During the On Demand Conference in Tokyo last year, Kasper Roos, Director of Production Workflow Software Services at InfoTrends, presented a slide that showed a dramatic increase in interest for color management software. This slide was based on InfoTrends’ study entitled U.S. Production Software Investment Outlook 2014, which surveyed 150 commercial printing companies and 50 in-plant printers.

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SOFTWARE PRODUCTS CONSIDERED FOR PURCHASE (2012-2014)

When the responses from the commercial printers in this survey were compared to those of in-plant printers, some interesting trends emerged.

COLOUR MANAGEMENT IS A TOP PURCHASING INTENTION

When survey participants were questioned about their purchasing intentions, 38% of commercial printers and 22% of corporate (in-plant) printers cited colour management. This was the top choice for commercial printers, and it tied for first place (along with digital production workflow) among corporate respondents. Colour management’s popularity is somewhat unusual—according to InfoTrends’ survey data, the top investment is typically a completely new software tool or a software tool that helps companies offer new services (e.g., cross-media marketing). Colour management is not a new software tool, nor does it help in offering a new service. This begs the question—why is colour management considered the number one investment?

BUYING INTENTIONS

One way to understand more about purchasing intentions is to question our consulting clients. According to our clients, the ability to match colours across a variety of devices is becoming more important to customers. This isn’t really a new idea — many of today’s companies try to match colours from their offset presses to their digital presses. It is, however, becoming more important as companies adopt inkjet presses and buy large format devices. Customers want all colours to match across their toner, offset, and inkjet devices. Many companies are also buying large format signage devices, and they want colours to match across those as well.

For commercial printers, digital production workflow software is another term for PDF prepress software solutions. For some in-plants, though, it also refers to the datastream transformation software required by companies that are involved with mainframe or transactional printing. This may be contributing to the high score that in-plant printers assigned to Digital Production Workflow Management Software. According to InfoTrends’ consulting work, a number of transactional printers want to migrate from their toner-based cut-sheet devices to more modern toner and inkjet devices.

THE BENEFITS OF COLOUR MANAGEMENT

Due to the sudden interest in colour management, InfoTrends recently published a report entitled Emerging Trends in Colour Management. The report summarizes the results from a survey that was conducted as part of InfoTrends’ ongoing relationship with the North American Publishing Company (NAPCO) to monitor emerging market trends. Readers were asked about their management practices, and the results focused on commercial printers’ colour management initiatives, investments in software and services, and use of technology.

Over three-quarters (78%) of the printers that were surveyed reported managing colour. These respondents agreed that colour management greatly contributed to operational efficiencies that positively affected the bottom line. The majority of commercial and corporate printers cited a reduction in the amount of rejected customer work, as well as a reduction in the need to reprint work due to colour issues. In addition, many respondents also reported reduced ink consumption, greater flexibility to shift work from one printing device to another, and the ability to successfully sell printing to more demanding customers.

BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTING A COLOUR MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

InfoTrends believes that there are 6 important facts driving the sudden interest in colour management:

The ability to match colour across all devices has become a strategy for differentiation.
Companies are using colour management to reduce or eliminate complaints about colour consistency.
Print service providers expect colour-critical work to account for nearly half of their work by 2017.
Software investments are no longer excessive; companies are spending an average of $4,000 for colour management software.
About one-third of companies lack the technical skills and infrastructure requirements to support colour management. Furthermore, 58% of companies report that they are not utilizing professional colour management services.
GRACoL and its derivative G7 are the most prevalent specifications implemented.

THE BOTTOM LINE

It’s very natural to see peaks and valleys when exploring respondents purchasing intentions for various software categories. These trends can be cyclical in nature because opportunities can suddenly appear and then be quickly fulfilled. At the same time, however, the increased demand that we are seeing for color management software is somewhat unusual. InfoTrends believes that this interest is being driven by a number of industry factors, and its research confirms that more and more companies are recognizing the benefits that color management can bring.

ABOUT HOWIE FENTON

Howard “Howie” Fenton is an Associate Director of Operations Consulting. Mr. Fenton is responsible for working with governments, universities, and corporate enterprises to assess and benchmark their customer and graphic communications processes and provide recommendations on staffing, technology, and sourcing. He also works with commercial printers on strategy, workflow optimization, and business development initiatives. Mr. Fenton has been a thought leader and trusted advisor to in-plant service providers, commercial printers, and manufacturers for over 25 years. Prior to joining InfoTrends, Mr. Fenton worked for 12 years at the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) and served for six years as the senior consultant of digital technology for the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF). He also managed a quick printing company, the prepress department of a commercial printer, and has authored five books. He has also written numerous articles and blogs and has taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology School of Printing.

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