Businesses face a great challenge in ensuring that their messages stand out given the tremendous amount of direct mail that arrives in consumers’ mailboxes every day. Personalization is one way to stand out from the rest of the competition. The Maine Office of Tourism recently tested the Xerox 1:1 Lab, a variable print testing ground. It demonstrated that a relevant personalized mailing generated a 24.1% improvement in the response rate over traditional generic or static piece.

The Maine Office of Tourism projected that the personalized mailing also generated 23.4% more revenue from state visitors than the control generic group. The Xerox 1:1 Lab analyzes a customer’s traditional static direct-marketing campaign and compares the results against one that uses personalized, one-to-one messaging based on demographic data.

This helps print providers and their clients develop customized, more relevant direct marketing programs produced with digital printing that draws attention and increases response rates. For the project, the Xerox 1:1 Lab devised a test to compare response rates and business results from two different mailings that were sent to visitors who went to the tourism web site. The Xerox 1:1 Lab started in 2004 and is based at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada, which is one of the company’s most advanced research centers in the world for digital printing.

Prograf Digital Service (PDS) is a leading provider of exceptional service experiences, printing equipment and supplies. They recently announced a new service offering for equipment manufacturers – the fractional Service Engineer. Digital printing suppliers now have immediate access to a national network of exceptional, highly skilled product specific field service representatives to serve their local market needs.

Companies can partner with PDS’ trained staff at a fraction of the expense while improving response and uptime for their customers, rather than incur the costs of hiring additional service personnel. This concept was developed in direct response to the growing digital printing market’s demand for same day response and expanded service level agreements requiring specific uptime commitments. Prograf Digital Service has a large network of Service Engineers located throughout North America.

Manufacturers can now customize and scale their service and support programs to meet their client’s needs. Service Engineers are trained and certified on the supplier’s products and report directly to the manufacturer who dispatches them for installations, break fix service and preventative maintenance calls. PDS’ fractional Service Engineers solutions are priced on a combination of current customer base equipment installations, expected number of service days, size of territory, and forecasted sales growth.

Xerox introduced two print drivers earlier this year that earned a “Technological Innovation Award” from Industry Analysts, Inc., a market research firm specializing in office automation. The Xerox Global Print Driver and Mobile Express Driver were praised for simplifying printing management for IT departments and making it easier for workers to print from multiple locations.

The drivers support competitive printing devices as well as nearly all Xerox printers and multifunction printers – this played a key role in the award selection. Very little time is needed to set these drivers up thanks to Xerox’s seamless process. With the Xerox Global Print Driver, IT administrators do no have to install specific drivers for every printer that they deploy, Therefore, installation and management are simplified and management costs are lowered.

The Global Print Driver supports both Xerox and non-Xerox networked products that use standard PostScript, PCL 5 and PCL 6. The Xerox Mobile Express lets mobile workers in a large campus or on the road print to any available printer or multifunction printer on a network – whether it’s a Xerox printer or not. To use it, users simply plug into a network, pull up the intuitive pop-up print screen that automatically identifies all available printers on the network, pick a printer, and click “print.”

Chimigraf is one of the first ceramic ink manufacturers to partner with Xaar and it will boost digital ceramic printing applications worldwide. Chimigraf is a leading manufacturer of digital inks for the ceramics industry and have recently become a Xaar-approved ink partner.

Xaar manufacturers industrial-strength inkjet printheads which are featured in many new digital ceramic tile printers coming to market. Their decision to partner with specialist ink manufacturers results in a wide range of inks being approved for use with Xaar-enabled digital printers to deliver superior and consistent results. Chimigraf specializes in the manufacture of water solvent and UV-based inks for Flexography, Retrogravure, Screen and digital printing. The company conducts an intensive research and development program focused on developing market leading inks and coatings for the graphic arts and industrial markets.

Digital printing in the ceramics industry is at an early stage but is forecast to grow rapidly. By working closely with ceramics ink specialists like Chimigraf, Xaar can ensure that end users have a choice of inks that will produce good results. There are an increasing number of digital ceramic tile printers coming to market.

Standard Register is a premier document services provider that manages critical documents companies’ need to thrive in today’s competitive climate. They offer secure prescriptions, technology solutions, professional services and print supply chain services. Standard Register signed a three-year agreement with the St. Louis-based Amerinet, a leading group purchasing organization.

Amerinet partners with health care providers to reduce costs and improve quality. With this agreement, Standard Register is one of only two suppliers addressing Amerinet members’ document management needs. This agreement extends through August 31, 2011 and offers Amerinet members savings on a wide range of document and print management products, services and technology that includes commercial printing, custom and standard forms, label products, patient identification bands, and on-demand digital printing services.

Amerinet members will have the option of employing Standard Register’s powerful SMARTworks technology platform to procure, distribute, manage and track document spending and usage. Through Standard Register’s broad portfolio of document management solutions and services, they can help Amerinet members exert greater control over document costs.