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There is no MSG in Digital Printing
March 9, 2008

The On Demand Show was in Boston last week. I have been to every one of them, save for the last two, so it was interesting to see how far the technology and views of the technology have come. Personally, I think Digital and VDP have been the biggest scam in printing since the invention of Monopoly money. By “scam” I mean Emperor’s New Clothes kind of thing. Let me explain….

Digital and VDP go back to the late 80s. I can’t tell you the exact date and it doesn’t matter any more than knowing who really invented baseball matters. It simply happened, so deal with it. In October of 1990 Xerox came out with the Docutech and like so many Xerox inventions in the past (the personal computer, the copier, the mouse), they created it for the wrong market and if they hadn’t figured it out quickly would have lost it very much like the others.

Soon after it came along, the “next big thing” buzz started and everyone jumped on board. It was touted as can’t miss and the headlines screamed, “Buy digital!!!” Everyone was on board and (here’s the Emperor’s New Clothes part) “if you don’t see the opportunity, you are stupid!” So, printers rushed in and printers failed. Gosh, you mean there isn’t an untapped market for digital? Go figure. Seems you just can’t trust those pie charts like you used to be able to.

On Tuesday I attended three programs at the On Demand Show. One was on vertical markets. It was less than half full. The next was on transitioning to become a digital solutions provider. It, too, was less than half full. The last was on digital sales skills. It was better attended than the others, but still there was plenty of space available. Imagine that. I think back to Frank Romano’s presentation last October at Graph Expo. The subject was “Hot Markets for Digital/VDP.” I rushed to the room, expecting it to be overflowing. It was less than half full. Amazing! Where are the crowds? Yet I’d bet if the seminar was called, “Hot Digital Iron” it would have been packed.

I find it interesting that printers spend money on the iron but give virtually no thought to how they will make money with it. I remember receiving a phone call a few years back from an Ohio printer who excitedly told me about the digital printer he had just bought. I asked him, “What do your customer think?” and he replied, “About what? I haven’t talked to one yet.” When I launched into a monologue about buying new technology when your customers lead you there, he hung up on me.

Digital printing profits remain an illusive goal to many. The fools who rushed in are now selling tacos at a roadside stand somewhere. The “fools” who stood on the sidelines—“WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? ARE YOU STUPID OR SOMETHING?”—are now cautiously investigating digital printing and the possibility of entering the fray.

Me, I simply don’t understand why the focus remains on the equipment. In a perfect world, PODi would be the most popular association on the print planet. In a perfect world, the truth would be that you go into digital printing when your customer leads you there. You’d do months of work prior to installing the equipment. In a perfect world, digital equipment vendors would not allow you to purchase the equipment unless and until you met strict guidelines.

Then again, if the world were perfect, printers would spend money on guys like me to train their sales people to sell TO the iron they so anxiously buy.

Posted by Bill Farquharson on March 9, 2008 | Comments (1)