The new Konica Minolta Production Printers  

These days it's not just printers that are selling print to clients, you can add graphic designers, advertising and marketing agencies, print brokers and web designers. Usually, they supply their clients by outsourcing the work to commerical trade printers who produce the job, blank wrap it and send it back.

Unfortunately when you get someone else to do all the work you miss out in a few areas.

• You have to wait to fit into another businesses schedule
• You don't really have much control over stocks and quality
• If you make a mistake, you generally have to pay to reprint the job
• You usually have to pay up front, before you've been paid
• Profit, well most of went to the printer
• Did you want something a little special, sorry can't do it for that price

And the list goes on, if this is your business model, I'm sure you recognise one or more of these points. 

For many, the issue isn't so much the printing it's more the finishing. Most of the digital production print systems aren't bad these days. They certainly should be able to produce a saleable sheet. But getting the sheeted output and transforming it into business cards, postcards, dl flyers, folded flyers etc is hard when that's not something you've been trained or equipped to do.

The folks over at GBC market an amazing product over called a Duplo Cutter. In particular the Duplo 645 Slitter Cutter Creaser.

Think of it as digital guillotining but with creasing and perforating as well as cutting.

Many of my digital print customers have installed these machines alongside their new digital production printers because in the world of short run personalised digital print, these incredible machines completely automate the process.

Less labour + no mistakes + less waste + more capability = more profit

You simply take the stack of sheets that you have printed, select the cutting program you want, then press the go button. The Duplo takes care of the everything. It aligns the knives using it's optical sensors and your crop marks, it trims the waste and presents the finished product. Viola.

I've seen the Duplo trim SRA3 down to full bleed A4 sheets, trim postcards and dl flyers even perf a tear off coupon. Completely automatically.

For those of you out there who use a guillotine for finishing work, you should take a look at the comparison video over on the Duplo UK website which pitches the Duplo head to head against a guillotine for a number of typical short run jobs that you would expect to find in any print shop environment. It's quite impressive. Watch here (opens in a new window)

Having one of these in combination with a production printer like the Konica Minolta C6000 or C7000 means that you have a turnkey print solution that will make you more money, turn jobs around faster, give you total control over the finished product you produce, let you create more diverse print products for your customers and did I mention make you more money.

You can find out more about the Duplo cutter by talking to the folks at GBC.. click here

You can find out more about Konica Minolta Production printers by talking to me, either call me on 0424 184 538 or send me an email to john.hetherington@thinkoffice.com.au

 

 

 

If you're a printer and you own an ipad or even thinking about one, there are some really great Free applications out there that can help you in your business and in dealing with customers.

I've almost completely transferred across from using a laptop to the ipad, it's faster, lighter, more compact and I can do almost everything I used to do on the PC. Certainly when I have to travel for business the ipod is almost the first thing that gets packed.

Here's are 10 free applications for you to consider if you don't already have them.

1. Evernote. This is a cracker of an application. Get it for both your computer (PC or Mac) and your ipad. It lets you capture information that you find on the web and access it anywhere. Once you install the app on your desktop or laptop and you find something (like an article that you want to hang on to) you just click on the evernot button in your browser and it sends it to the cloud where you can access it anywhere.

From a printers perspective, you can capture an almost unlimited number of trade articles, tips, how to's etc and have access to them when you have an opportunity to digest the information.

Get more info at www.evernote.com

2. Dropbox. Think of this one as a massive memory stick that lives in the internet. Like Evernote you'll need the free computer application and the ipad app (both free). You can then transfer files to your dropbox by just dragging them into the dropbox folder. It will automatically synchronise with your ipad so that you can access your files from anywhere, even on other computers.

From a printers perspective, have your design team create brochures and "whitepapers" about your business and services. Load them all into your dropbox account and wherever you are you can access them.

Get more info at www.dropbox.com

3. Twitter. Of course you have a twitter account for your business don't you. If not get over to twitter.com and register one right now. Then install the twitter application on your ipad. If you have updated the operating system to the latest version, twitter is integrated into the core of the operating system and will alert you when you receive messages on twitter. Then install the twitter app (go to the app store on your ipad and search twitter.

From a printers perspective, use twitter to communicate with your customers and potential customers, DON'T spend your whole time tweeting about cheap this or that, put a human face behind the business, have conversations with your potential clients, occaisionaly offer a special, follow your suppliers, follow your customers. If you just keep talking about your special print offers nobody will end up listening to you. It's a bit like when you go to a party and you meet someone that just talks about themselves, communicate, ask questions.

4. Flipboard. I'm probably jumping the gun here but this is an amazing application that channels information from a number of sources and presents it magazine style so that you don't have to do anything except skim and read what catches your interest. It brings you info from your facebook account, your twitter account, even National Geographic. You can also create and save a search for particular topics of interest.

From a printers perspective, flipboard saves you time and effort, you can save some industry related search queries and then have access to these almost immediately.

Find out more at flipboard.com

5. Facebook App. You've got a facebook page haven't you? Good, now get the facebook app installed onto your ipad, that way you can interact really quickly and not waste a stack of time trying to keep up. Install this from the app store on your ipad.

From a printers perspective, well look at this way, there are now over 800 million people using facebook, at least 1 in every 8 minutes of internet usage is facebook, more than 50% of facebook users log on every day. Oh yeah it's also free. So get a facebook account and create a facebook page for your business, if you want to offer special offers or competitions this is the place to do it.

 

 

6. Hootsuite. If your a twitter power user, you need to be able to see whats going on across more than one account. Hootsuite lets you also aggregate feeds from LinkedIn and Facebook so this could be quite useful. Again install from the app store but pop over to hootsuite.com for more info

From a printers perspective, you'll have your twitter, facebook and linkedin information in one place. It's like have a control centre for the social media side of the business.

7. LinkedIn. Think of LinkedIn as facebook for business people. It is a web based service that allows you to connect with people that you have worked with, clients that you have done business with and those with whom you would like to do business with. It lets you show the business community your personal profile and your business profile. It's free but there are some pro levels that do cost, however, for most people the free account is more than enough. Once you have created your profile and started to make some connections you should get the free LinkedIn app for the ipad. (app store)

From a printers perspective, LinkedIn is all about business, you're in business right? Then you need to get organised and get yourself onto linkedin. I'm stunned at how few printers are on there but there are so many great print resources available for free.

To find out more about Linked in go to www.linkedin.com

8.Yellow Pages. Might seem like an odd choice but get the yellow pages app because it makes finding businesses when you are out and about really easy. It has great integration into maps and best of all it lets you add the business straight into your contacts. (app store)

From a printers perspective, this is really more for anyone in sales, you go out to meet with customers, yellow pages mobile app actually shows you on a map where all of the competitors are for the business you are meeting with, hmmm now what could you do with that information?

9. Skype. Free phone and video calls to other skype users (just uses your data allowance) You need a skype account and to install the skype app from the app store.

From a printers perspective, you don't just have customers that are in your area these dys, your clients could be anywhere in Australia or even the world. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, but imaging you have a great customer in Melbourne, wouldn't it be nice to be able to have a video call with them to discuss their business, do you think they would appreciate you doing this? Do you think your competition do it? Remember, it's free (you need an ipad2 for video chat..sorry)

10. Adobe Ideas. It's like a notepad for sketches. so when you have a meeting with a client and you need to sketch out a workflow or an idea you can use your finger to draw whatever your heart desires. (app store)

From a printers perspective, papers great but you don't always have a notepad with you, instead of scratching the design layout on a coffee stained napkin you can use a piece of 21st Century technology, it even lets you email a copy straight to the customer. Oooh.

Conclusion

There are thousands of applications out there that make the ipad sucha useful tool.

If youu want to spend some money, I'd also recommend Apples Pages (word processing / document layout), Keynote (presentations imports powerpoint) & Numbers (spreadsheets & imports word) these plus the 10 listed get used by me every day.

 

I love this one, and you could certainly do this on any of our digital production printers (printing only, you'd need to then die cut and score). Imagine how much more receptive your clients would be if you were pitching these kinds of ideas instead of just offering them low cost printing.

I love her closing commment "think finishing at the beginning"

via..www.foldfactory.com

Always nice to discover some new features that will make a difference to driving our digital production print systems. EFI Fiery have announced some great new functionality for Command Workstation 5. 

There are a couple of pre-requisites, take a look at the chart at the end of this article.

Let's start with the best new feature, the New Fiery Image Enhance Visual Editor.

The application is amazing. What it does is it provides a tool to allow you to adjust the image quality of images that exist within a customers pdf document. You can adjust contrast, brightness, highlights, shadows, colour balance, sharpness and fix red eye.

Think about this, to do all of that normally, you would have to dismantle the file, edit each image individually & then rebuild it. If you trust the software you can even let it go on automatic and it goes and finds all of the images in the file, fixes them and adjusts the pdf, ready for you to print.

 

2. Integration with Fiery Colour Profiler Suite (CPS)

Integration with Spot-On

Integration with Profiles

Integration with Fiery Image Viewer

3. Fiery SeeQuence Suite Enhancements

User-Defined Finish Size

Enhanced Reader View

Increased Undo Functions

4. Useability Enhancements

Export custom view of Job Log

Additional Media Information in Job Summary

Remove Paper Catalog Tray Association

New Message to Customise Job Properties

Access Additional Print Functions from Job Properties

Auto Login

 

This chart lists the pre-requisites for the new features.

I hope that you will join my monthly newsletter subscription by clicking on this newsletter link here..

Each month I'll send out a short email newsletter with tips, techniques and ideas all relating to digital production print.

No spam, no sales push, just pertinent information that I hope will be interesting.

I'm always open for ideas and stories, so please send them in.

One last thing, I take security very seriously, your details wil not be shared or made available to anyone else. You can easily remove yourself from the newsletter by unsubscribing at any time.

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If you are in the market to upgrade your digital printer to a digital production printer, here are a few questions that may help in your quest.

1. Do all the paper trays support SRA3 sheets sizes?

Make sure that every tray runs SRA3, a good indication that you are looking at a print engine that was designed for production print is bein able to support the stock that you want to run.

If there are dedicated A4 trays it is a really strong indication that the machine is an office copier not a production printer.

 

2. Can you automatically duplex 300gsm from the paper tray?

The reality is that if you have a digital production system you will want to print business cards, postcards etc on heavy stocks.

If you have to rely on the bypass feed to duplex heavy stocks then you should also be prepared for lots of registration errors. The feed guides on bypass feeds are only short and allow the sheet to "fishtail" through the engine producing poor front to back sheet registration and wasted prints.

Ask for the specification in writing, if the brochure says 256gsm then thats what the machine was engineered and designed for, don't just rely on a verbal promise that it can do it, ask for the specifications or the expectation guide.

 

3. Does the machine have pre-sets for coated stocks?

Another really good indicator that you are looking at an office machine and not a production machine is when there are no presets for coated papers in the paper catalogue. 

It is really important because if you want to print on coated papers you need the device to be able to modify the way the image is produced and put onto the paper. Otherwise you just won't get the quality that you and your customers/clients are looking for.

 

4. What is the history behind the machine you are looking at?

While we love groundbreaking technology, it makes a lot of sense to invest in a production print system that has a strong heritage in the production space. 

No need to be a pioneer here, you want to know that the company that makes, supports and services production print has been doing so for a long time, not just entering the market. After all, your business will depend on the machines ability to perform for you, their service team being able to identify an rectify any service issue you will experience.

 

5. What is the bit depth of the resolution?

Whoa, why would you want to know that? Well, seems there is resolution and there is resolution. In fact some organisations will try to make you believe that they have resolution that is finer than the toner particles they put on the paper.

Ask the salesperson what is the bit depth of their resolution. (see below)

Currently you can find 1bit, 2bit, 4bit and 8bit but you'll also see resolutions of 600dpi, 1200dpi, 2400dpi and 4800dpi. Sounds confusing, well it is.

Many systems have their resolution in 2 different paramters eg 600 x 600, 1200 x 1200, 1200 x 2400, 1200 x 4800.

Most companies trying to sell you production print jump into the discussion by quoting the highest of the resolution figures. This is misleading and in many case not real because the resolution has been interpolated, ie the file was say 300dpi and their software performed pixel conversions to bring the dot placement out to the rating they have nominated.

Ask what is the resolution being sent from your computer to the printer?

Another key point is bit depth, heres a simple explanation - 1 bit means that the dot is either on or off, 2 bit means that there are 4 variations - off, on & 2 shades, 4 bit means you have 16 shades including on & off, 8 bit means 256 shades including on & off. 

The reality is we humans can't really see higher than 600dpi, having higher bit depth give incredible print quality because every dot that is placed for every colour (the 4 base colours - cyan, magenta, yellow & black) has the ability to be placed with 256 different shades. This creates outstanding hafltones and images.

 

Adding to it's growing list of achievements the Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C8000 was recently named the Best Colour Production System by BERTL an independent testing laboratory.

With customer installations growing on a daily basis, the print industry has also recognised the key benefits of the PRESS C8000 in a commercial printing operation.

Our service teams are reporting that customers are experiencing incredibly long print runs between calibrations and routine maintenance.

The Konica Minolta engineers really did a great job in a number of key areas in the PRESS C8000 to give our customers great colour, incredible levels of reliability, colour consistency from sheet to sheet - job to job, registration accuracy that is the envy of the industry, new offset class sheet feeding, the heaviest weight duplex stock support, and on and on.

Here's the story from Konica Minolta Australia about the award and recognition that the bizhub PRESS C8000 has truly deserved.

More detail click here

Here is a video on youtube which takes you through the C8000 - it runs for about 9 minutes. Take a look at the new Konica Minolta PRESS C8000, this new Production Full Colour Printer is a real game changer.

• Quality Colour Production Printing

• Fantastic Production Print speed across a broad range of media choices

• Powerful media handling with suction feed paper transport systems

• Active sheet registration for amazing front to back sheet registration

• Inline Colour Management for Consistent Colour throughout the job

• Inline finishing that does not impact the production speed

• Over 20 different configurations for complete flexibility

And more, give me a call or send me an email, I'd be happy to step through how this Production Print System could change your business overnight.

Click below to watch the video on Youtube.

PRESS C8000 Video

Are you tired of being treated as a quoting fodder against your competition? Many printers that I speak with tell me that a fair amount of their day is spent quoting work where they know that the customer is shopping prices against another printer or other printers.

Wouldn't it be nice if it wasn't always down to that. One of my jobs is to help you see how you can achieve this using digital printing technology.

One of the greatest areas of growth in print believe it or not is in the area of direct mail.

Yes, most of your customers are probably sending what they used to print by email. You probably do it too. I know I send a lot more email than I do send print. However, I never send an email that is a marketing piece without making sure that I have a physical mail piece to arrive either before or as the email arrives.

You see, mail cuts through more than anything else.

I've just read another great article which inspired todays Blog from Margie Danas website (Print Buyers International) about the benefits of using mail to be more effective and it supports what many of us know to be true. If you want to get results with your direct marketing you cannot ignore using mail to get through to your potential clients.

Every day I receive over 100 emails, it is impossible for me to read them all, even with the high level of connectivity I have - iphone, ipad and computer - I have to filter things out. This means I probably do miss a lot of really relevant and valuable pieces of information. But the reality is I simply don't have time to process all of it - nor do I want to.

I receive on average about 2 mail pieces per day (forget about junk mail - if it isn't addressed to me it gets sorted over the bin and most just goes straight in). Of those direct mail pieces I read them all, they get to me.

It's exactly the same for your clients potential customers.... and you have the ability to help them.

Another great benefit of having a digital production print system in a printing business is that you can produce high quality, high relevance mail pieces for your clients. Don't just think letters, although there is nothing wrong with this, think postcards, coupons, vouchers, flyers, cards etc etc. Every one of these items can be personalised with relevent data including of course the name and delivery details but pertinent information that is going to grab the attention of the intended recipient.

Karen McCormick over at Fulfilment Express in MA USA www.fulexp.com has a list of 7 ways that direct mail packs a punch.

1. It is intrusive - it gets delivered every working day direct to your clients home or place of work, it doesn't get filtered out by a corporate filter, in Australia it is a federal offence to open someone elses mail, so nobody does. The mail piece is opened by your intended recipient.

2. Tactile - You cant hold an email, sure you can print it and then hold it, but with some creativity on your part you can create mail pieces that extend into the world of 3 dimensions, things that people retain.

3. Targetted - With simple data management tools you can offer your clients the ability to produce different versions of mail pieces for different market segments or clients. It's really hard to do this with email.

4. Variety - It doesn't always have to be an A4 in a letter fold, if you have die cutting and folding systems the opportunities for a creative fresh approach are almost limitless. if you don't there are hundreds of printers around that you can outsource that part of the work to. Build more value into your relationship with your clients - it will come back to you tenfold.

5. Measureable - Start using the technology that you have, QR codes, coupons, PURLS all give you an ability to track response. Knowing how a piece performs allows you to guide your clients into better results. Of course giving your clients better results probably means a better more profitable realtionship, don't you think?

6. Personalised - If you haven't gotten on board with variable data it really is time to do it. It is the 21st Century, stop trying to do things the way we did 30 years ago. Variable data (when done correctly) will generate more print for you than anything else. It gives you more control in the relationship with your clients and it delivers incredible profitable results for them and for you. I don't understand why any printer in 2012 is not using Variable Data Print. Wake up.

7. Effective - Of course to be effective you need to have a strategy, you need to be working closely with your client to understand their business objectives and to guide them in how to get the best result. All of the printers that I know who are incredibly profitable and successful use these 7 tactics every day. They help their clients to be really effective in their direct marketing activities. They are seen by their clients as experts across the range of skills required, not just as printers for a cheap price. If you have designers on staff, have digital print capabilities and are prepared to work with your customers you can do this.

Direct mail doesn't have to be boring, embrace this idea and you will create a very profitable business stream, one that will be enduring and will grow.

Remember, most printers out there don't do this. Their day consists of printing jobs that come in from designers, brokers and direct clients and then sending them out. Imagine the difference to your business relationship if you were helping your clients to be really effective and more profitable. Do you think they will still shop you on price, of course not, you're bringing real value to the table for a change.

Hot Tip: Eat your own cooking. Do this for your own business first. I'm sure you will have inactive accounts, create a direct mail piece to these clients with an offer to come back. Use your creativity to develop a piece that will stand out and get results, make sure you measure the results. How many you sent, what number responded and what was the sales value. Don't be a one hit wonder. Design your campain as 3 seperate pieces and track each pieces results.

If you want discuss this in more detail with me you can contact me at john.hetherington@thinkoffice.com.au