Pitney Bowes is a global provider of integrated mail, messaging and document management solutions. They claim that over 2.8 billion euros worth of advertising space on bills and statements lies unused in the major European economies of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain. The advertising value of this wasted opportunity is equal to 24% of the combined annual direct mail spent across the five countries studied.

Specific statistics are not available for the local South African market and local companies are leaving this “free” advertising opportunity unexploited. The emerging trend in the production print and mail industry, in which enterprises add value to their customers’ monthly statements by incorporating highly targeted and relevant promotional messages directly on their transactional documents.

The company places a critical focus on the value of providing a single view of the customer at the front end of its transpromo architectural road map. Pitney Bowes software uses high-quality data analytics to derive a 360 degree view of a customer and uses that view to drive transpromo messaging. Transpromo messages are effective in promoting and cementing a better one-on-one relationship with customers.

In an exclusive media tour of its Epicenter at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney, Fuji Xerox showed off several upcoming releases, including the iGen4 Press, the 700 Digital Color Press, the DocuColor 5000AP Digital Press, and the DocuColor 1257GA Digital Press, as well as the updated 4127 Copier/Printer.

With the press set for an official release next month and installations set to commence in January, the iGen4 features more automation than its predecessor and approximately 400 changes to the engine. The three main changes include a full-width sensor which automatically detects and corrects density variations and streaks; a carrier hopper which eliminates the need to manually replace developer; and inline spectrophotometer which calibrates the engine for color accuracy automatically.

Fuji Xerox believes that the 700 Digital Color Press has the potential to become the company’s highest selling commercial product. The 700 has the ability to run coated stocks in addition to the custom profile capability that can be used to optimize the settings for certain stocks. There are also updates to its workflow software suite, FreeFlow, which now includes Express to Print, a very simple prepress program, geared towards entry-level digital print providers. It automates frequently repeated jobs and runtime job preparation tasks in order to increase productivity.

The arrival of six 25,000 gallon tanks at the Xerox plant in Webster, New York will herald an era of more energy efficient digital printing. It is in preparation for the production of Ultra Low-Melt EA Toner, a breakthrough product that cuts overall power consumption of digital printing devices by 15 to 30%.

The most power-intensive process in printers and multifunction devices is fusing the toner or sealing it on the page, accounting for 50 to 80% of the total power used. With the development of the Ultra Low-Melt EA Toner, scientists at Xerox Research Centre of Canada aimed to save energy by lowering the fusing temperature. The new toner melts as much as 45 degrees Fahrenheit lower temperature than the EA toner now being used in current Xerox products, without compromising image quality or any other performance.

Scientists at Xerox initially developed the EA process and the Ultra Low-Melt EA Toner is their next generation product. Pages printed with EA toner use 40 to 50% less material than those printed with older style toner. In collaboration with colleagues at Fuji Xerox, scientists and engineers at Xerox designed and tested many polymers before discovering polyesters that could be combined with other toner ingredients such as color pigments and wax particles to form the Ultra Low-Melt EA Toner.

The demand for commercial high-speed digital printing systems has increased with printers needing a lot of plastic, plus board and papers to print on. People can experience great market expansion in the printing industry with the digital commercial print sector, also known as Print on Demand. This involves the complete transmission of the digital data on a printer.

Some notable commercial printers in the United States include Sammons Commercial Printer who can design and print everything from business cards to letterheads. Their capability includes peripheral needs like typesetting and layout as well as professional design. They are located in Virginia. Full Color Commercial Printing Service offers digital printing services such as full color printing. They also create logos, custom graphic designs and brochures. They are located in Texas.

Seaway Printing Company offer their customers full color printing, direct mail, booklet binding, online printing, and scanning. They can be found in Green Bay. Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Reed and Witting Company have decades of printing industry experience. They offer floor stands, easel signs, toppers, entry boxes, and channel strips.

Glenmore Printing is a British Columbian commercial printer that is expanding into new markets and bringing in additional business while winning back earlier clients with the recent installation of the Kodak Nexpress M700 Digital Color Press. This company has been offering short run color on its small offset presses for 27 years.

They recently decided that this type of job no longer suits its presses. Glenmore Printing found that the M700 is opening doors for new digital and litho work, allowing them to meet the needs of its customers on new levels. The Nexpress M700 allows them to maintain their growth and remain competitive in the marketplace. They have found that the press works well for their variable data jobs and see high quality from one color to four color jobs.

The Kodak Nexpress M700 Digital Color Press appeals to print providers wanting to profitably enter the digital printing business with short run color, web to print and variable data capabilities. The four color press runs at 70 pages per minute for the full range of supported substrate types and weights. It produces output with excellent quality text and graphics, high density, a wide color gamut, and high resolution.