June 5, 2006 with Rachel Frank—In its second year at the Philadelphia Convention Center—and moving to Boston next year—the AIIM & On Demand Conference and Exposition opened on May 15 to rain and thunder. Still, murky skies couldn't keep attendees from shopping the show floor and cramming the keynotes. If you ever doubted that digital is where the future of print is headed or that its time is now, this was the show for you.

With 80 more exhibitors than last year, and preregistered attendance up 20 percent, this show could very well be one of the most well-attended in recent years.

Information Overload
Kicking off On Demand, was the keynote from Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe Systems. His presentation, "Beyond the Document: Transforming How the World Engages with Ideas and Information," explained how businesses can increase the value of information through secure, rich, and engaging digital experiences, positioning them to strike an effective balance between meeting higher consumer expectations, and improving operational efficiency.

No doubt, as Mr. Chizen said, the evolution of communication is a changing landscape. He supplied this information: 1–3 billion e-mails are sent every hour; 5 billion instant messages are sent every day; there are 1.5 billion mobile subscribers; and 700 million are surfing the net right now. He questioned whether all of that was a good thing and responded, "Yes and no.

"We're all frustrated by a deluge of information we can't sort through," Mr. Chizen stated. He believes that engaging communication must be interactive to increase user relevance. "More relevant engagement is going to be imperative to your business," he added, "Because customers want to be involved."

He gave examples of wonderfully interactive and graphically rich Web sites from big corporations like Jaguar, Nike, and BMW. Marketing, Mr. Chizen pointed out, must be conversational rather than top down, and that is what these sites do.

Another key factor in the change in communication is the convergence of media, messages, and mobility. Mr. Chizen cited how family members or friends in different areas can plan vacations through cell phones, instant messaging, and collaborating together on a travel Web site. Itineraries can be printed to PDAs and cell phones, and changes can be made on-the-fly, then updated as soon as a phone or computer can connect.

Mr. Chizen also mentioned that while print is not going away, it is always becoming more personalized. He noted, "The new document is rich, relevant, and engaging."

Riding Out the Storm
Following Mr. Chizen, Charles Pesko Jr. gave his annual state-of-the-industry address: "Riding the Digital Color Tornado."

Mr. Pesko noted how last year, an industry transformation was well underway, presenting a threat to some, and opportunity to others. Referencing digital production color printers, he said, "Well its time has come. We are going to pump some new excitement into the industry with digital color."

According to Mr. Pesko, digital color has crossed the chasm and is now inside the tornado. He explained that the tornado is a phase of rapid growth, described by Geoffrey Moore in his 1995 bestseller "Inside the Tornado."

Recent research supports the statement that the industry has crossed the chasm. "We no longer have to convince print providers that they need to participate in the color digital business. Disruptive digital was in the past; now that we've crossed the chasm, our robust five-year forecast will be driven by declines in capital equipment costs, operating costs, and the retail price per page charged to your customers. All this will result in a huge jump in total digital color page growth."

According to Mr. Pesko, digital technology enables print providers to address ways to change their business model and offer clients a new value proposition. Switching from offset to digital is just the tip of the iceberg. It will also enable you to deal more efficiently with your supply chain to enhance both your customer and supplier relationships. Conversely, the digital color tornado puts those resisting at risk.

Where are all of these color digital pages coming from? There is the migration of offset pages to digital; the migration of black-and-white pages to full color; the migration of spot color pages to full color; and the utilization of new applications including variable-data printing, transpromos, and digital photography applications.

On Adding Value
Mr. Pesko also advised audience members to add value where possible. "For paper to effectively compete with alternative media," he said, "it must provide a compelling return on investment. The savvy print service provider understands that a quality print is not enough."

Some of the technologies that enable value-added print include print on demand, digital color, variable data, and Web-enabled services.

Mr. Pesko noted that the profit margins for both value-added services and digital printing are significantly higher than offset. A 2004 study showed digital printing margins were 17 percent higher than offset margins, and as retail prices drop, buyers will migrate more pages to digital color.

Words of Wisdom
On Wednesday morning, InfoTrends offered viewpoints from several industry pundits on the state of the industry. One panelist was Frank Romano, professor emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology and InfoTrends strategist, who had interesting observations.

Mr. Romano concurred with other keynote speakers, noting that digital is the direction the industry is going. "If you look over the horizon into the future, digital printing has to be the way we go," he said.

He noted that 40 to 50 percent of offset will remain, and the remainder will be a digital fight for toner vs. inkjet technologies. This means shops that want to survive will either need to find a way to consolidate offset market share, or find new services to offer.

"Don't sell printing, sell relationships," Mr. Romano told the audience. "The printing companies doing the best today are doing fulfillment. They have a long-term relationship with the client."

There are three types of displacement driving the print industry right now, Mr. Romano noted. Electronic displacement, as some applications move to media such as the Internet; geographic displacement, as work moves to locations like Asia, Europe, Mexico, and Canada; and competitive displacement, as the cost of entry into the digital market climbs ever higher, making it more difficult for those who were not early adopters to carve out a digital niche.

Printers need to be aware of these changes, and plan ahead for them. "We are living in a parallel universe—nothing is the way it used to be," said Mr. Romano.

Organizing Information
With the move to digital print and VDP, print shops are finding it more necessary not just to create databases of information, but to find ways to access that information quickly and easily, and repurpose it for a variety of applications. That is the topic Dave Girouard, manager, Google Enterprises, addressed in his keynote "Search to Start, Not to Find."

He noted that while data and the ability to access it on the consumer side is moving towards more easy-to-use and relevant information, enterprise data and search is going the other direction, getting harder to access unless a company hires an information and software specialist to manage it.

Before data can be used effectively, either internally or for a complex direct mail campaign, it needs to be organized, and then it needs to be searchable. "Search is the starting point for the world's information," Mr. Girouard noted. He advocated that enterprises approach information the same way consumer applications do—with an eye to streamlining the process. After that, the rest becomes easy.

Mr. Girouard gave audience members his prescription for a healthy data access plan. Printers, in particular, can use these tips to create systems for their clients, making themselves more of a valued partner than just a printer:

1. Realize that consumers and employees are the same people. They are both looking for easy ways to access and use information quickly and efficiently.
2. Search is an application, not an infrastructure. Printers do not need to go in and completely overhaul their clients' IT department. Instead, look for ways to streamline how they access the information they already have. Think of search as the human interface to all corporate information.
3. Simple is good, simpler is better, and fast is mandatory.
4. Deliver the information in an immediately consumable format. If you want your clients to use your services, make it easy for them.

• 3-D mail that is variable data printed; very targeted mailings (response rates can be 10–90 percent)
• Web-to-print solutions
• Template design through the Internet
• Internet proofing to shorten cycle time to 24 hours
• Collaboration with clients to change the rules (content, audience) on the fly