Industry experts explore how AI tools and W2P solutions will streamline operations and maximize ROI in 2025.
With more OEMs pushing production print, the near-term future burns brightly for dealers selling these workhorse devices as well as the production print software that drives them. Behind the scenes, advanced computer software programming tracks all that vital data to keep pace with speedy, powerful printing engines.
“Production printing covers a diverse group of printers and those who serve them,” pointed out print-industry consultant Pat McGrew of Colorado-based McGrewGroup, Inc. “Vendors and their dealers spend time ensuring that they understand market needs and work with teams in the supply chains to ensure they are bringing the best solutions,” added McGrew, a self-proclaimed communication technology evangelist. Dealerships in strategic mode and looking to make software investments in 2025 might want to keep their eyes focused on two touchpoints: artificial intelligence (AI) and web-to-print/pack (W2P).
AI-Enabled Solutions
In addition to existing platform updates, many new solutions launched in 2024 leverage AI and GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) engines. AI-enabled tools are “a loud conversation in the market because they seem to bring magic to production,” McGrew said. “But AI is not magic. It requires policies, planning, and clear guidelines on how to use free-standing AI tools and understanding how vendor tools leverage the technologies.
“Digital front ends [DFEs] for digital print hardware are the new frontier,” she continued, adding that Fiery users should talk to their representatives about its new AI-enabled offering for job ticketing and job flows. For those using hardware and software from traditional print hardware vendors, “ask your team what’s new because many [OEMs] have been quietly embedding smarter profiling, preventative maintenance, and job-management features that leverage shop-floor data.”
Web-to-Print Gaining Traction
On the W2P front, “no matter where you sit in the industry, the ability to take orders online and accept payment (when appropriate) is essential,” said McGrew. End-users should seek tools that integrate easily and regularly support customer portals for their companies. But before buying, “look at your product catalog,” she advised. “W2P is most effective when you have a well-defined product catalog, inventory management, and production management scheme.”
W2P may not be as effective if the end-user can’t map products to automated tasks, including estimating, inventory confirmation, and job scheduling, McGrew cautioned. W2P can be leveraged for sales teams, walk-up counter sales, and online orders. “Get those items in order,” she encouraged, while emphasizing that highly automated W2P can be a highly effective investment in 2025.
Ben Parker, sales director at Rochester Software Associates (RSA), agreed with McGrew’s assessment. “W2P and e-commerce implementations impact entire organizations,” said Parker, who, in addition to sales, also handles RSA’s professional services. Not only is obtaining buy-in from print-shop managers important, but it’s also crucial, he said, to get top brass within companies to champion the cause. RSA targets its Web CRD (web-to-print), QDirect output management, ReadyPrint prepress software, and other production printing solutions to in-plant and enterprise customers. Generally, it’s “the high-level, C-suite executives who best understand the value proposition and the importance of automated workflow,” Parker added.
Automation Keeps Work Flowing More Slowly
That ongoing automation of workflow serves another key to reducing manual errors, which ultimately can drag down the entire production process. According to Mary Ann Rowan, CXO at Solimar Systems, “Intelligent automation is integral to enriching and enhancing workforce productivity.” Leaders at SpencerMetrics echo the optimized workflow sentiment. Looking ahead to the new year, CEO David Spencer said, “We expect dealers to see increasing demand for a range of automation solutions—software that provides higher ROI on existing hardware investments.”
Integration is critical going forward. “Collaboration is happening, and we expect to see momentum increase among the different systems providers,” added SpencerMetrics Executive VP Vishal Sahay. The company specializes in collecting and reporting data, such as details about the type/length of jobs and press/printer status as well as machine downtime. Its LYNK system is touchless and offers a real-time dashboard. “With minimal human involvement, LYNK can collect data for every piece of equipment in a print production facility,” said Sahay. Meanwhile, its proprietary CONNECT solution takes analytics to the next level, offering more advanced data points collected from operators on the production floor. For instance, why is it that a given printer isn’t running?
“The old-school model of subscribing to one ecosystem has become obsolete,” Sahay observed, citing the increasing popularity of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) as a prime example. (APIs are mechanisms that enable two software components to communicate with each other using a set of definitions and protocols.) “Solutions cannot work well in a vacuum,” he emphasized. “That’s why, whether the focus is on front-end prepress, back-end finishing, or general production, integrating systems is essential to increasing productivity and decreasing operational costs.”
It’s about time the printing industry caught up to the automotive and other manufacturing sectors, acknowledged Sahay. “We are far behind in data collection and reporting, but we are getting better,” he acknowledged. “In the past, either the data was not available, or business owners didn’t care about data because they were making enough money [without it].” Times have, of course, changed.
Solimar Systems, whose business traditionally focused more on traditional print, has seen more direct mailers and commercial printers buy its software products. Now, most new customers are coming through the dealer channel. “Dealers can manage all the financing and the discounting,” said Rowan, who co-founded the software company in 1991. “Acting as VARs, dealers can bundle our software into hardware packages along with finishing equipment and features like five-year maintenance plans.
Based geographically in San Diego and philosophically on an intuitive, no-code platform, Solimar Systems now counts more than 3,500 customers and 10,000 installations worldwide. A modular approach allows Rowan and her developers to “meet customers where they’re at,” as she put it. “As they add printers or servers and enter into new chapters, we can grow together with them,” said Rowan.
Version 9.3 of the Solimar Print Director Enterprise (SPDE) was rolled out this past August. The speedy set of programs is designed to transform end-user computers into high-powered output management systems.
Solimar also offers what it calls de-impositioning to enable one-up, personalized PDFs. Such variable data automation can ward off awkward page layouts for healthcare clients. Meanwhile, its ReadyPDF, another off-the-shelf solution, uses prepress servers to optimize files to process them more efficiently for e-delivery, archiving, and production printing. By implementing AI, Rowan foresees more detailed reporting in the not-too-distant future. “We will be able to share that a file’s size shrunk by 58%, for example, or that 37 fonts were fixed on a given job.”
Sahay countered that there may be a longer road for SpencerMetrics to reap AI’s benefits. “We are looking hard into predictive AI models, but they require accurate data across all machines,” he explained. “I think it will be at least a couple more years until that becomes a reality.”
AI Incentives
Beginning on November 20, 2024, AI became one of eight technologies eligible for the U.S. Postal Service’s Integrated Technology promotion, which offers a 3% rate discount for mailers. (The other seven experience-enhancing tech categories are Augmented, Mixed and/or Virtual Reality; Integration with Voice Assistant; Video in Print Technology; Near Field Communication; and Mobile Shopping.) The new AI option requires proof that copies or images within the mail piece were created using generative AI tools such as Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT, or Microsoft Copilot. Meeting sustainability (recycling) requirements and other USPS incentives can raise mailing discounts to 6%, which adds up.
For SpencerMetrics, the key to efficient production environments is distilling meaningful information. In addition to end users in commercial print, finance, healthcare, photobook, books-on-demand, flexo/label, and packaging vertical markets, promotional companies and converters also purchase its software. “Most of our customers are multi-plant enterprises and often international in scope,” said Spencer. One of its clients runs various makes and models of finishing and mailing equipment and presses. “We can collect accurate data from all of them: structure, digitize, and analyze all of it,” he noted.
Trend Setting
Veering away from Xerox’s Variable Data Intelligent Postscript Printware will continue, predicted Rowan. “We now have the ability to make that proprietary VIPP language universal,” she said. The software leader also projects hastening migrations toward cut-sheet inkjet technologies, whether from Canon, Fujifilm, HP, Kyocera, RISO, or other partners. Available soon for customers in the financial field, she also anticipates inkjet printers with magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) code capabilities, which Solimar can drive with its automated PDF workflow and job definition format (JDF) tickets.
Increased visibility is yet another tech trend that Rowan is watching closely. “RFPs require it [transparency] more and more,” she observed. “End users want to know when jobs are received, and they prefer a self-service approach when it comes to approving or rejecting printed jobs.”
According to Sahay, SpencerMetrics witnessed a shift during the 2019-20 timeframe. “Before COVID, most people in our industry did not think of analytics on a need-to-have basis. The information was good to have.” However, labor and material shortages transformed once-luxury features like real-time visibility and remote monitoring into print-business necessities. Those same people realized that data investments could lead to higher profit margins.
Although SpencerMetrics does not work directly within the dealer channel, manufacturers (including Canon, HP, Ricoh, and Xeikon) use its solutions to measure their printers. “We ensure reliable, accurate machine connectivity,” said Sahay. “And, if a customer desires a holistic view of their entire factory, we often receive enterprise recommendations from our OEM partners.”
Parker stressed at RSA that versatility is the bottom line for large enterprise print and in-plant operations. From a cost-justification standpoint, “almost all of our customers are looking for ways to get more business and drive additional revenue streams,” he said. “That could mean adding services such as wide-format signage to their list of printed offerings, and the right software tools can help them to grow and efficiently manage that business.”
McGrew urged dealers and their customers not to forget the sustainable, environmental angle. “While this isn’t top of mind for many shops yet, begin planning now.”
Many dealer partners are now seeking data to help build their sustainability message in preparation for when customers inquire. “Companies like CarbonQuota are on the frontlines, collecting data and providing analysis in real time to help their clients understand their carbon footprint,” concluded McGrew.
