Inkjet & Digital Printing

The future of printing companies

Monday 17. February 2020 - Digitisation is creating new opportunities for the printing industry. At its in-house exhibition Print Experience 2020, Konica Minolta presented a combination of print products with digital augmented reality applications, solutions for value-added cross-media campaigns, and efficient workflow software. One highlight was the market launch of the AccurioPress C14000, which was officially presented in Germany for the first time. Konica Minolta is thus providing an initial preview of its presence at drupa 2020, where many more highlights will be presented. With these and other solutions, the printing industry is preparing for the future.

Several hundreds of guests from the printing industry and partners accepted Konica Minolta’s invitation to the nationwide Print Experience at the company’s headquarters in Langenhagen and Stuttgart. Under the motto “Frame your Future,” visitors experienced a journey into the future of the printing industry, where print products can already be optimized and linked with digital technologies to create real business value for printers and their customers.
Frame your Future
“Shaping the future” – for Konica Minolta, this means showing print service providers ways to address the needs of their customers and transform them into highly profitable business models through digital printing solutions. The event provided many impulses for this with presentations of new technologies, hands-on workshops, keynote speeches, and networking opportunities. The focus was on the top topics of process automation, profitable cross-media campaigns and the future of print quality.
Digitization as an opportunity
The event kicked off with visionary keynotes from marketing and industry specialists. Sven Müller, Vice President Ideas of Lagardère Plus, the brand management consultancy, highlighted the role that print plays in addressing younger target groups. Generation Z in particular is more radical but also more down-to-earth than is often assumed, the marketing specialist said and demanded: “We need a change in perspective. It’s not Generation Z that is the challenger but us.
Olaf Lorenz, General Manager International Marketing Division at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe, gave his keynote address, giving a first exclusive preview of the innovations Konica Minolta will be presenting at drupa 2020. Afterwards, Michael Molbaek, Senior Manager Production Printing at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe, introduced the star of the show to the audience in a ceremonial unveiling: The new AccurioPress C14000, which was launched at Print Experience 2020 along with its smaller twin AccurioPress C12000.
A flagship is well received
The two toner-based sheet-fed printing systems are Konica Minolta’s new flagships in the field of digital print production. With its speed of 140 A4 pages per minute, the AccurioPress C14000 is particularly suitable for service providers in the high-volume segment. Thanks to automation technologies, the system helps printers to establish an industry 4.0-compliant print production. Visitors to the Print Experience were extremely enthusiastic about the new systems, and numerous pre-orders have already been placed for the AccurioPress C14000 and the 120 A4 pages per minute AccurioPress C12000, which is also available immediately.
Experience solutions for yourself
In addition to specialist dealers and partners, experts from commercial and in-house printers also took part in the Print Experience for the first time this year. At product stands and in workshops, they experienced first-hand how they are evolving from print service providers to marketing service providers with the help of process automation and the latest solutions. Konica Minolta also demonstrated how digital technologies are already optimizing pressroom operations and extending value chains.
A special focus was placed on a series of workshops that showed participants practical ways to actively shape their own futures, whether through exciting digital services, new applications, differentiation, or enhanced color quality.
Digital services as revenue drivers
In one of these AccurioLabs workshops, participants learned how to add interactive content to print products using the genARate augmented reality application. Videos, animations or 3D models that are embedded in print products and can be accessed via smartphone or tablet extend offline advertising online. At the same time, the solution enables print campaigns to be made measurable. genARate opens up customers from marketing and advertising, thus providing a lucrative way of reaching consumers individually.
Participants also learned how to create profitable cross-media campaigns with the Markomi multi-channel marketing platform. The cloud-based solution opens up the new world of marketing to print service providers and deepens their relationship with their customers by leading and managing their advertising and marketing campaigns.
Staying ahead of the competition
Other AccurioLabs workshops focused on topics such as differentiation, new applications and FOGRA53.
Print in itself is no longer “special” enough. New applications and offerings must help printers differentiate themselves from the competition by creating specific added value for their customers. Rüdiger Maaß from f:mp explained ideas for this using plastic examples from media production.
A central challenge for every printing company is to avoid the price discussion surrounding printing. In the workshop, the participants learned tools and methods to become more flexible when preparing offers and in negotiations with customers. After all, prompt price inquiries often fail because the ability to quickly calculate the actual costs is a major obstacle.
Thorsten Kinnen, Account Manager Industrial Printing at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe, also presented the FOGRA53 wide gamut profile as the new standard for color quality and explained its added value for print professionals. It opens up a wide range of international print jobs, especially for companies operating across national borders. Konica Minolta was the first printing system manufacturer worldwide to receive FOGRA53 profile certification for its AccurioJet KM-1 digital UV inkjet B2+ sheet-fed printing system.
Platform for users
In addition, visitors to the in-house exhibition experienced how the Prokom user community supports them in discovering new business opportunities. Prokom’s goal is to create an environment for business transformation and build a community of profitable print service providers through education, networking and exchange of experience. As a user platform, Prokom also offers the opportunity for exchange and knowledge transfer beyond the Print Experience.
For those who were unable to attend, as well as all other customers and interested parties, Konica Minolta invites you to drupa 2020 (Hall 8b). Here, under the motto “Rethink Your Possibilities”, the company will provide a comprehensive insight into the future of the printing industry and present a wide range of new highlights.