The Xerox mantra for Drupa

It’s astonishing that after years of the digital printing revolution, only 2.5 percent of global pages are printed digitally. But that means there are literally trillions of opportunities in print today. “

And because this is a Drupa year, there’s a heightened focus on the ways you can transform operations to take advantage of these opportunities.

According to me there are four ways to do so and why:

• Accelerate transition to high-value applications. This means, print providers are constantly looking for ways to stay relevant and increase stickiness with their customers.  Expanding one’s application base demonstrates a competitive edge in this omnichannel world.
   
• Automate current digital environment. I see savvy business owners, printers are constantly looking for efficiencies and productivity gains for their operations.  They know they can’t leave money or manpower on the table any more – automation is the answer.
   
• Embrace new technologies, such as inkjet. Today, print providers are seeking new ways to elevate their business to respond to the latest necessities of the market. Those who are embracing inkjet are ahead of the game.
   
• Combine print with digital. Digital  printing  improves efficiencies and answers the call for Print On Demand – both key necessities in response to shorter run lengths and personalization requirements.

Trillion digital pages

Everyone is aware that there is growth in key applications, and this growth will drive the next trillion digital pages. For Xerox what is interesting is, how it represents the change in the market.

Xerox is focused on the changes occurring in the marketplace and aligning our attention accordingly – and you will see this in full force at our stall in Drupa.

All up, these seven areas (commercial print, direct mail, catalogues, books and manuals, transactional, photo printing and packaging) represent a digital page growth of 7% CAGR.  And these  “hot” applications call for personalisation, customization and often, shorter runs. 

The Xerox digital offerings make it possible for a printer to produce these high-demand applications on demand!

Let the Work Flow

At Drupa, we are taking all the core capabilities that Xerox offers customers and taking it to the next level – all under the banner of “Let the Work Flow”.

Our position in automation and press production results in high levels of uptime at our customer sites.

The introduction of the new presses and the enhancements to our existing portfolio will continue to advance functionality and open up the opportunities for our customers to produce new, and more profitable applications.

We’ve built an ecosystem that includes pre-press, workflow, and finishing to deliver the end-to-end solutions that truly do “Let the work flow”  from the customer to the PSP’s bottom line.

Let the Work Flow is more than just a theme, it’s a commitment that Xerox has made to help our customers achieve operational excellence, profitable revenue growth, and to stay relevant with their clients by offering the applications that are of the highest value.

Xerox products to watch out for

The new Xerox Brenva HD Production Inkjet Press will revolutionise the standard in cut sheet print for plain paper applications. 

Features include:  FreeFlow Print Server; Paper path / duplex module – iGen; Sheetfeed modules – iGen; Output module (contains inline spectrophotometer) – iGen; Marker module – Impika; Dryer – Clean sheet design from Xerox engineering; Stacker – Nuvera; Booklet maker – iGen / Nuvera. The additional capabilities are: up to 197 images per minute (A4 images) / 182 images per minute (US Letter); Inline spectrophotometer enables quick and easy custom profiles; Missing jet detection and correction – streak free prints every time; Object oriented colour management – renders images, graphics and text differently – optimizes each for best IQ

Then there is the Xerox Trivor 2400 Inkjet Press - a 20-inch continuous feed production inkjet platform which offers new levels of productivity, image quality coupled with a brand new digital front end, making those urgent and complex jobs that much easier to manage in your operation.

The Xerox IJ Print Server Powered by Fiery mirrors the scalability that Xerox delivers on the print engine with very flexible and powerful color management controls.

An increasing focus on heavy personalisation means we need increasingly powerful controllers to deal with mixed data formats and large complex files.  No matter if you’re printing large quantities of the same pages or incredibly complex IPDS with intricate color variable images, this controller is capable of meeting your demands, today and tomorrow.

Three platforms for inkjet

When it comes to choosing the right solution for your business, not all inkjet is created equally.

Therefore, Xerox offers three platforms that approach inkjet very differently to serve different needs of the market.

Our waterless ink platform – CiPress – is ideal for lightweight applications or very high area coverage where show-through might be a concern. Because the ink sits on top of the page, color management across media is very simple.  There are many speciality applications such as labels and catalog printing that our customers are using CiPress systems.

The Impika inkjet line offers the most flexibility in configuring a system to your exact needs today, while offing the peace of mind of future scalability. Its robust productivity and image quality are ideal for almost any environment.

And our newest line is Rialto. This platform provides easy entry into the inkjet market with a fully integrated solution.

Six major segments at Drupa stand

Our Drupa stand will showcase six major segments and applications to help our customers expand their offerings and gain market share.  We are focusing on:

• Marketing Service Provider
• Marketing materials are the backbone of your customers’ branding efforts. Digital print delivers quality, reduces waste and eliminates warehouse costs
• Direct Mail
• Personalized printing boosts response rates by making each piece relevant to the individual.
• Books and Catalogues
• Digital printing helps satisfy the requirements for shorter runs, increased customisation and niche markets
• Transactional Marketing
• Transactional pieces are read by the highest percentage of recipients of any document
• Photo
• Digitally printed photo products are in high demand. This lucrative, high-margin market can open new revenue streams
• Packaging
• Opportunities to personalize and customized labels and packages, produce shorter runs at a low cost and deliver on-demand orders are make possible with digital printing
• Each application will be aligned with the technologies, workflow and software solutions to offer clear direction to GC providers on how to capture great opportunities to profit and grow.

Workflow at Xerox

Xerox is showcasing some of our new workflow offerings, but I wanted to highlight one, FreeFlow Core.

With the FreeFlow Core, automation is the key to helping our customer’s work more efficiently, and Core is our production automation platform.  At the show we are showcasing our new ‘Base’ and ‘Advanced’ Core cloud configurations. The cloud brings workflow solutions within reach, for customers that may have previously thought they were too complex.  The cloud gives our customers a choice regarding how a solution is delivered to them.  (cloud versus on premise)

Plus there is XMPie which can ensure “Campaigns on Demand” This means, it can extend the capability uStore to include on-demand, customized complete 1:1 campaigns; allows branded multichannel campaign flows to be repeatedly ordered online. Also it has the Open XM (G2) which is a new architecture for handling digital media personalization; an open framework for creating personalized websites, email, mobile; developers able use any technology environment (i.e. - Jquery, Javascript, HTML5, CSS); freely integrate into any non-XMPie site.

The XMPie Circle-Integrated is now the native platform for XMPie campaign planning and automation;  will be extended govern the XMPie  Production dashboard, campaign flow, media touch points, automation, and execution; provides unified workflow between print and digital touchpoints and huge productivity gains.

All about finishing

It’s not done until it’s “finished” and one of the biggest demands in finishing right now is automation. 

Not only do our customers want to get their jobs completed quickly and accurately, but they want to find ways to simplify and speed up the process of creating high value documents.

We are offering the new industry-first, eWire twin-loop binder from GBC produces wire bound books  completely inline in conjunction with the GBC Advanced Punch Pro. This binder eliminates the need for offline binding.

The highlights are the Xerox IntegratedPLUS Finishing manages production of booklets, books, and flats inline or offline with industry leading hardware and software partners. Jobs can be tracked and finishing instructions provided from pre-press through finishing to reduce operator intervention, decrease touch points and increase productivity.

Plus the TEC Lighting Duplex Inline UV Coater  provides seamless inline UV coating to enhance and protect applications produced on Xerox color presses including Xerox Color Press, Versant, iGen.

Then there is the Muller Martini Presto saddle stitcher is a “hybrid” saddle stitcher that can combine input from offset and digital presses at speeds up to 9,000 books/hour.

Conclusion

Whether Xerographic or Inkjet, cutsheet or continuous feed – Xerox has a breadth of technology offerings that enable new applications and profitable revenue-growth for our customers. 
 
The automation built into our products as well as through our workflow offerings help our customers take costly steps out of their processes and support the delivery of new applications.

From the local mom and pop quick-print shop, to the most sophisticated global marketing service provider we are committed to helping our customers navigate the opportunities in this digital transition and position themselves for success.

When you combine our robust technology and workflow offerings with our pre-press and finishing products, we are delivering very robust integrated solutions.  Part of that solution also involves people – supporting our customers with business development training, consulting and professional services support to help them build solid business plans, train their sales force, migrate applications, and streamline their operations. 

It’s all about our customer and creating an end-to-end solution that is right for their particular business.