After a full year of integrating resources and production organizations, we can confidently say that we’re ready for the future. Mal Baboyian provides details on a promising future. In late 2009, Canon announced its intention to acquire all ordinary shares of Océ to create a global leader in the printing industry. Last year, Canon and Océ began the process of officially integrating the two business entities. Mal Baboyian, Executive Vice President of Canon Solutions America, notes, “During 2013, Canon Solutions America has truly proven the meaning of ‘stronger together.’ We have marshaled our resources and come together as a single company. In addition to successfully integrating our production organizations, we have simultaneously grown our revenues and increased overall profitability. I am probably most proud of our ability to maintain a culture that puts the customer first with world-class service and support.”
As we begin the new year, Baboyian believes that 2014 will be filled with opportunity. He elaborates, “The inkjet production document printing market has grown to a $1.3 billion market in a few short years, and inkjet is poised to truly take off. Installations and print volumes are set to increase at an average annual rate of 35%. About two-thirds of today’s continuous-feed color installations are in transaction print, with smaller shares in books and direct mail. As time goes on, the share of the latter two applications will rise along with other publishing and promotional applications as vendors add better inks and more media.”
During PRINT 2013, Canon Solutions America introduced new Premium Pigment Inks that are designed to be game-changers for the company and its customers. These inks enable customers to print on uncoated and untreated paper so they can distinguish themselves in the book, transactional, direct mail, and commercial printing markets. Furthermore, Canon Solutions America established an additional media lab in Boca Raton, Florida for testing substrates so customers can identify and deploy new applications.
Also during PRINT 2013, Canon Solutions America introduced a new high-volume sheetfed color inkjet digital press. Under the development name “Niagara,” this device is designed to accelerate the printing industry's transition from offset to high-volume digital output. Baboyian states, “This new digital press will help consolidate sheetfed monochrome and color workflows onto one production printing system.”
Baboyian is also responsible for Canon’s large format business. Looking forward to 2014, Baboyian says, “We see a significant opportunity for print service providers of all sizes to drive new revenue streams with large format applications. The Océ ColorWave® 900 printer closes the gap between digital inkjet and traditional offset technologies. First announced at drupa 2012 under the concept name of Project Velocity, the device was designed for the GA (Graphic Arts), AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction), and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) markets. It offers a digital workflow that can help increase productivity, lower running costs, and increase flexibility for variable data and short-to-medium-run length print jobs. In concert with our Arizona product line, we now offer a very robust portfolio that opens new opportunities for commercial printers.”
The past 12 months have proven to be extremely prosperous for Canon Solutions America, as well as customers and prospects. Baboyian concluded, “We are now able to offer even better products, services, support, software, and financing. 2014 is here, and our product lineup has never been stronger. As we continue to work with old and new customers, we embrace a spirit of collaboration and focused customer service that has become our hallmark.”
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2014: It’s Time to Embrace Change
Excerpted From InfoTrends’ Business Development Services 2014 Road Map by Barb Pellow
Embracing change is vital to your business’ ongoing success. The tools that businesses and consumers use to communicate are ever-changing. While print remains a core communications tool that is not going away, the ways in which it is used and produced are changing. Customers’ expectations are changing too—they expect providers to deliver more value. In 2014, dynamic businesses will meet these changes head-on, prepare to address the risks that the changes bring, and have the fortitude to adjust their business models to thrive and succeed. Success will require exploring new target markets, emerging technologies, new competitors, and print as well as non-print media alternatives. Navigating the year ahead starts with identifying the key trends and forces that will shape the business landscape. InfoTrends believes that the following 10 trends will yield the most influence:
1. Follow the pages! For a significant number of print applications, changes in print demand will drive the transfer of offset produced pages to digital devices (electrophotographic and inkjet).
2. Digital printing today is more than four-color. Texture, sparkle, and enhanced color add more value and margin to digital print.
3. The right substrate opens the opportunity for high value (margin) print in today’s market.
4. It’s more than “big data” – it’s the right data in real time!
5. Lean is still in. Workflow is at the heart of productivity and profitability, and more and more tools are available to deliver on the lean promise.
6. Mobile-to-print and print-to-mobile will become critical value-added services due to the pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones.
7. If you haven’t already, it’s time to make print interactive!
8. Print service providers are stepping up to the challenge of repositioning their businesses.
9. Sales professionals will be business differentiators in 2014. Your sales team needs to deliver insight to drive sales!
10. Acquisitions, mergers, and partnerships will continue. The best results will come from deals that are designed to transform businesses and expand value-added services.
We’ve all heard the old adage, “The only constant is change.” In the printing industry, change has happened more quickly than many would have wanted it to. There is no denying that transformative technologies have arrived and economies have shifted. The difficulty of change is not the problem, though–the real obstacle is the in-between time before we accept the fact that business transformation is critical.
Successful businesses recognize changes and embrace them early, because that’s much easier than playing catch-up. Waiting too long can put you at a competitive disadvantage. In 2014, I hope you are excited about change and that your business takes the lead in embracing it!
InfoTrends’ 2014 road map provides our recommendations on how to harness market trends to grow revenue and profit in 2014. Click below to read the full document, which includes details, statistics, and examples.
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Important trends to consider as you develop your strategy for 2014. Read the InfoTrends White Paper 2014: It’s Time to Embrace Change.
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