The selection committee for the PRINT 09 “Must See ‘Ems” program has placed information technology at the top of the list of printers' “critical core technologies,” along with the effective use of management information systems (MIS) and Web-to-print software.

According to the committee, today's print production operation is a computer-centric manufacturing process, built around interfacing with the print buyer, that handles content material, controls manufacturing and distribution operations, and also provides information used as the basis for managing a print business. “Whether a printer-created approach, or via CIP4's Job Definition Format (JDF), computers and MIS are the key components of integrated automation,” the committee stated.

After IT competency, Web-to-Print and MIS, the committee cited digital printing as the next key technology for commercial printers to embrace: “Printers whose mainstay output is sheetfed or web offset are finding that the lack of digital printing capability, even if only for addressing and brief messaging, puts them at a competitive disadvantage.” The committee forecast that in three to five years digital printing will have infiltrated the majority of printing operations and, as one member commented, “You won't want to be without it.” Several committee members commented that the key to moneymaking with digital print is mastering variable data printing and mining the markets where personalization and one-to-one marketing pays off.

The committee also cited workflow, color management and the ability to provide cross-media or multimedia products as critical survival technologies. See http://print09.gasc.org.