Posted on Fri, Oct 01, 2010
It’s nice to get confirmation that your time and energy is not wasted. For some time now there has been a sense that we are whistling past the graveyard when it comes to print and that electronic technology will muscle out print altogether.
These days, it appears that the “paperless” society is even further away now than it was in the 80s when Charles Wang coined the term (Frank Romano hilariously points out that there are many more “wang-less” offices than paper-less offices).
It is the nature of media to adapt to new roles. Radio and movies survived TV. General interest magazines fragmented into specialty publications and continue to play a part in our society. Newspapers are struggling but continue to deliver more in-depth coverage than one gets on TV. Direct mail is still viable in the age of SPAM and inbound marketing.
Transactional documents will continue to be printed even as people view them online or on phones and PDAs. There is comfort in the familiar. There is security in stashing printed documents in a file drawer for future reference. I mean, you can see a copy of the Declaration of Independence from 1776 in the National Archive. A document stored on a floppy disc in 1993 is likely to be gone forever, or at least is locked in a media that can no longer be accessed.
True, the industry is changing. Continuous change is a hallmark of post-20th Century business. But these changes, while occasionally painful, are largely positive. Customers get better service. Documents are more accurate and easy to understand. There is a new transparency, an enhanced accountability, a more user-friendliness to the new documents being created on the latest technology.
No doubt new changes are in store. This is a watershed moment for HVTO. It’s changing rapidly, requiring service providers to adapt to new realities, bring on board new equipment and technology, make changes to basic infrastructure and plan better for a future that appears more than ever to be a moving target.
These trends will continue to impact HVTO and drive a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; the trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business; a trip to Chicago is advised.
Posted on Fri, Oct 01, 2010
EXECUTIVE OUTLOOK is an event to be held on Saturday, October 2, the day before Graph Expo opens. This year, Executive Outlook will focus on "The Challenge of Change in the New Era of Print."
One anticipates a keynote speech by Steven Schnoll, Managing Director of Schnoll Media Consulting, about what is happening in the print marketplace and what printers must do to participate in evolving multi-media environment. Schnoll will also discuss the vertical markets most likely to offer growth opportunities.
A printer's success in the new era will largely depend on developing the ability to co-mingle print with electronic alternatives in a multi-media environment. The marketplace demands that we develop new business processes to link existing business models to new digital communication applications. It can be a daunting, disruptive and costly process if not well handled. But organizing unconventional ideas with pragmatic applications can lead to a successful, innovative --even visionary--organization.
These Saturday sessions culminate with the MUST SEE awards. MUST SEE confers upon a software or equipment offering a rare designation. I know of plenty of attendees who spend the first day or days at Graph Expo hunting down these technologies on the show floor. It is a great learning experience and worth the price of the trip. Scouting out the future of print is an important undertaking for any industry professional.
In addition to the MUST SEE technology there are pavilions set up around the show floor with great presentations delivered by vendors. The show organizers take great pains to ensure that these sessions are not commercial in nature and the insights delivered are often a highlight of the Graph Expo experience.
As HVTO continues to transform, it drives a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; this trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business. You need to take a trip to Chicago and catch up on the latest and greatest. The future of your business depends on it.
Posted on Thu, Sep 30, 2010
By now, readers of this blog know that Graph Expo is a “must attend” for anyone serious about the future of HVTO. It is the place to go to see the latest offerings by the exhibitors. It is a great forum for networking. And the educational sessions will give you insights you will not find anywhere else.
EXECUTIVE OUTLOOK, an event to be held on Saturday, October 2, the day before Graph Expo opens, will focus on "The Challenge of Change in the New Era of Print."
Andy Paparozzi, NAPL's Chief Economist will discuss economic trends that are beyond the control of printers and their suppliers. Prevailing and somewhat unstable economic conditions and the continuously changing requirements of organizations coping with multi-channel communication environment will characterize a new era of print.
There is certainly room to grow in this new environment, and smart organizations will be those ahead of the curve. According to the Temkin Group’s customer experience competency report, only 3% of firms were “Customer-Centric Organizations” while 33% of firms were “Customer-Oblivious Organizations.”
Ouch.
The failure to embrace the customer experience as a core competency costs businesses billions in lost opportunities. The transactional document process must be a key asset in the battle to deliver a positive customer experience.
As HVTO continues to transform, it drives a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; this trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business. You need to take a trip to Chicago and catch up on the latest and greatest. The future of your business depends on it.
Posted on Thu, Sep 30, 2010
The HVTO industry is changing so rapidly it’s hard to know what to keep an eye on, what to plan for, what to implement and what to discard. It’s difficult even to know how to know. There’s so much out there—so many options— and one size definitely does not fit all.
What media attract your customers? Which ones can have the largest impact on your business? Which of the many options available do you offer? How do you know if you are providing it successfully? What metrics are you quantifying?
For example, if it’s social media, you need to be very concerned about three metrics: awareness, membership and participation. These three metrics can tell you all you need to know about the level of involvement your customers have with your brand. Organizations are taking great pains to involve customers, to have customers participate in their online activities, take advantage of online marketing offers, interact with the brand in an interpersonal way.
The social media chosen should lead to greater awareness, greater membership and, ultimately, greater participation on the part of the customer. You can accomplish each phase with a multi-channel campaign designed to drive the customer to participate in online chats, discussions, and engagement. Yes, HVTO has a major role to play. Billing often leads to questions. Even if it doesn’t, the bill can be used to promote a site for customer engagement. GMC Software has a great series of informational blogs about how to make the bill the primary tool for enhanced customer engagement. It’s a must read.
The bill is a gateway medium. It can open up the recipient to so much more.
Every billing cycle is an opportunity. Every communication is a touch point.
The HVTO industry changes constantly as new channels nudge established channels.
And here you are, sitting at a desk in an office in a building in a town in a state in this region and this country.
Wherever it is we are going, we aren’t going to experience in isolation, we are not going to succeed while planning in a vacuum. For this reason-- to learn from our peers, industry experts, innovators and companies that spend millions of dollars to stay ahead of the trends-- we need to attend industry events. The finest of these in America, a trade show that covers the entire print and graphics industry including HVTO, is Graph Expo.
As HVTO continues to transform, it drives a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; this trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business. You need to take a trip to Chicago and catch up on the latest and greatest. The future of your business depends on it.
Posted on Wed, Sep 29, 2010
For example, in the past year, online bill paying has experienced substantial growth in consumer adoption, with 64% of survey respondents reporting they use online bill pay, up 19 percentage points from 45% the previous year. Nonetheless, security concerns continue to be the main reason that a significant portion of the population do not pay bills online, which means that a clear opportunity to grow online payments still exists.
It’s very likely that the same concerns will hinder payment by mobile device.
“Fear and uncertainty about security are hindering the online banking community from further adoption of tools like automatic bill pay and keeping a significant segment of potential online banking customers offline,” said Marc Trudeau, comScore senior director. “If financial institutions work to alleviate some of these concerns, there is still room to grow the online banking market.”
Only 30% of online bankers expressed interest in using online Personal Financial Management (PFM) sites. More importantly, only 10% are aware of specific online PFM sites and less than 4% currently use the tools.
As HVTO continues to transform, it drives a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; this trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business. You need to take a trip to Chicago and catch up on the latest and greatest. The future of your business depends on it.
Posted on Wed, Sep 29, 2010
ComScore’s annual State of Online Banking Report is available to read at this link.
This data is based on a survey of more than 2,500 US internet users and behavioral data from comScore’s 1 million-person online consumer panel. It provides rare insight into the state of HVTO.
For example, 58% of respondents to are now enrolled in paperless statements, up 5 points from last year. The vast majority of those enrolled (69%) get paperless statements for their checking/saving accounts. Paperless penetration rates are much lower for other financial products such as credit cards (47%), insurance (28%) and brokerage (16%).
Greater environmental awareness as well as financial incentives accounts for this 5 point increase, according to the survey.
As HVTO continues to transform, it drives a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; this trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business. You need to take a trip to Chicago and catch up on the latest and greatest. The future of your business depends on it.
Posted on Tue, Sep 28, 2010
A new report by Juniper Research forecasts that slightly more than 200 million mobile phone users will have made use of their mobile device for banking information purposes by the end of 2010. This technology is now fully established and widely available.
By 2013, Juniper expects that number to double, hitting 400 million. Mobile banking apps available for smartphones include account balance, bill payment and fund transfer. In addition, SMS messaging is often used to alert account-holders of various account activity.
And with the advent of faster broadband networks, cheaper data traffic costs and more sophisticated smartphones, mobile-enabled websites are gaining in popularity, allowing users to read statements and make bill payments via mobi.
Clearly, the high volume transactional output industry has reached a critical moment in its history. It’s changing rapidly, requiring service providers to adapt to new realities, bring on board new equipment and technology, make changes to basic infrastructure and plan better for a future that appears more than ever to be a moving target.
These trends will continue to impact HVTO and drive a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; the trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business; a trip to Chicago is advised.
Posted on Tue, Sep 28, 2010
You may be reading this on a mobile device so I’ll keep it short.
In mid-June, Citibank announced Citi Text Banking, a service that delivers account updates on demand to bank and credit card customers in the United States.
Customers simply text a short command -- such as BAL (for balance) -- to MYCITI (692-484). Within seconds, they receive a text message with the account information they requested. It makes accessing their accounts as easy as texting friends and family.
"With two-thirds of U.S. cell phone owners already using text messaging, this gives our customers one more way to stay connected to their accounts," said Liza Landsman, Managing Director, Internet and Mobile, Citi North America Consumer. "Customers can see recent activity, find out when their next credit card payment is due, or make sure they have enough in checking before making a debit card purchase."
Computers and email did not kill the print industry, but it is possible that mobile communication will. It is just so convenient and so easy to use a phone for virtually anything, as long as your eyesight holds out.
Clearly, the high volume transactional output industry has reached a critical moment in its history. It’s changing rapidly, requiring service providers to adapt to new realities, bring on board new equipment and technology, make changes to basic infrastructure and plan better for a future that appears more than ever to be a moving target.
As HVTO continues to transform, it drives a greater need for information and advice. Graph Expo is just around the corner; this trade show promises to provide the latest insights into trends that affect your business. You need to take a trip to Chicago and catch up on the latest and greatest. The future of your business depends on it.
Posted on Fri, Aug 27, 2010
by Chris Price
Let’s face it, it’s all about the Benjamins.
We didn’t go into business to make friends or have good health. We came for the money and we stay for the money.
You have to stay on top of things. These days, a YouTube video can have more brand effect than an ad campaign. Twitter is the dumbest—and most effective—way to get information out to the masses.
Branded content is the place to be. Engage people and they will seek you out. Make yourself useful, and they will come back again and again. Blogging isn’t a game, it’s a profession.
And what about other changes? First Class Mail is like the three-legged pig in the old joke: he can sing, he can dance, he can juggle. So why does he have three legs? Because a pig like that you don’t eat all at once.
As the USPS cannibalizes its only profitable product, what will it mean for your business? You have to stay current, you need to talk about it with your peers and with experts. You have to see what options are available to you, what trends need to be followed, and what technology needs to be understood and implemented:
For example, understanding and applying postal regulations is now more important than ever. Mary Ann Bennett will share how to get your mailing operations running smoothly and accurately to add value to your offerings and to provide seamless customer throughput. If you print anything that is delivered through the mail then you can't afford to miss this session at 10:30 on Tuesday, October 5.
Ms. Bennett is THE industry guru in leveraging the USPS to optimize postage and add new revenue opportunities using the mail. In this session she will discuss best practices for mailing variable data projects and give you her 10 Tips for Choosing a Mailing Software Vendor.
GRAPH EXPO. October 3- 6, McCormick Place, Chicago.
See you there.
Posted on Wed, Aug 25, 2010
by Chris Price
Do you know what the odds are of the Chicago Cubs playing meaningful baseball in October? 14-1. How about the Chicago White Sox? 12-1.
But don’t feel too bad. After all, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in June 2010.
And with football season here I’ll go out on a limb—the Chicago Bears will be 2-2 going into the Sunday night game with the Giants as GRAPH EXPO opens. So they’ll be 2-3 when the show opens on Monday (full disclosure: big Giants fan).
Winning it all in HVTO is all about Transpromo (you could look it up).
On Monday, October 4 from 10:30 am - 12:00 pm, Clint Bolte will present “New Frontiers: How To Get Involved with TransPromo Printing as a New Start-Up.”
Transpromo is the creation of relevant, personalized messaging on transactional customer communications. Transpromo is either the most controversial thing in HVTO or the least, depending on whom you talk to. It’s either been done for years or will never be implemented, depending on whom you talk to. It will save transactional mail or kill it, depending on whom you talk to. Ditto for direct mail, depending on whom you talk to…
Would you like to talk some more about Transpromo? By all means go to Xplor’s XDU program while at GRAPH EXPO. Xplor International and the Xplor Document University are hosting a conference program at GRAPH EXPO.
The two day program features eighteen educational sessions and allows attendees ample opportunity to attend the Xplor sessions as well as walk the GRAPH EXPO show floor.
Here are some Transpromo Xplor sessions to attend:
- White Space and TransPromo - A Profitable Combination presented by Peter D'Amato, Pitney Bowes DMT Software, on Tuesday, October 05 at: 9:00
- Document Design for Multi-Channel Delivery presented by Scott Bannor, Elixir Technologies Wednesday, October 06 at: 11:00.
- How To Improve Customer Engagement presented by Sandra Zoratti, InfoPrint Solutions Company, Tuesday, October 05 at: 12:00.