Spring Break came early for a select group of market analysts and industry publication reporters who gathered in Delray Beach, Florida two weeks ago to participate in Canon’s second annual Anniversary Event. The event offered an exclusive opportunity to learn about the growth and future of the various divisions of the company plus provided time for one-on-one in-depth discussions.

Of particular interest for Production Printing Solutions customers were three significant announcements.

• The Designer’s Guide to Inkjet – Production inkjet has many speed, productivity, and flexibility advantages, but it is different than both offset and digital color toner devices. Rather than learning how to optimize work for production inkjet printers by trial and error, this “how to” guide provides the tips, tricks, and techniques you need to get the best results every time. Authored by inkjet industry experts Elizabeth Gooding and Mary Schilling, this educational resource will help print providers get “clean files” from their customers plus help designers “design with inkjet in mind” to achieve consistent quality results and unlock the potential of production inkjet platforms. It covers topics such as inkjet media and inks, design software settings, file preparation, and questions designers should ask their print providers. Current Production Print Solutions Customers can order copies of the Guide at mypressgo.com.
• Media and Solutions Lab – Choosing the correct paper type may be the most important factor influencing the color, print quality and profitability of your inkjet device. Canon is actively engaged with over 30 paper manufacturers worldwide to help drive the development of inkjet media. We have benefited from our media labs in Europe and Japan, but this year we have launched our new Media and Solutions Lab in Boca Raton, Florida. This US-based lab will expand our capabilities to analyze the physical and chemical properties of roll and cut-sheet inkjet media and expand our image quality analytics. The result will be an even more responsive relationship with paper mills to develop new inkjet application-focused papers designed to work with Canon inks. If there is a specific paper you would like to have for your Océ inkjet press, let us know. Perhaps there is a good match from one of the over 900 inkjet papers available to our US customers. If not, we’ll add it to our paper development project list.
• thINK Inkjet Networking and Knowledge User Group – As you may know, Canon has sponsored several customer advisory groups over the past few years. Recently participants asked for a larger forum where our production print customers could network, gain knowledge, stay abreast of technological advances and discuss common challenges. The result is the thINK User Group – an independent user-run organization with the mission to provide opportunities for Production Printing Solutions customers to learn and share together to make everyone more successful. The first thINK Conference will be held in New York City September 8 – 10, so mark your calendars now. The educational sessions will have three tracks for technical, business leadership, and sales and marketing. Industry experts and customer panels will provide insights on topics from market trends to practical application of technology. It should be a great opportunity to learn from market experts and your peers about new ways to grow your business.

The Production Printing Solutions division of Canon is strong, growing and profitable. We exceeded our revenue target for 2014 and expect to continue that trend in 2015 with new innovations like:

• the revolutionary Océ VarioPrint® i300 featuring Niagara inkjet technology providing white-paper-in, full-color-out production cut-sheet inkjet workflow. The first Océ VarioPrint i300 system has already been installed at T Systems, part of the Deutsche Telekom group, in Germany, with four installations planned in the US in the second quarter.
• the Océ ImageStream® 3500, the first full-color, continuous feed Océ inkjet solution to print on standard offset paper without the need for primers or bonding agents

As you can tell, inkjet is the core of our growth plans. We are building on our very strong base in direct mail and transactional applications and looking to aggressively grow in graphic arts markets. Stay tuned for more details in coming blog posts.

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.