The printer in Nottingham worked with ROI360 and Tharstern to integrate their technologies to “establish a valuable advantage that will secure online business and also protect profit margin”, said Prime Group managing director Jon Tolley. By linking ROI360’s Pageflex Storefront package and Tharstern MIS the printer has made it easier to customise and order print, reducing manual administration work such as booking. This has upped productivity, said Tolley, insisting the set-up was “critical” to the business. “Ordering was brilliant on web-to-print but going from ordering to invoicing was requiring manual intervention. Because we can now clearly visualise the work at every stage, we have seen a 30% increase order volumes, which equates to £100,000 over only two months.” Prime Group turns over £4m from personalised material for retail, direct mail and marketing campaigns. The 40 staff run two HP Indigo presses and a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74. Tharstern sales manager Lee Ward said: “It’s been estimated 80% of the cost of ordering a print job is not in production but in admin. Work like estimating and booking a job costs £30 to £50 straight away. What we are not doing is not new. “But we want to educate more printers to protect what little margin they have on low-margin jobs by taking out the administration. By doing this you can make those web orders more influential in the profit of your business because you are automating the process.” ROI360’s managing director Simon Ellington said: “This is a key way to reduce internal costs and there are different levels of sophistication, from simple transfer of orders to more dynamic integration. We are also working with a big PLC printer and another smaller set-up.”...

The printer in Nottingham worked with ROI360 and Tharstern to integrate their technologies to “establish a valuable advantage that will secure online business and also protect profit margin”, said Prime Group managing director Jon Tolley. By linking ROI360’s Pageflex Storefront package and Tharstern MIS the printer has made it easier to customise and order print, reducing manual administration work such as booking. This has upped productivity, said Tolley, insisting the set-up was “critical” to the business. “Ordering was brilliant on web-to-print but going from ordering to invoicing was requiring manual intervention. Because we can now clearly visualise the work at every stage, we have seen a 30% increase order volumes, which equates to £100,000 over only two months.” Prime Group turns over £4m from personalised material for retail, direct mail and marketing campaigns. The 40 staff run two HP Indigo presses and a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74. Tharstern sales manager Lee Ward said: “It’s been estimated 80% of the cost of ordering a print job is not in production but in admin. Work like estimating and booking a job costs £30 to £50 straight away. What we are not doing is not new. “But we want to educate more printers to protect what little margin they have on low-margin jobs by taking out the administration. By doing this you can make those web orders more influential in the profit of your business because you are automating the process.” ROI360’s managing director Simon Ellington said: “This is a key way to reduce internal costs and there are different levels of sophistication, from simple transfer of orders to more dynamic integration. We are also working with a big PLC printer and another smaller set-up.”...

Experts will give talks, lead panel discussions and present case studies on the challenges to delivering successful campaigns and what they can achieve. The event on 23 and 24 October is at the Business Design Centre in north London. As well as exhibitors on the show floors, the event will include several discussion hubs or theatres dedicated to Print and Innovation, Cross Media, Digital and Direct Marketing, Content Marketing and Publishing Strategies and a Mobile Marketing. “As new digital technologies continue to capture people’s attention, printed media still holds a vital place,” said conference manager Ruth Clougherty. “Understanding how to effectively place print within marketing and publishing strategies is essential. “The Cross Media 2013 theatre programme promises to set delegates on the right track and help them look at various options to widen their service offering. High-calibre speakers have already confirmed and we are looking forward to announcing more names soon.” Some of the most successful cross-media campaigns will be covered first hand by leaders from St Ives, Carat, Crew Clothing Co, McCann London, Sony Europe, Twitter and Microsoft, who will offer advice on building effective strategies. In the Print and Innovation Theatre InfoTrends associate director Kaspar Roos will stress the importance of print in content marketing strategies. OgilvyOne and Kyp Partnerhsip will give a case study on “putting print back on the map by keeping it creative, engaging and relevant”. Canon Europe and UK marketing manager for graphic arts Andrew Harris will demonstrate the ROI of print to your customers. Chiefs from the BPIF, Canon Europe, Xplor and PODi have also confirmed their places on speaker panels. Other confirmed speakers include Carat head of planning Dan Hagan, who will take to the Cross Media Theatre on “how to keep one step ahead of the ‘always on’ consumer with a real time planning approach”. In the Digital and Direct Marketing Theatre, Adobe Systems Europe product marketing manager for EMEA Jamie Brighton will talk about new innovations in delivering personalised content. “The show highlights the importance of print as part of a successful multi-channel marketing campaign,” said a show spokeswoman. “Companies will learn how to grow businesses into fully fledged marketing service providers with print as a part of their offering.” Visitors will learn about the explosion in content access through digital and mobile devices and how to measure the ROI of one channel against the other through speakers from Royal Mail, O2 and IDM. The shift towards content marketing by brands will be covered speakers from FMG Group, the Content Marketing Association and Oxford University Press. This year’s show will also reflect the growth in mobile data consumption, with the introduction of a Mobile Marketing Theatre, with speakers from...

Experts will give talks, lead panel discussions and present case studies on the challenges to delivering successful campaigns and what they can achieve. The event on 23 and 24 October is at the Business Design Centre in north London. As well as exhibitors on the show floors, the event will include several discussion hubs or theatres dedicated to Print and Innovation, Cross Media, Digital and Direct Marketing, Content Marketing and Publishing Strategies and a Mobile Marketing. “As new digital technologies continue to capture people’s attention, printed media still holds a vital place,” said conference manager Ruth Clougherty. “Understanding how to effectively place print within marketing and publishing strategies is essential. “The Cross Media 2013 theatre programme promises to set delegates on the right track and help them look at various options to widen their service offering. High-calibre speakers have already confirmed and we are looking forward to announcing more names soon.” Some of the most successful cross-media campaigns will be covered first hand by leaders from St Ives, Carat, Crew Clothing Co, McCann London, Sony Europe, Twitter and Microsoft, who will offer advice on building effective strategies. In the Print and Innovation Theatre InfoTrends associate director Kaspar Roos will stress the importance of print in content marketing strategies. OgilvyOne and Kyp Partnerhsip will give a case study on “putting print back on the map by keeping it creative, engaging and relevant”. Canon Europe and UK marketing manager for graphic arts Andrew Harris will demonstrate the ROI of print to your customers. Chiefs from the BPIF, Canon Europe, Xplor and PODi have also confirmed their places on speaker panels. Other confirmed speakers include Carat head of planning Dan Hagan, who will take to the Cross Media Theatre on “how to keep one step ahead of the ‘always on’ consumer with a real time planning approach”. In the Digital and Direct Marketing Theatre, Adobe Systems Europe product marketing manager for EMEA Jamie Brighton will talk about new innovations in delivering personalised content. “The show highlights the importance of print as part of a successful multi-channel marketing campaign,” said a show spokeswoman. “Companies will learn how to grow businesses into fully fledged marketing service providers with print as a part of their offering.” Visitors will learn about the explosion in content access through digital and mobile devices and how to measure the ROI of one channel against the other through speakers from Royal Mail, O2 and IDM. The shift towards content marketing by brands will be covered speakers from FMG Group, the Content Marketing Association and Oxford University Press. This year’s show will also reflect the growth in mobile data consumption, with the introduction of a Mobile Marketing Theatre, with speakers from...

“We’re very pleased that the momentum of Q1 accelerated in our June quarter resulting in a solid 10% top-line growth, a fantastic all-time record quarter for EFI,” said chief executive Guy Gecht in the company’s earnings conference call. He added that last month’s Fespa was a particular highlight, stating that the company had had its most successful show to date in terms of sales and lead generation. “Trade shows are a fantastic opportunity for customers to compare our products with the competition’s,” he added. Breaking the numbers down by regions, the company reported that the Americas were exceptionally strong in Q2, growing 22%, while Asia, excluding Japan, grew 10%. However, “the tough European market” continued its Q1 decline, although Gecht said it was “less pronounced” at just 3% overall, with inkjet being the only area of real decline and its Fiery and MIS segments actually growing. The firm reported that the migration of industrial tile printing to Asia was the prime cause of the decline in EMEA, stating that once the numbers for Cretaprint were stripped out, EMEA actually grew 4%. Gecht singled out 26% growth in UV ink volume as his personal highlight in Q2. “That’s my favourite number, because it shows that our [Vutek] customers are growing even faster than EFI,” he said. He cited a lot of the growth in UV ink volumes was down to strong OOH markets and the continued migration of screen to digital printing. Chief financial officer Vincent Pilette said that across the first half of the year, sales had grown 9% to $351.7m year-on-year and operating profit 21% to $45.8m. “We’re on track for a record revenue year,” he added....