The actual cost and application of establishing co

The actual cost and application of establishing a color digital printing service mode

many digital printing machine suppliers are trying their best to promote their increasingly mature digital printing products, and many printing houses and prepress service companies are also considering investment in this regard to enhance the competitive strength of enterprises. However, the cost of digital printing varies greatly, so investors want to learn from others' practices before investing. Although digital printing has many advantages at present, and digital printing machine has become the focus of the market for several times, the application of digital printing machine in China is not ideal at present

at the end of 2003, Heidelberg's strategic restructuring abandoned the digital printing machine market cooperating with Kodak, and Roland gave up the digital printing machine cooperating with Xeikon in early 2004. The fact that the digital printing market is not easy to do does not mean that the digital printing business cannot be done. In fact, color digital printing has economic benefits. However, to succeed in this field, it is not feasible to only require faster and cheaper color printing. Nowadays, the rapidly increasing number of color digital printing suppliers begin to provide more and more value-added services. The advantages of these services include: easier connection between printing workshops and networks, simple software tool modules for novice users, content management, and integration of customer relationship management through the support of variable data technology

actual business model

according to the target market and service scope of printers, the investment in infrastructure is often larger than the previous investment in color digital printing equipment. Printers should consider not only the cost of equipment and consumables, but also the cost of participating in market competition when engaging in the field of digital printing. From January to July 2003, a survey was conducted on 40 color digital printing technology users in a printing industry center, asking them to evaluate the investment needed to develop this business model. This group of respondents are owners and managers from enterprises of different sizes and engaged in this business for different periods of time

the contents of this investigation include:

1 Satisfaction with the investment in color digital printing business

2. The scope of printing services provided to customers

3. Value added services to distinguish printing schemes

4. The staff level and skills necessary to optimize this investment

5. Printer performance, rip, software and unique solutions

the survey shows four clear market models and investment standards:

1 Fast printers and internal printing plants

2. Commercial printing and supply chain management

3. Customized network on-demand service

4. Completely customized communication

the investment standard is directly related to the target market and service scope of printers, and most respondents are very satisfied with their digital printing business, so they choose this market

fast printers

through retail stores, fast printers with color digital printing equipment focus on the delivery of cheaper, faster and more color documents. Their services include business cards, stationery, plans, manuals and guides printed on demand, etc. Under the local franchise, only limited infrastructure investment is required. In this retail market, most fast printers have digital copiers with a working speed of 12 ~ 60 pages/minute, as well as related rip technology. These fast printing centers provide customers with a series of complete feature technologies, so as to be more accessible to consumers

generally, franchised dealers do not need any technical support from it personnel. According to the interview with Sir speed and Kinko's (now belonging to FedEx), most local printers' investment in infrastructure accounts for only 10% of the investment in color digital printing equipment. The headquarters of the company will invest in the technical infrastructure to provide necessary steps for local branches. Local managers often cannot afford to build more service centers and available digital market models

production center

most fast printers do not produce all the products they sell. In fact, from automatic temperature recorder to fence folding machine are agent products. It is understood that signal graphics, a subsidiary of sampa, has made a decision to reduce the investment in its retail stores and instead build a production center to integrate manufacturing capacity. Signal graphics emphasizes the purchasing power and retention of customers, rather than the ability to produce all products for all users. Most of the business centers of the company have black-and-white digital copiers, color digital copiers, computers and binding equipment. The company's extremely expensive offset printing equipment is installed in the Denver Center. It is understood that the company plans to increase packaging, transportation and other types of services, so as to create a profitable operation center

project sponsor: before AVIC composites Co., Ltd., sir speed of the United States had more than 1100 stores worldwide and had plans to develop more than 200 stores in China. At the same time, the company also attracts customers through the station, which mainly provides customers with proofing, reporting, payment and other services, with an average of more than 1.5 million visits per month. The company also released a new e-commerce solution mydocs. Mydocs can quickly store the documents arranged by customers in a safe directory table to facilitate rapid classification. Just enter the user name and password, and users can get business cards, notes, product manuals, manuals, guides and other electronic documents within 24 hours. It is understood that in 2002 alone, mydocs had more than 7000 new users

enterprise internal printing factory

enterprise internal printing emphasizes quality, speed, price and convenience, and increases with the increase of short edition color activity. The initial technology investment, such as color digital copiers, was mainly provided by Canon and Fuji Xerox. The core software services include the transmission, classification, evaluation and storage management of electronic documents, as well as proofing, design, typography, chromatic printing and pre proofing

according to a survey by an authoritative magazine, of the 273 enterprises surveyed, only 12.5% can provide network services, and only 10.5% can provide variable data printing

typical internal printing plants believe that variable data printing is difficult to implement, and the market demand is much less than originally expected. The initial emphasis on supporting color digital copiers and rip technology for file transmission to end users is tantamount to limiting investment in infrastructure

digital storefront

due to the need to provide services to different end users, a typical internal printing enterprise needs to invest another $0.3 in infrastructure for every $1 invested in color digital equipment, but now this situation, which has been committed to the research on the personal safety of experimental operators when power lithium batteries explode in the process of experiments, has begun to change. Recently, Duke University and Perimeter College in Georgia have purchased an HP indigo 1000 digital printing equipment respectively, and Louisiana State University and the world bank in Washington have also added nExpress 2100 units. The goal of investing in these equipment is to no longer use offset printing, but to classify them as complete kits when needed. The internal printing plant of the enterprise plans to establish an electronic toolkit and then conduct digital printing, so as to reduce external procurement and labor costs. So they began to establish a "digital storefront", where customers can request to buy the required electronic documents, so as to print personalized within the time sequence

commercial printers and supply chain connections

traditional commercial printers often focused their investment in color digital printing on short-term, fast on-demand business, and used color digital printing technology to achieve the final lithography quality. However, for the simple reproduction of the same image, only when the number of prints exceeds 500 A3 pages can there be profits

online pasting and double-sided printing enable printers to comprehensively proofread and print complete booklets and loose leaf covers, which is ready for paper receiving, trimming and final processing. In order to meet the demand of repeated on-demand printing, many companies in this field have access to relevant sales materials and document databases, with the purpose of making sales materials an integral part of the customer supply chain

for example, Great Lakes cos Lavigne press and other companies mainly focused on commercial printing at the beginning of their establishment, but soon after they also introduced color digital printing technology, combining color short edition printing and supply chain management functions to promote materials. Lavigne press provides a new overall solution to observe the printing and ancillary industries. Users can conduct printing version management, proofing, shipping, progress tracking and other work through the network at any time and at any place. The data required by users can be printed by traditional lithographic printing machine or HP indigo digital printing machine. Great Lakes Cos. Aksess system of the company supports the management, sorting, completion and distribution of traditional lithographic documents. In January, 2003, the company purchased the nExpress 2100 digital printer, and in less than six months, the company brought profits in the case of one and a half shifts a day. Great Lakes Cos. Dean haniko, director of the company's technology department, said, "we have developed software for customers to simplify the process; according to the traditional service scope provided by the company, our interaction with customers is very frequent. In addition to color digital printing, we can also provide many services to enhance the advantages of digital printing technology."

proposals with priority

for printing supply chain management, proposals with priority include satisfactory monetary relations, inventory management and a gradually reduced backlog of goods. For printing service providers, the integration of customer supply chain means the real improvement of customer loyalty, because it determines the investment made by customers and printers. At present, Lavigne press is cooperating with printable technologies to simplify the customer interface software, and great lakes is also developing aksess system by itself. For every $1 spent on printing equipment, the two printers will spend another $1 on infrastructure construction such as software and staff reserves

online on-demand service

in fact, the ideal online on-demand service should allow customers to make their own printed matter sold by their company on the page. These systems provide a convenient and fast browser interface, so that the sales, trading and customer service departments can formulate the ancillary industries of specific groups, and then according to the customer sample size to the diameter φ The 0.006mm gold wire household carries out personalized printing on the data in the database. For national companies, their branches also need to take into account the characteristics and differences of local domestic demand markets

lexinet and other fast-growing digital printers believe that this market model is very successful. Dan Adler and Lisa Boyer joined the field of digital printing in 1991 and established their own company based on their direct selling background and understanding of technology. Through on-demand direct mail, they provide agency and personal services for users everywhere