InfoPrint Insights Blog

Recently InfoPrint Solutions was recognized by the Colorado BMA with its 2011 Gold Key Award for Social Media, for its success in building and growing engagement communities through social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

InfoPrint Solutions' marketing team members pose with the Gold Key award!

InfoPrint Solutions wanted to increase interaction with the print community; better communicate socially with our Solutions Partners, customers and employees; expand brand awareness across new vertical markets; and enhance visibility with media and analyst contacts.

Three main social media tools were leveraged to build these communities and engage our various constituents – Twitter, Facebook and UStream – in addition to this blog, several other blogs and a YouTube channel. The Gold Key recognition was specific to our work with Twitter, Facebook and UStream, so let’s focus on those.

We made InfoPrint Solutions central to the print production conversation on Twitter by building a strong following and actively engaging in industry conversations.  To help increase the fun factor, Twitter contests helped contribute to our success – such as the race to be our 1,000th Twitter follower –  and our “Did You Know?” series on both Twitter and Facebook, which enables us to share interesting, fun facts about the company and our solutions .

For Facebook, a cohesive Company page was developed to create a single stop in the popular social forum for the global audience to visit when seeking recent news, articles, event information and other highlights from InfoPrint Solutions.  To engage in two-way communication, team members work to conduct polls, encourage “likes,” ask questions and simply congratulate our fans on their positive news.

For UStream, InfoPrint Solutions optimized its use of web video tools to conduct “Virtual Media Days” (VMDs) prior to global industry events to ensure these audiences are all informed of our activities, news and updates in advance of events.  To date, we have held four VMDs and the communications team worked to ensure that the feedback from this event would be positive and productive.

Now, drum roll please…for the results!  With both Twitter and Facebook, we’ve seen incredible growth and engagement statistics that signal a dramatic increase in the company’s level of interaction in the social conversation for the industry.

In less than five months, our Facebook followership grew more than 250 percent, and currently we have more than 320 active fans in more than 20 countries.  On average the page gets nearly 900 views a month, with 20 percent of those visitors clicking through to view more information on our events, company information and images.

Similarly our Twitter presence has continued to grow and evolve since its launch.  In 2010, our followers increased on average of 62 each month and we acquired more than 700 new followers in 2010 with nearly 1,300 current followers.  We have also seen increased interaction with our customers and Solutions Partners, and the channel has been a great tool for promoting our news and activities at tradeshows and events – not to mention an excellent way for InfoPrint Solutions to interact with attendees following the shows, where typically we have at least one live Tweeter providing live updates from the show floor.

The VMD was also a success from every angle.  At the time of the live web conference, there were more than 50 reporters, analysts and bloggers registered from around the world.  From these reporters, in addition to others, InfoPrint Solutions received more than 600 articles about our Graph Expo news and secured onsite interviews at the show from over 20 top tier targets.

Social media strategies will vary for almost every company, but by clearly defining goals for each channel companies can harness the power of these networks to achieve success!  Check out our social media networks and join the conversation! And, please share any social media lessons learned or tactics you love with us, as well.

Best,

Beth Etherton, Global Communications Manager

Joe Czyszczewski, Chief Sustainability Officer at InfoPrint Solutions, recently led a seminar for InfoPrint Solutions’ customers on sustainability. He was joined by Andy Whyle, Environment Officer at Ricoh’s manufacturing site at Telford, who discussed his team’s impressive results in achieving zero waste to landfill.

Czyszczewski encouraged his audience to consider how sustainability goes beyond the manufacturing of the printer and to focus instead on its usage. A life cycle assessment estimates that paper contributes 80 percent of the usage carbon footprint of an InfoPrint 1570MP. Surprisingly energy consumption, manufacturing and end-of-life disposal play a much smaller role.

Given paper’s significance, some of InfoPrint Solutions’ customers are choosing to switch to lighter weight papers to cut CO2 emissions. Along with requiring fewer trees, lighter paper can require less energy during the printing process.

The type of printing process has a large impact on the energy carbon footprint. Toner-based printing requires the entire page to be heated to fuse the toner, even if the printing is only a few percent coverage. In comparison, inkjet printing sprays the ink on the page and may only requireenough energy to dry the amount of ink used. According to InfoPrint Solutions tests, inkjetcan use half the energy of toner-based printing.

One of Czyszczewski’s missions is to raise awareness that switching from paper statements to online statements does not necessarily equate to green. He wants customers and consumers to start thinking about the manufacturing, e-waste and energy consumption of data centers to store data, the CO2 impact of email distribution and compare those figures to a renewable resource – paper.

Czyszczewski talked about the carbon footprint of the paper manufacturing industry and the different ways of recycling paper. Paper made with 30 percent recycled content has become an industry norm. Although this may seem low, the cost of the paper can increase one percent for every ten percent more recycled content.

InfoPrint Solutions' "Joe C." at Ricoh’s manufacturing site at Telford

The buzzword – or rather buzz expression – of the day was “conflict minerals.” While Whyle highlighted the fact that many of the elements required for semiconductors will be depleted within our lifetime, Czyszczewski talked about how corporate duty of care obliges organisations to check the chain of custody and look at the certification of well-managed mines where minerals are sourced.

Up to now customers have looked for ‘Energy Star’ as the third party endorsement of a product that will be energy efficient. This is evolving with Czyszczewski predicting that EPEAT will become the desired mark. EPEAT examines the sustainability of the supplier and aspects of products beyond energy.

The seminar took place in Telford, the heart of the industry revolution. As Whyle pointed out, that noteworthy event meant that Telford also holds the dubious title of being the first place to produce industrial waste.

Whyle examined Ricoh’s challenges as it pursues an aggressive corporate goal of cutting waste to an eighth of its levels in 2000. Ricoh’s site at Telford, manufactures the InfoPrint and Ricoh ProC900 series of cutsheet printers as well as remanufacturing numerous toner cartridges and copiers. All of which produces much waste toner, packaging and hazardous waste.

Whyle’s team is focusing on recycling and reuse and by implementing a change of culture and waste materials segregation at source, the site achieved zero waste to landfill in 2001 and profited as waste went from being a cost to the bottom line to becoming a revenue stream through the sale of materials.

Part of the culture change included some pain points such as removing all personal bins at workstations and even putting locks on some waste bins to ensure the right waste was going in the right bins. Through these measures, Andy’s team has saved over 13,000 tons of waste going to landfill. That’s the same as nearly 1800 single-decker buses. Given the nature of endeavour, of course those must be hybrid buses.

Go Beyond the Meter: Helping Utility Executives Address their Customer Communications

InfoPrint Solutions is proud to announce Go Beyond the Meter: a conference, a community, a coalition and for the benefit of the Utility Industry.  This organization has been developed to support Marketing, Operations, and IT Utility Professionals.  As part of this new initiative, InfoPrint Solutions will be hosting a peer-to-peer forum from April 26-28^th in Boulder, CO.  The goal of this event is to bring together utility professionals to discuss, share and present emerging trends and technological advances in communications strategies and implementations.

Smart meters, smart grids, and smart clouds are changing the way business is conducted every day.  Customer-centric communication is an emerging trend – not only in the commercial space – but with any company working to deliver messages to its customers.  With varying government regulations, advancing environmental mandates and the advancement of smart meters, utility companies are finding the need to better segment and target their rate-payers.  This is ultimately driving the need for integrated marketing, operations and IT.

Sandra Zoratti, Vice President of Global Solutions Marketing at InfoPrint Solutions, will host the conference with an expert line-up of speakers, all advising attendees on how to make the shift to implementing a data-driven campaign to assure targeted and relevant customer communications.  As with any Precision Marketing implementation, these advancements will ultimately help grow customer loyalty as many utilities become unregulated, causing an increase in competition.

Keynote speakers include:

• Jill Feblowitz, Vice President of Utilities, Gas and Oil for IDC Insights, is a nationally recognized thought leader in the application of information technology to the business challenges of the energy industry.  Jill’s session will address IDC’s perspectives and insight as to how some companies are planning to address recent utility challenges.

• George Williams, Chief Executive Officer for Strategic Solutions, will provide insight into customer communication strategies, document design and customer communication project management and share his take on the “Project Management Bermuda Triangle.”  He will talk about communication through customer-facing transactional documents – both paper and electronic.

• Wes Friesen, Manager of Revenue Collection and Community Offices for Portland General Electric (PGE), will share best practices and advice that he has seen within his successes and other national operations successes.

• Jay Robinson, Senior Solutions Consultant, Professional Services and Software at InfoPrint Solutions, will discuss how InfoPrint Solutions partnered with LADWP to refresh their entire customer communications infrastructure.  To better communicate with their customers they implemented an Automated Document Factory, to increase customer satisfaction, decrease call center and mail costs while driving quality throughout the entire process.

• Mike Bryant, Worldwide Practice Leader: Strategy & Marketing Analytics for InfoPrint Solutions will discuss how customer communications managers are quickly recognizing the need to integrate and leverage data in order to develop deeper insights into their existing client base and turn this new insight into relevant communications to drive improved client communications.

Additionally, at the event the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and InfoPrint Solutions will unveil their newest “What’s Critical in the Vertical: Utilities” study focused on the utility industry.  Liz Miller, Vice President of CMO Council, will discuss the study which will address topics associated with programs, promotions, productivity and profitability relative to optimizing and leveraging the data that utilities work with everyday.  Liz will be on hand at the event to discuss specifically how to implement these tactics at individual utility companies.

Be sure to check Go Beyond the Meter.com for the release of the report in early May.  Until then, watch Jay Robinson discuss the LADWP project in a four-part video series.

We’re excited for the opportunity to host this peer-to-peer event, to help utilities reach their customers not only in a more targeted, relevant way, but to also help create these communications as efficiently as possible.

For more information, please visit Go Beyond theMeter.com.  Be sure to check back often.  As we proceed through the event, we’ll be updating the site with event news!

To make sure you don’t miss out on the next event, join The Tribe at ProfitWithLoyalty.com or the Utility Community at GoBeyondTheMeter.com.

Best,

Amanda Thall

Global Solutions Marketing Manager

Today was another beautiful day in St. Pete Beach, FL! The hype and excitement surrounding Xplor has not diminished one bit. The sessions are still packed and attendees are very engaged, and word on the street is that it’s because the content is so good that folks don’t want to miss it!  Managed ADF Services is still a hot topic at the InfoPrint Solution booth and was mentioned in several of the ADF-focused panels today as the “next big thing.”

One big highlight today was the panel discussion, “What’s the Future for ADF?” which was hosted by Gartner’s Pete Basiliere. Robert Cook of Merrill, an InfoPrint Solution customer, was one of the four panelists as well, and it was great to hear a customer’s positive response to the InfoPrint ProcessDirector Solution and ADF. Overall it was a great discussion that highlighted the need for a partner that has a vision for not only what you need today, but also what you will need in the future.

The InfoPrint Solutions booth is just as busy on Day Two at Xplor, coinciding with how packed sessions have been as well

Xplor used to be a hardware-focused show, but it has evolved into more of a business solutions focus. This change has meant the sessions are focused on more efficient hardware operations, rather than just product information.  As a result – based on how great attendance has been – it seems this shift speaks to what attendees are really looking for, and has been a positive evolution for the event. The information here is too good to miss!

I also had the pleasure to speak with the Chairman of Xplor, Paul Abdool. He was excited that attendance was up 30% from last year’s conference and found all the sessions he sat in on very beneficial.  Specifically, Paul noted there was more talk of social media and customer communications than in the past. Watch the full interview here to hear what Paul expects for 2012!

Did you attend any must-see sessions? What did you think of Xplor day 2?

Best,

Michele Bollig, Worldwide Marketing Program Manager