54 ■ October 5, 2010 • GRAPH EXPO
Merrill Gains New Revenue Streams & Increased Operational Effi ciency
ADF solutions provider enables a new, high integrity health care communications outsourcing business with groundbreaking technology
M
errill Corporation, a glob- al provider of technology enabled solutions for the financial, healthcare, real
estate, legal and other corporate mar- kets, has chosen InfoPrint Solutions Company’s
(Booth 2017)Automated
Document Factory (ADF) solution, powered by InfoPrint ProcessDirector (IPPD) as its strategic workflow tech- nology platform. Merrill has deployed this multi-faceted, end-to-end, hardware agnostic solution to streamline its daily print operations. This will generate new business by ensuring the highest level of integrity for sensitive documents, such as healthcare enrollment kits. In recent years, regulators have passed bills in the financial and healthcare industries that affect customer commu- nications or impose violation penalties. In Merrill’s case, a HIPAA-compliant workflow is extremely important. InfoPrint Solutions is supplying Mer- rill with a wide array of ADF workflow solutions driven by the IPPD workflow software platform. These solutions will help Merrill manage its heavy print volume and create separate, high- integrity workflows for its healthcare business. This combination will enable increased levels of job and mailpiece management from inception to output as it tracks work through various print- ers and finishing equipment including stitchers, perfect binders and inserters, managing complete document integrity throughout the entire process. InfoPrint Solution’s ADF offering also interfaces with the U.S. Postal Service Intelligent Mail system, providing delivery con- firmation information directly back to Merrill’s clients. Merrill’s ADF from InfoPrint Solu- tions will be deployable to multiple sites for fast speed-to-market, workload optimization and disaster recovery. “We evaluated a number of offerings from other companies, but determined that what InfoPrint could provide us was incomparable,” says Jeff Weiss, Vice President of Technology at Mer- rill. “We now have an end-to-end solu- tion that enables us to provide our cus- tomers with reporting and visibility at every step, whether record level, piece level or page level. We believe this will be a game changing facet of our healthcare and financial services solu- tion offerings.”
According to Intelligent Mail and ADF Adoption Trends by Print Volume and Vertical Industry, February 2010, IDC Report 221835, 68% of respon- dents receive their ADF solutions from InfoPrint Solutions. It is likely many of these companies have deployed the company’s solutions to address the needs of HIPAA, Regulation Z and other federal regulations. “As a technology enabled print and
fulfillment solution provider, Merrill is leading the way for companies with diverse technology environments and hybrid workflow needs. On one hand, they need to optimize their existing business and, on the other hand, they are expanding their capabilities to tap into new markets that have very stringent requirements,” says Sandra Zoratti, Vice President, Global Solutions Marketing, InfoPrint Solutions. “We are excited that Merrill can leverage the power, flexibility and scalability of our soft- ware and professional services teams.” Automating print and mail processes has traditionally been a daunting task, but InfoPrint Solutions’ technologies make it easier to achieve increased automation and higher productivity. An ADF connects disparate hardware, software and processes into one unified workflow with a single point of control. This can greatly reduce production and postal costs. Integrity improvements help to ensure each mailpiece is pro- duced correctly with full accountabil- ity. Mailers in regulated sectors such as financial services, healthcare and insurance have been using ADFs for years as part of their cost savings and compliance initiatives. Merrill’s ADF Solution spans Info- Print Solution’s software portfolio including capabilities that manage print across various Océ and Xerox print- ers, enable automatic error detection and reprinting, monitor service level agreements, capture data and generate reports, interface with the USPS, enable management of multiple sites and more. The solution interfaces with Merrill’s business systems to capture work tasks and provide extensive reporting. It leverages camera tracking from Iron- sides Technology to monitor kit integ- rity across a variety of finishing devices. Ironsides’ systems communicate back to InfoPrint ProcessDirector, which oversees the entire production process.
Official Show Daily • Cygnus Graphics Media
Tapping into the Point of Purchase Market
Offering quick turnaround, high levels of service, and being green can help
By Doug Harbach
ers to gain some of this business, with some limitations, according to Bill Schober, editorial director for In- Store Marketing Institute of Skokie, IL, which offers tools that keep POP print suppliers on top of the market. “There
P are probably
300-500 serious POP pro- ducers out there who are pretty locked in with the big boys,” Schober
says.
”If you think you are going to crack the Procter and Gambles of the world right away, you won’t. But, there are a lot of smaller busi- nesses who have a need for signs and displays in which you can gain business.” A printer trying to break into the POP market should approach regional retail chains located near their operation. “Since this pur- chasing is accomplished centrally, run- ning to headquarters is easier if you are close to the home office,” Schober says. “It is a high maintenance business because marketing campaigns change up until the last minute.” Printers need to find out when poten- tial customers plan their POP market- ing, and where design is accomplished. “POP purchasers plan months and months ahead,” Schober says. “Right now they are already planning for Christmas 2011, not 2010…that plan- ning is already done.”
Go green Robert Mormile, Jr. is president of
VT Graphics, Inc., a Yeadon, PA firm specializing in the design and manu- facture of flexographic printing plates for the POP display and corrugated container industries. “Making sure that the product and the processes to produce are ‘green’ is important,” Mormile says. “More and more compa- nies demand that you produce a green- friendly display.” Since POP involves multiple mate- rial displays, this means that a buyer will want to know where you are get- ting all your materials from and if these are green. “They want sustainability to the materials, such as foam board, but finding green alternatives to that is a real challenge,” Schober says. Buyers may ask for a plant tour, inquire where
oint of Purchase (POP) print- ing, a valuable and popular source of retail advertising, offers opportunities for print-
you are putting your waste and want information about your other green- friendly initiatives. Another growing trend is produc- ing POP displays that meet just-in- time retail inventory requirements. “You have to be able to offer a quick turnaround because inventories change quickly,” Mormile says. “This is fre- quently coupled with variable printing needs, so printers strong into the digital market can find POP ideal for them.”
Point-of-Purchase materials from VT Graphics.
While the flexo printing process is still important and widely used, digital printing capabilities make the print supplier more attractive.
“The end user more and more is looking to one phone call to handle everything, with that partner being able to deliver on time and offer strong customer service,” Mormile says. VT Graphics even has a wood shop for creating displays, a real sell- ing point as the engineering of a retail display can play a critical role in the design process.
Blending technology into the POP display is driving a lot of marketing because retail continues to look at bet- ter ways to attract people, such as with kiosk interactive units.
New ideas
POP print suppliers can stay on top of trends by going into stores and tak- ing note of displays. Schober advises leaving the wallet at home, and paying strict attention to the POP displays, even the apparatuses used for hanging or mounting—the client expects that to be a reliable part of the work, too. Buyers are looking for the coolest, lightest weight display available. “A display has to get from a production plant to a distribution warehouse to the loading dock of scores of stores and finally get set up the display floor,” Schober says. “Your ideas have to be more and more sophisticated in order to accomplish this.”
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