Whenever I get the chance to talk to business owners about the products they manufacture, I come away with information about the diversity of items that are currently being produced by their company. The list of digitally produced items is longer than this article.

 　　Back when wide format inkjet printers were in their infancy, and digital printing concerns were figuring how to sell this new digitally imaged product, there was an adaptive approach to this new digital business model that is still ongoing. The distinction between static business models: Photo Lab, Screen Printer, Digital Printer, Document Printer, Service Bureau, and Offset Printer has been broken. So what does that leave us with? The new state of affairs leverages the best of customized, short-run digital products (based on your output device mix) and the ability to produce longer runs economically, using more traditional analog processes, such as screen printing, and other offset print technology.

 　　What do these newer businesses look like and how did they get that way? The answer is as easy as “follow the money”. Folks whose livelihood was extremely long run (high quantity), screen, litho, flexo, were taking a monetary hit, seeing run lengths shrink, with demand for customization growing. Then their customers were taking extremely short or customized runs of POP or ad collateral material to other businesses for execution. Jobs were sub-contracted out to digital producers because of a perceived “too steep” learning curve or fear of investing in new technologies.

 　　Early adopters of digital tended to be people who understood both color and technology. You saw photo labs and “service bureaus” adding large format inkjet printing to their array of services. Others went into the print-on-demand market with high-speed color and black & white toner based copiers. Stand-alone digital print businesses developed, producing more and more of the short runs that customers were now demanding. This shifting of the revenue stream was a critical moment for long run producers in their thoughts about digital, and the options to invest in new technologies, acquire short run producers, sell, or fold. The savvy businesses adapted quickly.

 　　I have observed screen printers buying all sorts of digital output devices for short run projects and digital companies buying screen-printers, because they needed long run capability. Litho printers buying digital flatbed printers and other devices to re-capture revenue lost from the decline in run length and the desire for customization by the client. With the increase in digital quality and the associated fall in digital printer price, we now have firms that can “do it all” in house, capturing as much of the income as possible, sub-contracting out as little as possible.

 　　Consider this business: Wide, grand, and flatbed format inkjet printers. Add a high-speed color copier (DocuTech, Indigo, Igen3, Xeikon) or two, throw in a digital press that can do longer runs of up to 10,000 pieces and a digital photo lab with full finishing center, perhaps a screen-printing facility as well. This is not a fantasy business, but a fantastic enterprise model. There are numerous companies dotting the landscape with this mix of equipment. You could call these the new digitally adaptive companies, creative printing houses, or even visual communications ventures. I can’t wait to see what happens in a few more years.

 　　“The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good, and grabs the new just as soon as it is better.”