The advent of digital printing is pushing change in the commercial printing industry from a manufacturing model to one based on innovation and services, says Xerox.
Frank Steenburgh, Xerox Production Group senior VP, says the commercial printing market mirrors the IT market during the past 15 years.
"We saw the zenith of commercial printing profits in 2000 (the peak of the IT boom) and then they sank like a stone. However, we do see renewed confidence creeping back into the market," he told ITWeb.
Steenburgh was in Cape Town to speak at the Eighth World Print Congress, where he pointed out that the worldwide revenue generated from content creation, production and distribution amounts to $1.2 trillion (R6 trillion) annually.
"This means that commercial printers have to change their businesses from just manufacturing to being further down the service chain in offering a wider range of products and capabilities," he says.
An indication of the change in the printing industry is that print on demand will grow 14% next year. One-third of digital colour work will be personalised by next year and by 2010, 20% of all print jobs will be turned around in 24 hours. Already 78% of four-colour print jobs are shorter than 5 000 pages.
Currently, 80% to 85% of printing costs and revenues are locked inside non-printing activities, such as preparation work and customer approval.
"The digital workflow is about reducing these costs and capturing additional revenue in creation and distribution," Steenburgh says.
As part of this strategy, Xerox is expanding its partnerships with software firms Adobe, EFI, Creo and others in its FreeFlowDigital Workflow initiative to combine workflow tools based on open industry standards.
Xerox, represented by Bytes Document Solutions in SA, says it is planning to make an announcement on its South African business around 10 February.
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