March saw two Canon customers open their doors for approximately 70 print service providers. These two events were part of the Inkjet Insider Summit series sponsored by Canon’s Production Print Solutions division. CSAA Insurance Group, located in Northern California, hosted the West coast attendees at their in-plant facility and Data-Mail, Inc., located in Connecticut, hosted the East coast group at their full-service direct mail lettershop production facility. Between the two events, print service providers were able to learn how these two very different organizations are utilizing the Océ ColorStream 3000 production inkjet press in their environments, have an on-site tour, see the digital presses in action, and ask questions about each organization’s transition to inkjet.

“Great perspective in a live environment,” commented one attendee. “Very informative and a good opportunity for networking,” added another.

Attendees at these events had an opportunity to learn more about Canon from Executive Vice President, Mal Baboyian as well as Industry Trends and Market Opportunities from Vice President of Marketing, Francis McMahon. Additionally, Eric Hawkinson, Director of Marketing, moderated a Customer Panel at each event that provided the attendees an opportunity to hear from these two ColorStream 3000 customers on how they made the transition to inket.

Some key takeaways from the panel discussions:

• Both customers were existing digital toner-based printer users. That said, Data-Mail stated they looked at every potential inkjet manufacturer in the industry prior to choosing the Océ ColorStream 3900 inkjet press. They tested each inkjet press using internal files and even asked its customers to help in the analysis. Both CSAA and Data-Mail mentioned their positive experiences with the uptime of prior Océ and Canon equipment and excellent service response time and support playing into their ultimate decisions.
• Both customers mentioned how Canon facilitated the transition from toner to inkjet through its ramp-up program. Each customer are taking advantage of the color training courses offered by the Professional Services organization of Canon.
• CSAA Insurance Group, based in California, has some stringent requirements regarding the environmental footprint of equipment. They were impressed with the Océ ColorStream 3000’s environmental efficiencies, including the ability to reduce paper waste by printing during ramp-up and ramp-down and the press’s low electrical requirements.
• Data-Mail is pleased with the printer’s versatility to print in either color or black-and-white so the machine is never idle. It utilizes the equipment in a roll-to-roll configuration, choosing to keep the equipment running and perform the various finishing operations separately.
• Data-Mail noted a big advantage in time savings. The variable data printing capability, quality, and speed of the Océ ColorStream® printer have decreased the need for offset pre-printed shells. This means the firm can wait longer to get the data for a job from its customers, giving its customers more time to plan offers for their marketing campaigns.
• Data-Mail sees the biggest constraint to inkjet really taking off as the availability and pricing of inkjet papers. However now that a number of American mills have gotten into the game, the firm predicts prices will lower and availability will improve. The engagement Canon has with over 30 paper manufacturers and its ability to test and develop more inkjet papers through the new Media Solutions Lab in Boca Raton, FL are definite pluses.
• Both customers spoke about increasing efficiency in their workflows with Océ PRISMAproduction® software.

The day after the East coast event, the editor of Printing Impressions magazine recorded a live interview with Data-Mail President, Bruce Mandell. This 15 minute interview discusses how the firm is using its Océ ColorStream printer for some new applications, why some previous monochrome work is now moving to color, and how Data-Mail is marrying its new full-color inkjet printing output with its existing fleet of web and sheeted offset equipment. You can view the full interview here.

We are planning additional events in our Inkjet Insider Summit series. At the next event, attendees will have the opportunity to view the newly launched Océ VarioPrint i300 and the Océ ImageStream 3500 running live in a customer environment. We look forward to continuing conversations with customers on how we can help them understand the opportunities available when making the transition to inkjet. We believe that bringing customers and our company executives together helps to develop strong partnerships, networking opportunities, and practical information sharing.

*Océ ColorStream and Océ PRISMAproduction are registered trademarks of Oce Technologies B.V.

Tonya Powers is the Graphic Arts Segment Marketing Manager for Canon, with a focus on marketing strategies across North America in the Commercial and Book print production markets. 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 the production print customer and print industry. Previous to Canon, Tonya spent several years at Hewlett Packard on the marketing team developing go-to-market strategies within the Graphics Solutions Business for their Wide Format and Digital Press & Inkjet divisions. Tonya has been in marketing roles identifying and implementing B2B marketing strategies since 1999.