Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends (Weymouth, MA) has completed its Winning in an Evolving Print Services Market study. The study provides vendors with valuable insights into what printers and in-plants are trying to do strategically, the challenges they’re facing, and the actions required to improve their businesses. InfoTrends discovered that, although the overall printing industry is experiencing a gradual decline, some establishments continue to grow and thrive, and many of those that experienced recent declines are doing many of the right things. However, they do need help in certain areas. InfoTrends identified multiple factors that enable strong growth. Some include:
- Addition of wide-format printing, finishing and installation services.
- Sales and marketing focus on vertical industries plus horizontal roles and applications
- Use of electronic media for self-promotion.
- Production automation that improves efficiency, reduces labour costs and addresses traditional press and bindery labour shortages.
- Additional focus on IT/development staffing that enable automation, as well as new service expansions with web-to-print, MIS and variable-data toolsets.
One key data point the research revealed was that high-growth printers had a smaller proportion of staffing in production and a larger proportion in IT, sales and marketing versus declining print service providers. “Companies with higher growth tend to be more focused on improving efficiencies as well as service expansion, hence a greater concentration of employees in IT, sales, and marketing roles, and fewer in production,” said Steve Adoniou, Group Director of Consulting & Forecasting at Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends. The study includes an executive summary with key findings and recommendations for both vendors and suppliers, to the industry as well as for the end-users themselves. Also included in are research charts and data cross-tabulations in both PDF and Excel format. For more information, please contact sales@keypointintelligence.com.
