By Gina Ferrara, Senior Analyst, Madison Advisors

I had the opportunity to present at XPLOR19, which was held April 23-25 at the Mandalay Bay Conference Center in Las Vegas. I have had the pleasure of attending this conference every year since 2014.

With the hope of increasing attendance and interest in XPLOR19, two big changes were made for this year’s conference. The first was location. For the past 15 years, XPLOR had been in Florida. As a native of New England, the Southeast is always a welcome change from the cold winter months. This year, it was located in Las Vegas, also warm, but, of course, much farther to travel. Second, the conference was co-located with the ISA (International Sign Association) Expo and although ISA boasts somewhere north of 20,000 attendees, the Xplor team did a great job of making sure our conference within the conference was centrally located, with the educational sessions and the exhibitor forum conveniently located within the same section of the conference center.

XPLOR prides itself on providing attendees with high-quality educational sessions, typically broken out into three different tracks. This year, the tracks were business, delivery and marketing. All of the sessions were part of the overall conference theme, “Linking People, Technology & Solutions” and provided a mix of topics that covered print, digital transformation, customer experience and artificial intelligence.

In addition to the educational sessions, there were four general sessions that were specifically focused on the topic of customer experience and how CCM has become the pivot point for increased consumer loyalty and market share. Although the convergence of CCM and customer experience is not a new topic, it still captured the interest of attendees hungry for the latest insights and ideas to bring back to their respective organizations.

As the post-conference dust settles, and the post-conference surveys have been distributed to attendees, it will be interesting to see what is in store for XPLOR20. While moving to Las Vegas and co-locating with the ISA Expo might not have provided the boost in attendance hoped for, one thing is for certain: No matter how big or small, you can always count on XPLOR for quality presentations and an opportunity to learn and network with industry peers. I am definitely looking forward to next year.

By Warren Lederer, COO, Madison Advisors

So many people attended Automation Anywhere’s Imagine user conference, held in New York City on April 16-17, that a second room was opened up to accommodate the crowd, and even the caterer was hard-pressed to keep pace with the traffic.  The whole RPA (robotic process automation) and AI (artificial intelligence) marketplace is rapidly developing, and we’re seeing a lot of enthusiasm and interest.  In fact, RPA platform provider, Automation Anywhere, is ramping up its 36 offices and doubling its 1,500-person workforce this year to satisfy the exploding demand.

What’s driving this interest?

Often, when people think of robotics and artificial intelligence, their first thought is of reduced head counts and pushing manual workers off the payroll.  While there may be some truth to this in industries like manufacturing, most people at the Imagine conference were in enterprise IT and finance and they are grabbing onto RPA/AI to make their lives and jobs easier.  This is in line with the more realistic and positive message that Automation Anywhere tries to convey, which is to say, “What we’re really providing you is a digital worker.” I think it would be even more realistic to call it a “digital co-worker.”

RPA actually works alongside human beings so that instead of having to spend two or three hours on a Monday morning manually building a spreadsheet from a variety of reports drawn from a number of different sources, humans can hand those repetitive, mundane tasks over to robotics process automation so they can start their workday with more meaningful projects where they’re using their unique cognitive knowledge ability.

Currently within enterprises using RPA, 50% of the robotic processes are initially deployed within the finance department, because finance is still using multiple spreadsheets that have to be updated on a regular basis.  Without RPA, humans are doing this, spending hours each day just collecting and integrating this data before then can even begin to analyze it usefully. An unattended RPA basically self-starts, pulls up the spreadsheet, goes to Excel, goes to a system, copies the information from that system, puts it in Excel, goes to a website, adds that data—and it cycles through all this in milliseconds.

RPA also can do automatic look-ups.  For instance, when you get new data and have to verify it using the Internet every day.  An RPA can do that for you.  This is where AI comes into play, because as things change, you don’t necessarily have to reprogram the RPA.  The AI component automatically recognizes a new form by comparing it to something similar it’s encountered before, and then adapts the RPA process.  In the service provider market, this can eliminate all manual intervention.

From my perspective, RPA is having a huge impact in the customer communications management (CCM) marketplace, because CCM providers and enterprises are using RPA and AI to eliminate the repetitive tasks that are currently being done manually.  It’s making enterprises more efficient.  And this should be a wake-up call to CCM service providers that it’s time they think about getting involved with RPA/AI processing if they aren’t already.  Automation Anywhere, along with developers UiPath and Blue Prism, offer RPA as a standalone product. These are technology solution providers (TSPs) to watch—and all TSPs in this market will find the first to be adopted wins. Once an RPA/AI solution is adopted by an organization, there will be no reason for IT to swap one out for the other.

One message from the conference that stayed with me is that many of the service providers who are using RPA are using it internally.  They’re not waiting for a customer to pay for it.  They’re doing it so they can eliminate inefficiency and speed their processing from an operations perspective.  This drives a stronger bottom line for those service providers, but it also makes for potentially lower prices for their enterprise customers.  In addition, one of the larger capture software providers also has developed RPA and is using it to leverage its installed software for capture.  They have an interesting advantage here, in that they’re able to build it into their core software products.

Another interesting and important benefit of RPA/AI was pointed out by conference keynoter Garry Kasparov.  Kasparov is a World Chess Champion who’s famous for playing chess against he lost to the IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue.  In this duel between human intelligence versus artificial intelligence, Kasparov won the first match, but lost the second.  He noted that chess isn’t about being perfect, it’s about making fewer mistakes.  This parallels RPA/AI in that, though they may not always deliver perfection, they will deliver fewer errors than a human.  Where robotics will eliminate 90% of errors, your human only has to check that last 10%.  That’s a significant improvement over what we’re doing today.

The RPA/AI race will be very interesting to watch.

By Susan Cotter, Senior Program Manager/Analyst

It’s been a few years since I attended an AIIM conference, so I was pleasantly surprised at AIIM 2019 when I was reminded of how pivotal an organization AIIM is within the information management industry. With a focus on digital transformation, attendees and technical service providers had plenty of opportunity to network, learn and share innovation.

In the opening keynote session, Peggy Winton, President and CEO of AIIM, described how the journey to digital transformation begins with intelligent information management and that the professionals in the room were the key to driving innovation. She also took the opportunity to announce a subtle, but appropriate, change to AIIM’s branding. Focused on the future, the acronym now stands for the Association of Intelligent Information Management. Luckily, this didn’t require changes to their logo!

This year, AIIM’s education tracks focused on three key areas: Service in Capture, Process and Analytics.  The agenda included sessions by industry experts and vendors and also included a number of roundtable discussions, allowing time for attendees to share and learn with their peers. AIIM also arranged “Brain Dates” which gave attendees an opportunity to take a deeper dive into various topics with industry experts or to suggest a subject of their own. This was well attended and proved to be a great way to supplement the overall learning experience.

A key takeaway from the conference was for intelligent information professionals to recognize the need to focus on incredible customer experience. Industry leaders affecting true digital transformation make it easy for their customers to do business with them. As Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology continues to mature, repetitive, mundane tasks can be automated in order to provide humans the opportunity to focus on more complex decision making with a focus on the overall customer experience.

Using Peggy’s keynote theme, the AIIM Conference 2019 is now in the rear view mirror but digital transformation is in our windshield. Automation and customer experience are driving success in intelligent information management.

By Gina Ferrara, Senior Analyst

I recently attended the 2019 Canon Media & Analyst event held February 11-13 at the Waterstone Resort and Marina in Boca Raton, Florida. Canon shared the latest news and provided an overview of the company’s success in 2018 and roadmap for 2019. Throughout the presentations, the following themes were evident:  Canon’s commitment to growth, reliability of products, focus on customer satisfaction and expansion of its partner network.

Sam Yoshida, EVP and General Manager for Canon’s BICG (Business Information Communications Group), who replaced the now retired Toyo Kuwamura, kicked off the event by sharing his optimism for the industry, stating he believes it is healthy and strong and his belief is echoed in the numbers. With net sales of $36 billion and net earnings of $2.3 billion, Canon has proven once again it is a market leader committed to continued growth. By adapting to market trends and customer needs, Canon has found new growth opportunities in the areas of cloud security, production print, digital transformation and in vertical markets such as education, healthcare, finance and insurance.

During his presentation, Mr. Yoshida also discussed the renaming of BISG (Business Imaging Solutions Group) to BICS (Business Information Communications Group). This new name best describes Canon’s focus of not being “in the business of selling printers” and appropriately echoes its mission to help customers better manage and share information, which has become their direction for 2019.

Peter Kowalczuk, President of Canon Solutions America (CSA), gave an overview of 2018 and plans for 2019.  CSA’s product line is the most extensive, ranging from small multi-function devices (MFD) up to the ProStream 1000 continuous feed color inkjet. Stability is key to CSA’s success and although print volumes are dropping, CSA has stepped up its services organization to support its customer base. In addition, he also stressed the importance of security—a big concern in the enterprise space. In 2017, the cost of a data breach in the US was $7.35 million. Since 1 out of 10 security breaches is paper-related, Mr. Kowalczuk stated that “data security without document security is incomplete.” CSA is expanding its 5 pillar security strategy in two distinct areas—device security and cybersecurity—in a variety of ways, including its partnership with Barracuda to provide security awareness training and concierge service for customers that do not have security expertise on staff. In addition, EventSentry helps increase endpoint protection and PrinterLogic provides “server-less printing,” the ability to print without the use of print servers.

Canon’s focus on growth and customer satisfaction was further illustrated by Francis McMahon, EVP for Production Print Services (PPS) when he shared that Canon grew in every single product category of PPS, including continuous feed toner, cut sheet black and white, continuous feed inkjet and professional services. In fact, a whopping 92 continuous feed inkjet systems were placed in 2018.  With 83 billion pages printed, 2018 also witnessed record page growth.

Although 97% of Canon customers surveyed would recommend CSA’s service, Canon will continue to strive for greater excellence. Based on the information provided during this event, I have no doubt they will achieve that goal and I look forward to what Canon will accomplish in 2019.

By Gina Ferrara, Senior Analyst

“If you build it, they will come” a familiar quote from the movie “Field of Dreams” has come to mean for those in the business world that if something useful has been built, people will come to use it and pay for it. This is true in many instances; however, when it comes to color inkjet technology and transitioning away from monochrome print…not so much. Just ask the service providers who participated in our research.

Color inkjet has been around for over a decade, and throughout the years, there have been significant improvements in this technology, including faster print speeds and better output quality—all while the price point for a color image dropped to a more attractive level. So what gives? Why has color adoption been slower than anticipated?

In February, Madison Advisors released a research report, “Color Migration and Digital Delivery:  Trends in Transactional Communications.” Despite a lower number of research participants, our results proved similar to our previous study: monochrome still rules. We surveyed print service providers and enterprises that operate an in-plant production facility or have outsourced print and mail. As the author of this research, I decided to expand our purview beyond monochrome versus color image volumes to include the role color print plays in an omni-channel communications strategy and trends in digital delivery. Additionally, I decided to dig deeper and understand the barriers to color adoption from the perspective of print service providers and enterprises.

Despite the fact that all of our study participants (excluding enterprises who outsourced print and mail) have made the investment in color inkjet technology, there is still a high percentage of output printed monochrome—75% for service providers and 79.5% for enterprise in-plants. Several reasons were noted for the high volume of monochrome print; however, the service providers indicated that cost per impression for color when compared to monochrome was the primary barrier inhibiting their clients from making the transition.

In the CCM industry, we often hear the terms multi-channel and omni-channel delivery in reference to how organizations communicate with their customers. Despite predictions made years ago that print will be a thing of the past, the truth is print is still an important communication channel and one that (in my humble opinion) will not completely go away any time soon. Of course, there are regulatory reasons why certain communications have to be in print, but despite the push for electronic delivery, not one participant in our research can boast overall e-adoption rates above 50%. This means that organizations must still consider print as an important component of an omni-channel communications strategy.

That said, the proverbial elephant in the room is preference management, which is a critical component of an optimized CCM strategy. I believe that it is still a gap based on experience working with enterprise clients and the results of this research. Since preference data is used in the composition process to optimize the content and the output based on the selected delivery channel(s), it presents an opportunity for print service providers to offer a robust solution in addition to composition services and multi-channel delivery.

But the question remains, if service providers build out a complete CCM platform that includes composition services, preference management and omni-channel delivery that includes color print… will they come?

By Warren Lederer, COO

Our Fall CCM Executive Roundtable, held November 13-14 at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott was focused on the topic of customer communications where the enterprises attending openly shared their experiences, challenges and successes in building and maintaining a viable CCM program—and it was (gasp) all without the use of PowerPoint!

The key presenters in the day-long roundtable were Tim Steenhoek from Voya, Fred Kinckner from Vanguard, and Paul Jorgensen and Jason Fonner from HM Document Solutions, along with myself providing an overview of the marketplace and serving as a facilitator for the other presentations. Attendees also included representatives from COUNTRY Financial, Discover Financial Services, Northwestern Mutual, and Raymond James Financial—all contributors to what is best described as a true participant-led event.

The speakers, as well as the attendees, represented companies that are involved in varying phases of the CCM journey, from exploring its possibilities and initial implementation, through developing full-blown, but ever-evolving systems. They openly discussed various aspects of their own experiences and outlined their responses to the challenges they face—or likely will face—in establishing CCM systems in their own organizations.

The topics cut across the spectrum of challenges enterprises are wrestling with today, ranging from expanding and maximizing investment in an in-plant, all the way to load balancing between print providers, followed by sharing and discussing the lessons learned when investing and implementing a CCM HMS platform. In addition, during the open forum at the close of the event, roundtable members were encouraged to bring up any topic of interest to them to invite commentary and advice from the others.

Alongside our roundtable participants, Crawford Technologies and Xerox offered information and advice on how they, as vendors, support the CCM process. In a very creative move, Crawford Technologies allowed attendees to choose which of their company’s executives participants wanted to engage with on topic choices such as the creation and delivery of accessible documents, advances in creating integrated end-to-end workflows, and improving existing CCM delivery.

What excited us most about this CCM Executive Roundtable is that it provided the opportunity to share openly with industry peers in a face-to-face forum. Participants had the rare opportunity to discuss their concerns and to gain advice from those who have “been there, done that,” as well as to contribute by sharing their own experiences. This is information and assistance that is difficult to come by in any other way. It is perhaps the only event in the industry quite like it. Madison Advisors is currently planning its Spring CCM Executive Roundtable, and we invite those interested to stay tuned for further details.

By Kemal Carr, President, Madison Advisors

PRINT 18, held September 30 through October 1, at Chicago’s McCormick Place seemed to be suffering from the same malaise as other once-large, all-encompassing industry trade shows. One way you can judge the traffic at these events is to use what I call a “bump meter.” That is, if you bump into a lot of people in crowded aisles, it’s a well-attended show. At PRINT 18, I bumped into a few people, but not as many as might be expected.

I thought one of the highlights at PRINT 18 was that a section of the floor had been put together like a software village with various developers demonstrating their newer types of applications. The fact that they were all in one area generated a positive synergy that was good to see. However, noticeably missing were several legacy firms that historically exhibited at the event, which is a sign of the times and a troubling trend in the trade show business.

Another noticeable missing element of the show was that so few vendors exhibited hardware. The days of moving in six-color presses or 12-foot alignments of interconnected digital production lines seems to be gone. One reason may be that the larger vendors—both digital and offset—now have Customer Centers at their headquarters that showcase the equipment. It’s easier and less expensive to invite potential buyers there, where they also have the advantage of fewer competing distractions.

A reason for reduced foot traffic at PRINT 18 may be that there are several industry events you can attend that offer a narrower focus, each centered on an industry segment or a specific type of print application, which seem to draw attention from the big shows. Additionally, everyone has better access now to a plethora of information gained through online searches and through the greater willingness to share opinions with peer groups about equipment, experience with installation, implementation, maintenance and so forth. Vendors, too, are more willing to help in the decision-making process.

Finally, what’s new always drew attendees to the shows. Previously, printers would travel to see the new print and prepress technologies in operation, or to witness firsthand what kind of color quality you could get from digital presses. Of course, vendors are still developing upgrades, adding more bells and whistles that can improve productivity and profitability, but the revolution has settled into a less spectacular evolution. The trade shows are certainly worth attending if you know what you’re looking for, but less like magic than they once were—and there is some nostalgia attached to that.

By Kemal Carr, President

Quadient Inspire Days Americas, held at the Boston Sheraton, September 19 – 21, was the fifth in the Inspire Days series and the last of Inspire Days events held earlier in Melbourne, Singapore, Hong Kong and The Hague—touching five continents. In Boston, the general theme revolved around enhancing customer experience, and of course, offered a 360-degree look at how Quadient’s Inspire software platform, including its latest R12 version, supports these efforts.

Chris Hartigan, Quadient’s new president and general manager of the Americas, kicked off the two-and-a-half-day event with a welcome address, followed by keynoter Jeanne Bliss, president of Customer Bliss and author of several books defining and promoting the concept and practice of customer-centricity. Both Chris and Jeanne set the general tone of the conference by detailing the why and how of improving customer experience, one of the most talked about trends in business today.

Attendees were a mix of enterprise and print service providers. One of the areas I found most interesting and of special value is when clients like RBC, IWCO, Shutterfly and Quad Graphics presented their own experiences with Quadient applications in the three breakout tracks:  Innovation, Engagement and Boosting Productivity. Their presentations tended to cut through the marketing chatter to provide a true picture of the implementation, usage and results of using Quadient Inspire. For the most part, their reports were positive, though not entirely without a predictable glitch here and there.

Quadient Inspire’s R12 version adds several enhancements and additions to earlier versions. Because of the dynamic and rapid pace of upgrades for Inspire, as well as Quadient’s other types of software, the best option for many enterprise users may be to purchase and deploy the platform via an HMS (Hosted Managed Service Provider). That way the enterprise can gain all the benefits of the latest upgrades while leaving the technical nuts and bolts to the service provider, who should be the expert.

This concept is consistent with the findings of our most recent report on the CCM HMS market, which outlines how this market is growing and how verticals such as financial services, insurance, utilities, telecommunications and others that generate large volumes of transactional communications benefit from hosted managed services relationships.

By Susan Cotter, Senior Program Manager/Analyst

Having returned recently from attending the thINK 2018 Conference held September 5th through the 7th in Boca Raton, I keep thinking how this conference once again demonstrated the power of bringing together a community of customers, partners and industry experts to share innovations and best practices in this growing market. With 600 attendees and 70 speakers, the fourth thINK Conference was the largest and, in our opinion, the best to date. There were 25 sessions, dynamic keynotes and worthwhile networking time. The conference is a valuable two-day event filled with top level education opportunities and hands-on learning for both newcomers and inkjet veterans.

Attendees to the conference were also introduced to new tools that further support networking and content sharing. For example, thINK’s partnership with klik, a provider of state-of-the-art smart technology wristbands that connect event-goers to people, places and content, showed all of us an innovative way to pass contact information and set appointments using the application.

This year, thINK’s education tracks focused on three key areas: Innovation in Inkjet, Workflows and Growth Opportunities. Topics included sessions that focused on hardware, software and paper selection. I was excited to have the opportunity to partner with Jason Fonner of HM Document Solutions (HMDS) to present how HMDS transformed its traditional in-plant print operation into a true customer communications delivery hub and Center of Excellence in the Workflow Track session, “The New Customer Communications Delivery Hub, Powered by Inkjet Technology.” Our session explored the challenges of digital transformation and a shift in corporate leadership and strategies to adapt technology to better meet customer communication needs in both print and electronic formats.

As inkjet technology continues to mature and utilization opportunities grow at a rapid pace, advancements in technology will foster continued migration of new applications to even more cost-effective color communications. These advancements, paired with strategic investments in customer communications management (CCM) technologies, are critical new growth opportunities that enterprise users and print service providers need to be aware of and eventually implement. That is the value the thINK Conference brings. It is a unique opportunity to discuss with like-minded professionals the rapidly growing inkjet curve, discover together new ways to capitalize on new inkjet applications—and best of all, share our experiences as pioneers in this new age of digital print.

By Gina Ferrara, Senior Analyst, Madison Advisors

In July, I attended the OpenText Enterprise World conference held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada.  This event, which attracted over 5,000 attendees, offered something for everyone, including pre-conference training sessions, innovation & developer labs and numerous breakout sessions.  As a first-time attendee, I looked forward to being a part of this event and have the opportunity to learn the latest on specific OpenText products, including CCM and CEM.

Mark Barrenechea, Vice Chair, CEO and CTO, announced the release of OT2 during the opening keynote session.  OT2, formerly known as Project Banff, is the next-generation hybrid-cloud platform that brings together intelligent automation, security and EIM applications in a powerful unified platform.  Based on a micro-services architecture, this platform supports native SaaS applications running in the cloud and enables integration as well as new capabilities for on premise products.

The Enterprise World Expo was filled with OpenText pods, partner booths and OpenText theaters. They all allowed attendees to meet individual product managers outside of the breakout sessions to learn new features and functionality via a software demo and get the latest product roadmap details.

On the first day of the event, I focused on the CCM and CEM software products to get updates on xPression and Exstream.  Since Madison Advisors has several clients using xPression, that roadmap was of particular interest. Some quick points to note:

• xPression is not going away and there are no end-of-life plans for this product
• OpenText is offering an upgrade path to Exstream for its xPression customers, which includes services such as migration planning, best practices for implementation and automated conversion tools
• Plans for release 4.7 are currently in process; this release is expected to be available in May 2019 and will include many enhancements based on requests submitted by customers

I also attended the Exstream 16.4 update and product roadmap session to understand how OpenText is positioning Exstream as the CCM solution of the future.  The Exstream product is the CCM offering included in the OpenText Experience Suite. It combines the transactional processing model and integration strengths of StreamServe with the high throughput engine and interactive capabilities of Exstream into a single integrated solution.  Now, StreamServe and Exstream customers can upgrade to a single product, with minimal disruption and utilize the design and production environment of their choice.  With its vision to integrate, engage and deploy anywhere, OpenText is positioning Exstream as a leading solution in the industry with integration into existing business platforms (EIM and ERP), omnichannel engagement across any touchpoint, and a rapidly deployable platform designed for on premise, cloud or hybrid environments.

With Madison Advisors’ current focus on inbound mail, intelligent forms and RPA, I spent most of day two attending breakout sessions related to intelligent forms automation and the OpenText Liquid Office, TeleForm and Captiva solutions.  An abundance of information was collected at these sessions that will contribute to the insight we have into this industry.  Enterprise World was an extremely informative event and I look forward to next year.