When it came time to make a decision on the digital printing path it needed to take — toner or inkjet — the executives at direct mail and transactional specialist Impact of Minneapolis followed a simple business axiom: If you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will.

The Twin Cities stalwart had been experiencing growing pains for the past 10 years, acquiring five competitors within that time frame. It carved out a niche as a marketing/mailing provider with pick- and-pack capabilities and transactional documents for a rich cast of verticals, including franchises, nonprofits and financial services. During its 33-year history, Impact developed a well-diversified set of service offerings; however offset lithography was not among them. 

The acquisitions brought in a wide assortment of gear to the 190-employee operation, which has a sister- facility in nearby Winsted. Impact mostly relied on a fleet of “green button” cutsheet toner boxes, along with a host of continuous-feed solutions.

“We really weren’t a printer going into this,” admits Pete Studer, COO at Impact. The “this” Studer speaks of was a major transformation in the way that Impact does business, a transformation that came in the form of two press acquisitions: an Océ VarioPrint i300 sheet-fed inkjet press and an Océ ColorStream 3900 Z L Twin full-color, continuous-feed inkjet press. Helping to tie the workflows together is the Océ PRISMAproduction workflow and output management software. 

If Impact didn’t consider itself a printer before, that distinction has gone by the wayside. CEO Tim Johnson notes that the company had been monitoring the world of production inkjet closely for he past five to six years. Roughly 18 months ago, the firm decided it would “take the plunge” and make an investment in the technology. Frankly, while the final decision was easy, it was also necessary. 

“The technology was moving fast enough and getting to the point where we could shift quite a few of our existing clients over to inkjet,” Johnson reveals. “We wanted to be the first ones to bring this technology to our customers.” 

After auditioning all of the major competitive offerings in the inkjet space, the executive team at Impact had a bit of a conundrum. Did it make sense for the company to go with a cutsheet device or a continuous-feed press? After all, its direct marketing mail tended to consist of longer runs, while the transactional statement jobs were short-run. 

“We felt that the quality that we saw on Canon’s platform was going to be able to serve direct mail as well as transactional mail,” John- son relates. “The fact that Canon offered a roll-to-roll and a cutsheet solution was attractive in that we could drive both of those presses from the PRISMA software.” 

While the presses have been in action only since last December, the results have been highly encouraging. The ColorStream 3900 Z has been the go-to device for the longer runs, ably constructed to handle the “white paper in, full-color variable paper out” needs for Impact. The ColorStream 3900 Z has increased hourly productivity and can do it at a lower cost per page. One of the other benefits provided by the ColorStream 3900 Z is the use of dynamic perfing in-line (postpress dynamic perfing is done with the VarioPrint i300). 

One of the biggest benefits the company has reaped from the inkjet press installations was the opportunity to decommission five digital toner printers. Several more are slated to be taken out of service.

Jon Downing, chief technology officer, is especially impressed with the ColorStream 3900 Z and how it enables Impact to provide more added value. With the full-color inkjet capability, clients no longer need to provide offset-printed shells for black monochrome laser overprinting. 

“Now, we’re capturing that revenue opportunity with respect to the color on the page,” he says. 

The first six months were difficult for Impact, Downing admits. Because his company wasn’t a typical commercial printer, the new inkjet presses did require some fundamental changes, particularly in regard to color management and overall workflow. Impact did not formerly have a color prepress or pre-media department; but that has all changed. And while Impact hasn’t reached the mountaintop, per se, the training and support provided by Canon and the addition of staff experienced in color management have moved the company along the learning curve quickly. 

“Some of the biggest challenges involve explaining the benefits of inkjet output to our customers, some who have become used to using preprinted shells for the last 20-plus years,” Studer adds. “We were talking to them even before the presses were installed to start building an understanding of a ‘white paper in, full-color document out’ process. There have been some challenges and hiccups. 

“Color management is a big issue. Some customers don’t have a really good target; they just want it to look the same as the last time it was printed.” 

As Impact becomes more proficient with the inkjet presses, one of the greater challenges will involve lead generation and adjusting the way the company currently sells to its customers. 

Johnson notes that as many as five more toner boxes could be put out to pasture and once the conversion is complete, Impact will have no more than a couple such units in its operation. 

Currently, Impact is pushing 3.4 million feet through the ColorStream 3900 Z per month and another 600,000 through the VarioPrint i300. Those figures are certain to climb significantly in the near future. 

“We are converting our big volumes as we go through the customer lists,” Johnson says. “As the preprinted shell supplies run out, we convert them. Our aspirations are a lot higher.” 

Sheri Jammallo is the Corporate Enterprise Marketing Manager at Canon; with a keen focus on the Transactional, Direct Mail and Corporate In-Plant print production space.  She brings with her a wealth of industry knowledge that enables her to lead field relevant go-to-market production print strategies and programs for Canon that bring value-add to their production print customers and overall print industry. Previous to Canon, Sheri spent 14 years in several Sales Leadership roles at Xerox.