelligent Mail® implementation products and the recent launch of ADFsavings.com we have continued to establish case studies and proof points as to why this workflow technology is so valuable to a mailer.  At On Demand, we demonstrated these tools plus more to a steady flow of partners, customers and potential customers.

TransPromo also maintains its top spot on our minds at On Demand as it has for years past.  What interested our visitors most here was initial “sneak peek” results of a new consumer survey we commissioned on the value of printed publications.  We wanted to know – is print really a dead medium?  What we found out was – absolutely not!  More than 90 percent of our respondents said they still prefer to receive their subscriptions in a print form.  Keep an eye out here- more to come from this survey in the next few weeks…

Another top highlight at booth 401 was our partnership with Rosetta Technologies and our InfoPrint Pro 907 MICR EX.  The ability to produce MICR for mailings and statements is a growing demand for many of our customers.  And by showcasing our partnership with Rosetta, we were able to relay that message to a broad and interested audience, straight from the show floor.

Just to add to our excitement at the show was the recognition of our InfoPrint TransPromo Whitespace Manager by the On Demand Best in Show awards.  It’s always nice to bring home a trophy!

On Demand Best in Show Honorable Mention

What is always most important is meeting happy, satisfied customers.  One of our most special customers is One2One Communications, an InfoPrint 5000 user.  Travis Howe, VP of Sales, joined our own Carrie Murphy for a presentation of ways to use color to increase ROI.  He was such an engaging and knowledgeable speaker – I learned a lot and I’m sure the audience did too.

So to go back to the headline, On Demand was truly on fire this year!  The mood was positive, customers were looking to buy and our team was energized.  There was nothing more I could ask for – except for maybe more time!

Best,

Lesley Wylie

Director, Global Marketing

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It’s all about the ADF Momentum!

Monday, April 19th, 2010

As you may have seen, InfoPrint Solutions recently announced a new collection of support tools for our ADF portfolio.

We are proud to formally introduce the InfoPrint Solutions ADF blog, ADF Savings. Although our team – myself included – has been blogging over there for more than a month – we wanted to get a deep array of content up there before we announced it to the world. ADFSavings will cover a variety of topics ranging from how an integrated workflow can transform business, to marketplace trends, to providing tips on how to increase productivity. Sign up to receive the blog via RSS and follow us on Twitter @ADFSavings, so you won’t miss a thing when it comes to InfoPrint ADF news!

Industry exclusive ADF Savings Calculator

There are many reasons businesses choose to implement a Gartner model ADF. But regardless of the reasons, a critical deciding factor is Return On Investment. A well designed ADF should, barring other rationale, almost always provide ROI within a few short years, if not sooner.

To help companies determine where they can save money, InfoPrint has put together an ROI savings calculator, believed to be the first of its kind – based on 20 years of experience in designing document workflows. The calculator includes a comprehensive questionnaire to analyze each individual’s specific spending pattern. Check out the following tutorial video for a simple overview on how to use the calculator, and then give it a try at www.infoprintadf.com.

If you attended last week’s National Postal Forum, the premiere tradeshow for mailroom professionals, you may have had the chance to test out the ADF ROI Calculator on the brand new Apple iPad! You could also stop by Booth 401 at On Demand this week and give it a try.

InfoPrint’s software and professional services experts are constantly working to enhance our portfolio – if you have any suggestions, DM us on twitter @ADFSavings, or talk to your solutions consultant.

Please check out our new blog, www.adfsavings.com, and let us know what you think! We look forward to your insight and comments!

Best,
Don Dew
ADF Solutions Manager

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Advanced Function Presentation, Then and Now

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

The Advanced Function Presentation™ (AFP™) architecture has come a long way. When I was providing technical market support in the 1990s to reps and systems engineers for AFP software and hardware, one of the most interesting projects I was involved in was assisting a large trucking firm automate its process for handling bills of lading and delivery receipts. The accounting department had to wait for the truckers to get back to headquarters with the paperwork before it could be copied, filed in manila folders, entered into the system and manually stuffed into invoices sent to clients. Needless to say, the billing cycle was delayed, sometimes up to two weeks or more.

With its ability to compress images, AFP provided an efficient way for the company to reduce paper handling and time to invoice, which dropped to about two days. The company put scanners in all its trucks. The truckers scanned the documents immediately and sent them in electronically. The documents were filed as images in the company’s archive database. The accounting staff could view and retrieve the images and print the documents along with the bills. Compression of the images enabled the print process to run efficiently.

Flash forward to 2010 and AFP is still a great language for high-speed printing, the dominant method that firms use to archive critical business records, and it remains outstanding at combining text and images efficiently.  In addition, it has expanded greatly into other critical business areas, including color and e-delivery. And it’s very easy to convert AFP to PDFs, and vice versa, for other business needs.

Best,

Jamsie Treppendahl

Project Manager, InfoPrint Solutions

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What to expect at this year’s National Postal Forum

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

It’s that time of year again! Partners of the United States Postal Service (USPS) will soon be gathering to discuss business opportunities and build new and existing relationships with peers.

The annual National Postal Forum (NPF), quickly approaching this April 11-14 in Nashville, Tennessee, is a hub for postal customers and mailers to discuss new, effective uses for products and enlighten attendees on the services that the USPS provides. For many, this conference is an educational platform for industry professionals to absorb new ideas, network and find opportunities for growth within their companies.

This year, InfoPrint Solutions will rub elbows with postal industry professionals at the NPF, displaying solutions for the mailroom. These solutions include inserter monitoring and reprinting, mail preparation solutions, Intelligent Mail® solutions, and InfoPrint Solutions’ recently announced TransPromo Whitespace Manager — all driven by the InfoPrint ProcessDirector (IPPD) workflow platform.

So what hot topics are we excited to see at this year’s event?

Only a year away from its debut in the market, Intelligent Mail will definitely be top of mind. The USPS will emphasize Intelligent Mail as a reality in the near future, and mailers will be looking at the options available to them.

As we all know, reducing costs is a priority for many in our current recession, and the dramatic drop in print volumes has impacted businesses such as direct mailers and presort vendors relying on mail volume for revenue. Enterprises are striving to lower operational costs as well, which means that every mail piece will need the best qualified postage discount, and the technologies producing mail must be efficient and low in cost.

One way to lower costs that will also be a highlight for the show is the added value for communications, ensuring that customized and relevant messages are being delivered. Mailed pieces are still receiving the best response, but let’s face it – mailing is expensive! So there’s no room for mismanaged communications. The NPF will be running an entire workshop on tracking customer acquisition and loyalty, and vendors at the show will be demonstrating technologies that will allow businesses to differentiate create new value-add offerings and produce effective mailed communications that demonstrate ROI.

A surprise undercurrent will be the topic of compliance. The USPS can audit large mailers to ensure that discounted mailings are prepared to specification. On the other hand, there are the regulated industries which receive pressure from the government to demonstrate integrity and compliance as part of doing business. I expect more businesses to be looking to technologies that can help to achieve compliance and mitigate risk.

On a more personal note, I’m really looking forward to seeing what the other vendors and the USPS will be bringing to the table this year. InfoPrint Solutions could provide a lot of insight for attendees of the event, as we’ve been in the mailroom for 20 years, a fact that many in the industry are unaware of.

With more than 125 educational sessions scheduled for the event, this should be an exciting opportunity to see what’s on the horizon in the industry and get feedback on the solutions that InfoPrint Solutions will be presenting.

Will you be at the NPF this year? What would you like to see at the event? Stop by InfoPrint Solution’s booth #126. We hope to see you there!

Best,
Don Dew
ADF Solutions Manager

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