| WhatTheyThink.Com Reviews A Tumultuous Year in the Life of the Printing Industry
"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety…"Shakespeare was talking about Cleopatra, not printing, but the phrase aptly describes an industry that is often termed staid, mature and slow to change, but in reality is anything but. One would have to have had one's head in the sand to miss the cavalcade of news and events over the past 12 months. Drama, conflict, a hint of intrigue-it's all there, all of it reported, documented, and subject to commentary and analysis by WhatTheyThink.com. Here are some highlights. |
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| The Rising Cost of Consumables: Comments from Agfa, Enovation, Kodak
Cary spoke with representatives of the consumables “Big Three,” Agfa, Enovation Graphics and Kodak, to gain more insight into the reasons for price increases by Agfa and Enovation and to understand where Kodak stands on this issue. We also queried them about their advice to printers in light of these increases and other rising costs they are facing. |
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The Print Council Names Ben Cooper Executive Director, Exclusive Interview The Executive Committee of The Print Council today announced the appointment of Ben Cooper as Executive Director of The Print Council, effective January 9th, 2006. Read our exclusive interview with Ben Cooper here. |
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What’s Inside the Package for the “New” Esko-Graphics: A Conversation with Simon James In September, Esko-Graphics announced that its shareholder, Kirkbi A/S, had entered into an agreement with Axcel, a leading Danish private equity company, to transfer the ownership and all packaging related activities of Esko-Graphics to Axcel. With capital commitment totaling over € 800 million, Axcel invests in competitive medium-sized companies that have the potential for improvement and value creation. Axcel is backed by a group of Danish and international investors from a broad range of industries and the financial sector. Cary spoke with Simon James, executive vice president and general manager of Esko-Graphics North America, to get his perspective on the ownership change and the future prospects of the company. |
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| The Print Council: Is It Really On the Right Track To Keep Print from Joining the “Obsolete Media”?
There is no question that the printing industry, the second largest manufacturing industry in the United States and the third largest industry overall, is under pressure. In the “good old days” of printing, our primary competition came from each other. While printers certainly continue to compete with each other, other printers are not the real competition today—the availability of alternative business communications media and a lack of knowledge on the part of buyers as to how print can be most effectively used in a multichannel media mix is the real competition. |
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| GPO Awards Contract to Kinko's: Launches GPOExpress with FedEx Kinko's WhatTheyThink has learned that the Government Printing Office (GPO) recently awarded a contract to FedEx Kinko's to make 24x7x365 services available to its customer base - Federal agencies. According to Public Printer Bruce James, "The GPO is the Federal government's primary centralized resource for gathering, cataloging, producing, providing and preserving published information in all its forms." This initiative is designed to augment the services the GPO can offer to its customers. |
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| Rolling the DICE: What Happened at the Indigo Users Meeting, Part 1
I made the trek out to Las Vegas this past week to attend the Indigo Customer Exchange (ICE) annual meeting, both as a judge for the ICE Awards and to cover the event for WhatTheyThink. As many of you will remember, ICE has been in existence for over a decade as a vendor-supported but independent user group for (now) HP-Indigo owners, and earlier this year, HP withdrew its support for the organization in a move that surprised many industry watchers. In part, that was what made this meeting interesting, because in the absence of HP, both Xerox and Kodak decided to throw their support behind the event and the organization as premium sponsors. We were interested to observe the member reaction to the Kodak/Xerox presence, as well as to learn first-hand where the organization is headed in the future. |
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| Kodak’s Judi Hess Speaks Out Following Creo Acquisition
At the recent Print 05 trade show, WhatTheyThink took the opportunity to speak with Judi Hess, formerly President of Creo, and now the General Manager and Vice President, Workflow & Prepress Equipment, a strategic product group of Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. Our objective was to get an update as to the integration process now that Kodak’s acquisition spree has come to a close, and to learn what the future has in store for this critical group within Kodak. |
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| EFI: In the Industry’s Sweet Spot? An Interview with Fred Rosenzweig
On October 19th, EFI reported outstanding financial results, with pro forma net income of $21.8 million or $0.35 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2005, up compared to $8.9 million or $0.15 per diluted share for the same period in 2004. The Company also stated that it is raising its expectations for Q4. It expects revenues in the range of $140 million to $143 million and pro forma earnings per share of $0.33 to $0.35. EFI indicated that strong performance in its Fiery controller business was largely responsible for this performance. Cary talked with EFI’s President, Fred Rosenzweig, to get the inside scoop on this outstanding performance, as well as his views on the future of EFI and the industry. |
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| Agfa’s Saggiomo Discusses The New York Times Deal, New Role at NPES
Cary recently spoke with Tom Saggiomo, President of Agfa Graphic Systems and the newly elected Chairman of NPES to get an update on the latest news from Agfa, his plans for NPES, and his thoughts about the Print Council. Saggiomo also talked about the implications of Agfa’s recently announced deal with The New York Times. |
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Special Report: Where is IKON headed? IKON Office Solutions continues to restructure as it works to bring its costs in line, most recently reducing the size of its marketing department. The company has stated that its goal is to bring its Sales, General & Administrative (SG&A) expenses into alignment with competitors in the marketplace and to position itself for improved earnings and revenue. On a positive note, IKON has significantly beefed up its professional services offerings, particularly to serve mid-market customers, many of whom do not have robust IT resources and look to vendors like IKON for turnkey services. WhatTheyThink interviewed Dan Murphy, Vice President of Investor Relations, and Mike Kohlsdorf, Senior Vice President of IKON Enterprise Services and Information Systems, to get their perspective on IKON’s cost reduction initiatives, as well as prospects for growth. |
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| Important New Research from EDSF, Gartner and University of Connecticut
In a press release this week, the Electronic Document Systems Foundation (EDSF) announced groundbreaking research that was conducted by consulting firm Gartner and the University of Connecticut under EDSF’s ongoing research programs. Titled “Criticality of Printed Information in the Financial Service Industry: 2005 Survey Results,” the research targeted the financial services industry and included responses from more than 350 managers. Its objective was to identify the attitudes of business managers and to examine how they relate to printing as part of their business processes. The study highlights how managers view printed information as part of their departments' business processes, and how these managers work (and don't work) with other departments to implement new technology. WhatTheyThink spoke with Andrew (AJ) Johnson, Managing Vice President of Gartner, who managed the study process, to gain additional insight into the study and what it means for the printing industry. Kumar Mehta, Ph.D., led the study on behalf of the University of Connecticut. The study is available for downloading at no charge, and is a must-read for printing industry professionals. |
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| Prepress and Business Solutions at Print 05
If the number of press releases signifies anything, Print 05 was a busy show - with more than 375 press releases across all categories, and nearly 120 in prepress and business systems alone. The exhibitors I spoke with almost unanimously reported that the show traffic was lighter than anticipated, but that a more focused and better educated buyer seemed to be the rule rather than the exception. Read all the WhatTheyThink coverage of this event: |
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| The Latest on the Kodak Transformation
Print 05 is the public debut of the “new” Kodak Graphic Communications Group, following the apparent conclusion of the company’s aggressive acquisition path with the close of the Creo acquisition in mid-June. A unified brand identity was definitely in play in Kodak’s show presence. In a press briefing conducted earlier this summer, Antonio Perez, Kodak’s new CEO, speaking about Kodak as a whole, said, “Our digital transformation is going well from my point of view. It is not an easy change, and is actually a drastic change for the company. But we set out a strategy and that strategy is unchanged. Our transformation is built on a set of core competencies, our aim of making technology easy to use, and our brand reputation.” Perez pointed out that because revenues from consumer film are dropping faster than expected, the company has accelerated transformation activities and expects its digital transformation to be complete in 2007. For a company as large and established as Kodak, these are aggressive targets, considering that the transformation strategy was only introduced in September of 2003, a mere two years ago. More... |
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| CTP for Everyone: More Affordable than Ever Before
Computer-to-plate (CTP) technologies have been featured at printing trade shows for many years, and the concept is certainly nothing new. What is new at Print 05 is increased affordability for these digital systems. Most, if not all, of the larger printing establishments have already implemented CTP and are reaping the benefits of improved productivity, reduced costs and even higher quality printed output. The next big opportunity is greater penetration of CTP in the smaller printer market. And that is what is so exciting about CTP at Print 05—there are now CTP solutions for just about any budget! |
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| Cenveo Caves to Burton's Demands, Burton named Chairman & CEO Cenveo, Inc., one of North America's leading providers of visual communications services, and Burton Capital Management, LLC and Goodwood Inc., today announced that they have reached an agreement to end their proxy contest. |
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| Digital Print Best Practices: Not Just for Digital Printers
PODi has built up a substantial Best Practices library over the past several years. In fact, there are over 220 case studies in PODi’s online searchable database, which can be found here. As we approach Print 05, it seemed like a good time to review a few of them and to encourage Print 05 attendees to carve out plenty of time to visit the various purveyors who will be exhibiting at the show and whose solutions are being applied in these successful print operations. |
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| GASC's Regis Delmontagne: Looking Forward and Looking Back
Industry icon Regis J. Delmontagne, long-time President of Graphic Arts Show Company, America's premier producer of trade shows for the commercial, package printing and converting industry, and NPES, The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, will be retiring this year. WhatTheyThink interviewed Delmontagne to get his perspective on the past and future of the industry, GASC and the Print/Graph Expo trade shows. |
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| EFI Announces Business Management Command Center for Print MIS
EFI announced that it is beginning the beta cycle for Executive Information System (EIS), a business management “command center” that will be integrated with its popular Print MIS solutions—Hagen OA, Logic and PSI. The company has plans to extend the application to PrintSmith as well, at some future date. Read more about it here. |
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Presstek Takes ABDick Integration to Next Level - Interview with Ed Marino On Monday, August 8th, Presstek announced the next step in the execution of its integration plan for ABDick. The company will be closing the ABDick office facility in Niles IL, centralizing substantially all of ABDick's operational functions at its Hudson NH headquarters. The company expects this move to increase its cost savings from the previously-announced annualized run rate of $7 million to $8.5 million. Cary spoke with Presstek President & CEO Ed Marino to get his perspective on this move, and what's next for Presstek. |
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An Update from MAN Roland: Yves Rogivue Speaks Out MAN Roland has been much in the news lately, from its participation in the "400 Years of Newspapers" exhibit with an antique letterpress, its announcement that its R900XXL press will be the largest press running at the upcoming Print 05 show under the theme "Big Advantages", and its receipt of a PIA/GATF InterTech Award, to North American CEO Yves Rogivue's appointment as co-chair of the Print Council Membership Committee. WhatTheyThink spent time with MAN Roland's North American CEO, Yves Rogivue, always an interesting interviewee, to get his perspective on the state of the company and the state of the industry as we approach Print '05. |
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Kodak Enters Print MIS Fray Kodak's Graphic Communications Group has announced its first new product since it finalized the acquisition of Creo about six weeks ago, adding Print MIS to its arsenal of solutions for the graphic communications industry. Kodak Enterprise Management Solution (EMS) was developed by Creo, now a subsidiary of Kodak, and has been in the works since Creo's failed bid to acquire Printcafe in early 2003. Kodak bills EMS as a complete business workflow solution for the graphic communications industry that extends beyond traditional print MIS. Cary had an opportunity to overview the product in a session with Rochelle van Halm, Media Relations Manager for Creo, and Bob Kutschke, General Manager of the Business Workflow Product Group, during a media/analyst roadshow in mid July. Read more about it here. |
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| Interview with New Cenveo CEO James R. Malone
Mega-printer Cenveo has been much in the news of late, with the resignation of President and CEO Paul Reilly effective April 30, disappointing financial results and a hostile takeover bid by Robert Burton, who also demanded appointment as the company’s CEO. Meanwhile, on April 18, 2005, Cenveo announced that it had, with the assistance of its financial and legal advisors, commenced an aggressive and thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives with the goal of maximizing shareholder value. And in response to a request made by certain shareholders (read that as Robert Burton), the Company set September 14, 2005 as the date for a special meeting of shareholders. On June 22, 2005, Cenveo announced James R. Malone as its new CEO. Mr. Malone graciously agreed to speak with WhatTheyThink just two weeks into his new assignment to share his thoughts about the future of Cenveo with our readers. |
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| EFI Building Important Industry Presence with Connect
Having had an opportunity to reflect on the information that EFI and its partners shared with the media and users during Connect 2005, EFI's 6th annual users' conference, held in Miami Beach, it strikes me how large this annual event has become and the increasing cross-section of the industry it has come to represent. While it started, of course, as the users’ group for Printcafe’s print MIS solutions, it has now grown far beyond that in just the two short years EFI has been driving the event, and it will continue to grow, according to Guy Gecht, EFI’s CEO. |
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