Innovate Magazine - Spring 2008 - (Page 21)

Similarly, the hottest digital printing applications that are emerging from these trends were highlighted throughout Graph Expo. Quincy Allen, President, Xerox Production Systems Group, described four categories of hot applications: collateral, direct mail, trans-promo documents, and books and manuals. “Where we once were pushing the capabilities of digital to our customers, now our customers push us for innovative ways to use web-to-print, personalized cross-media campaigns, and high-value photo applications,” Allen says. Pricing Digital Print Developing cutting-edge applications is one thing, pricing them is another. At the Xerox breakfast, Premier Partner Waleed Ashoo, who also serves as president of the industry group DICE (Digital Imaging Customer Exchange), presented on his company’s approach to pricing advanced services, such as variable information printing and one-to-one marketing programs. “I was impressed that he was willing to share so much information about their approach to pricing,” explains Wanda Simpson, President and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer, Premiere Colors LLC, Ashland, Virginia. She was attending her ﬁrst Premier Partners event, having joined just before Graph Expo. “We’re really struggling with pricing,” she comments, and Ashoo’s presentation—along with recent feedback from her sales team—is persuading her to entertain more of a value-based approach. Ashoo’s talk also reinforced her company’s recently evolving strategy to sell services, in addition to printing. “We can be a printer or we can be a company that shows its customers what we can do for them,” Simpson says. Increasingly, she is championing the “what-we-can-do-for-you” approach with the company’s sales force. Another attendee who appreciated Ashoo’s presentation was Keiger Printing’s Crockett. He attended Graph Expo for two reasons. One was to look at new equipment. The other was to attend the Printing Innovation with Xerox Imaging (PIXI) awards banquet, September 9, where Keiger Printing won the Best of Show Award from 500 worldwide entries. Keiger won for a sample book showing the variety of paper stocks, ﬁnishes, and colors that can run on its Xerox iGen3 110 Digital Production Press. The book was on display at the Premier Partners breakfast the next morning, and a fellow Premier Partner asked about licensing the book for its own use. The two have subsequently entered discussions, not only about the book, but about collaborating on some shared digital printing opportunities and specialty services the other ﬁrm offers. “That request caught me by surprise,” Crockett says. “We created the book just for our customers, and I may have been short sighted about the type of interest there would be in the book.” He also valued Ashoo’s presentation. “Frankly, I’m not used to going to this kind of event and getting the level of detail and information that Waleed shared with us,” Crockett explains. He said its content would help him gauge how effectively Keiger handles pricing, possibly leading to policy changes. “Where we once were pushing the capabilities of digital, now our customers push us for innovative ways to use web-to-print, personalized cross-media campaigns, and high-value photo applications.” —Quincy Allen, President, Xerox Production Systems Group Building the Program A former Premier Partner from its earliest days who re-joined this fall, Crockett was impressed. “I could see from the breakfast that the program has matured and changed since I was ﬁrst a member,” he says. The seven-year-old program’s growth has been particularly pronounced this year. Membership has grown by 22 percent, with 145 new members bringing total global membership to 662, including 303 in the United States and Canada. And the North American program has had a number of enhancements this year. To add networking opportunities and expand the learning program, the organization moved from a single, large, annual meeting to seven in-person gatherings throughout the year. To improve knowledge sharing, the group introduced a new global e-newsletter and a free premium-content news distribution service from industry-leader WhatTheyThink.com. And to improve business development opportunities, Premier Partners rolled out an enhanced search capability on its print buyer’s website, www.xerox.com/xpp, enabling searches by a wider range of ﬁner grained criteria. Wanda Simpson is among the members who recognize the value. “Premier Partners reinforces what Xerox is all about,” she says. “They’re all about service. That’s the reason we invested in the iGen3 press. Premier Partners is another avenue that Xerox utilizes to service their customers.” Tom Wetjen is the Vice President, Worldwide Graphic Communications Industry, Xerox Corporation. He can be reached at thomas.wetjen@xerox.com. Innovate Spring 08 21 http://www.WhatTheyThink.com http://www.xerox.com/xpp

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Innovate Magazine - Spring 2008

Innovate - Spring 2008 Table of Contents 10 Tips for Successful Open Houses The TransPromo Path Escape the Complexity Putting a Price on Value A Welcome Boost to Hospitality Team Approach Earns Accolades Bound Together New Highs in Image Quality Transforming the Business of Processing Photos Predictive Maintenance Making the Right Choice Diving into Digital Book Production Doing More With Less Distributed Document Creation

Innovate Magazine - Spring 2008

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