Transformations Series: Content Critical Solutions Getting to Inkjet
Fred Van Alstyne, chief operating officer and John Slaney, chief technology officer at Content Critical spent time with me reflecting on the industry, their journey and how inkjet transformed their business. They provided such great information that we decided to provide a two-part post. The first reviewing how Content Critical came to install inkjet and the second how they are driving success with inkjet.
Content Critical creates and distributes millions of statements, confirmations, invoices, checks and other important documents on behalf of Fortune 500 companies in the financial, utility, government, insurance, and retail market segments. They deliver personalized, high-impact communications that enhances their customers’ business performance and improves their revenue stream.
Fred was a key architect of the company at its inception in 2010. As COO, he is responsible for strategic development and shaping the company’s culture, vision and values.
As CTO, John oversees all aspects of the technology infrastructure and programming development. John’s focus is on developing and implementing automated processing platforms.
Kimberly Meyers: Tell us about Content Critical’s digital business before inkjet.
John Slaney: At our inception we had toner-based laser printing and we were running Canon and Xerox cut sheet printers. We also had continuous feed printing with inline finishing, but it was black only. We then shifted to toner-based color. We built programs around digital color but back then there was a big spread [in cost] from color impressions to black and white impressions. Our early black and white prices were what the first iGen color prices were. So, you can see how that pricing drove downward.
Those days, we also used a lot of pre-printed shells and letter heads since our customers wanted to maintain their [Pantone Match System] PMS colors, their corporate identity on the documents we were printing.
KM: What sparked the need for inkjet?
JS: In 2008, the financial market changed customer expectations and their demand for the quality of logos and branded colors. They were less concerned about matching the PMS color 100%. There was a shift in the buying paradigm to – “was it cost effective” and “did it get the message across?”
As business progressed, we found the Canon ColorStream fit our business model, which moved us into the inkjet direction. It could handle smaller runs, it didn’t have the constraints of previous inkjet systems. Leapfrog into 2014, we bought our first inkjet press. And that brings us to current history.
Fred Van Alstyne: We believe what happened was the quality became “good enough.” With consolidation from 2008 through 2010 there was a drive toward lower cost. This commoditized our industry. The technology allowed us to produce at a lower cost and satisfactory quality. This was the first time in the industry that people were saying the quality is good enough. People who used to push us on print quality all the time came to realize their consumer didn’t really care or recognize the differences.
KM: Most companies need to stop doing something in order to rationalize the inkjet expenditure. Was that the case at Content Critical?
FVA: We got away from the more expensive toner devices as best we could. We eliminated a lot of those.
JS: We also stopped buying pre-printed shells on the outside and went to a standard paper format. This was part of the business justification.
KM: Based on your experience, what would you say is the most important consideration a company should make before bringing in inkjet?
FVA: The most important thing is considering the whole workflow process. It’s not just buying an inkjet system. It’s finishing, paper considerations and their availability. The service considerations in your geography should also drive your decision process. John and I like when we see other equipment in our area. With that said, we were the first in the New York area to take the leap.
Our pain points were around the rest of the process which didn’t move as fast as the inkjet machine. The other finishing processes couldn’t keep up with the inkjet. We were excited about buying the inkjet device, but we were not prepared for the speed and the output volume of the device. You have to speed up the rest of your process to get to true efficiency.
JS: From the finishing perspective we went to a roll-to-roll environment. Beforehand our intelligent inserters were all sheetfed, now about half and half, roll fed and sheetfed. I highly recommend roll to roll feed. We started generating more print, and we needed to handle more volume, the job sizes began to dramatically increase.
FVA: Also, we started to run out of physical space. As we grew, we were generating so much output that we were struggling to get the mail out fast enough. We had to make adjustments due to the increase in volume. All good problems to have.
KM: What do you say to people that say print is dead?
JS: I would say, print is transforming itself. Inkjet is on an upward climb. The amount of technology and change that was deployed in print and mail in the past 12 years is pretty dramatic.
The transformation is the greatest in books where you’d traditionally print 100,000 and put them on shelves. Today, they are printed on-demand. This may be the greatest impact or transformation in print that has occurred.
FVA: When you look at the data, you’re right. But it’s a slow decline. Because of the consolidation in the industry and the way we’ve positioned ourselves we see it as a long-term growth opportunity. We’re not declining. We believe larger companies may be having an issue, because large plants have a lot of capacity and there’s client erosion.
Print is probably the most secure way to communicate. Nobody messes with the postal police. There are no worries about cyber security.
Also, it’s often no longer print or digital. If you send a highly personalized piece to a millennial, they’re psyched. And the tools that allow you to let them know that mail is coming, is exciting. The emerging technology is helping to stabilize print.
And then there’s packaging, everyone gets excited about their new Apple iPhone just due to the box. You’ll see more transformation and variability and branding on the box. More audience interaction.
We’ve had success here. We have helped insurance companies provide welcome kits. John and his team have created these kits in-line. They’re nice perfect bound books, in signature, and we can use DocuSign and push electronically. We’ve seen our customers improve their customers’ experiences dramatically.
In Part 2 of this interview Content Critical proves insight into factors driving year-over-year double digit revenue growth with inkjet.