IPEX 2006 president Laurence Roberts

IPEX is no longer a print show. Well, not in isolation anyway. IPEX president Laurence Roberts (of Agfa) clearly wants to rid the event of its nuts and bolts image and repackage it as something that will attract a broader church, namely publishers, marketing companies and creatives of all persuasions. Of course that is where so many of exhibitors see their growth - in harnessing new creative applications for the technology they produce, technology which in some cases has reached something of a plateau in terms of major development but which provides as yet widely untapped new business potential.

But don’t be intimidated by this shift in emphasis – though a lot of the exhibitor focus at the show will be on the sophisticated, high end applications (that they see bringing them the most new revenue), the open-minded smaller printer can benefit a great deal from what many suppliers are preaching in terms of market development.

Take the applications afforded by variable data. OK, so everyone has been banging on about personalisation for years and it hasn’t really filtered through to the high street on-demand sector in any sort of noticeable volume. But are things about to change?

Roberts, among others, thinks that’s the case. “The more widely available on-demand print systems with variable data options become - and inkjet development will play a major part in this - the more personalised print we’ll see, which will inevitably lead to more demand and then you as a printer will have to be able to supply it.”

Something of an inkjet evangelist, Roberts would have you pay great attention to its potential at IPEX, not just in the systems demonstrated on the various stands but in strategic level conversations with the likes of Kodak, Fuji and Agfa. “In two years time these companies expect significant revenue to come from the inkjet market. Go and find out what they are say about it. Inkjet is going to have an enormous impact on short-run digital printing. The developments that are in the pipeline bring inkjet right down into mainstream printing, especially for the on-demand market. Wide format is only a tiny part of what inkjet is going to be capable of in a couple of years.”

The migration of offset to digital, inkjet or otherwise, has of course caught the imagination of suppliers as well as the printing fraternity, and is central to the IPEX theme of innovation. Look no further than Xerox, which has ousted Heidelberg from the largest exhibitor slot as it flexes its digital muscle in the graphic arts market. It was only at Drupa 2000 that the company set-out its stall to become the sector, subsequently causing waves with its iGen3 at the 2002 IPEX followed by the launch of its FreeFlow package at Drupa 2004. Now the focus is on applications and integration for its systems. “We have the right technology right now,” said Armando Govaerts, senior VP of production systems and graphics arts, Xerox Europe, at its pre-show press conference. “We believe we have a responsibility to now go beyond offering just product solution, and guide the industry to capture new opportunities.”

For Xerox that means driving digital colour growth, and it has done it’s sums to convince you that you should be looking to do the same. It believes there is a $10bn offset market eligible for conversion to digital colour (not to mention a $17bn mono office print market which it sees growing into a $34bn colour segment). Quoting from an InfoTrends/CapVentures report Xerox backs up its support for switching to digital colour operations and starting right now to generate new business opportunities in the field by highlighting that by 2009 we will have seen a 27per cent growth in production digital colour page volume, and what’s more, that by the end of next year 30 per cent of all digital colour will be versioned or personalised (Interquest report).

In trying to drive new digital colour print Xerox will be working with a greetings card company to show how its products are providing a means by which personalised cards can be ordered online, and printed by iGen3 printers across an international network. Of course this is blue sky thinking and outside the scope of many smaller printers, but where it helps is in flagging up the benefits of thinking outside the box and generating new ideas on how you can work with creatives, publishers, marketing companies and other businesses to come up with more bespoke printed offerings via better utilisation of available digital systems.

Integration is key to this development and you’ll be dazzled by the level of work that has been done of this front at IPEX. As Roberts points out, “the printers’ acceptance of JDF and the necessity of integrated end-to-end workflow is now a given, regardless of size of print operation”. Even Heidelberg, which has divested its digital operations and gone back to its roots by concentrating on sheet fed offset, will not be showing them in isolation. Networking is core to its IPEX theme, with JDF (particularly the MIS to production elements) in the spotlight.

Like others Heidelberg has forged close relationships with other developers to make sure it has user-friendly workflow packages, acknowledging that not to have them in today’s environment would be nonsensical. For instance, Canon Europe has recently signed agreements with Objectif Lune and EFI for the provision of better workflow and variable data solutions as value-added packages for its customers. Importantly, it is also providing bespoke support and strategic guidance packages to help those customers realise their business goals.

Of course the finishing companies have also got in on the networking act, with the likes of Duplo hosting live demonstrations to highlight the effect it can have, not just on margins but on new print offerings. It will be showing its JDF/UP3I finishing products with various printers to prove the point.

In a word then, ‘innovation’ really is what this IPEX 2006 is all about. What it is not about is technology per se, rather the need as an industry to generate new business though applications development in conjunction with a more creative potential customer-base. So attend with an open mind.