In the first part of this article I looked at the transformation Kodak is going through. Here are a few points from that article:

1) Most industries are experiencing rapid change. It is part of the times we live in.

2) Determine where revenues will come from in the future and what changes you need to make now to support it.

3) Look at your core strengths and build around them. This goes beyond current products and services.

4) Brand is a way to differentiate yourself. Some printers use this concept better than others.

In this part of the article I'll look at strategic changes of two other industry vendors, manroland and xpedx. In order to grow revenue there are two approaches – sell more things to the same customer or find new customers. These examples focus on the first approach.

Printers know that offset presses haven't been flying out of the factory – especially in the US.  Most manufacturers are experiencing lower volumes. The growth for offset printing going forward appears to be slow. However, manroland is not sitting on its hands waiting for thing to get better. They have taken a few new approaches to help grow business and help their customers.

Something that we have analyzed before is to look at your strengths and build around them. manroland has taken an experienced, well trained group of service and parts personnel and done just that. Their printservices group is focusing on reducing maintenance costs, reducing downtime and increasing productivity for their customers, instead of waiting for their customers to call because something is broken. Printers can be proactive and use this approach with their own human assets and information to help their customers lower their costs or increase their revenues

Strategic alliances allow companies to add products or services without having to develop them in-house.

Another link in the chain in the "have more to sell to the same customer" approach is manroland's printcom program. Printcom is manroland's pressroom consumables brand. They take this approach to another level by using process compliant systems components that optimize the overall system. They have differentiated themselves from the competition by not just offering supplies but focusing on specific materials that have been improved through R&D and providing a certified performance guarantee. This again offers saving opportunities for the customer and revenue opportunities for manroland. For printers, adding additional services in the production cycle such as database management, mailing, fulfillment and warehousing can offer the same benefits.

Strategic alliances allow companies to add products or services without having to develop them in-house. This can be done through mergers or marketing/distribution agreements. manroland has a new strategic partner in Oce. The digital print area is growing. By establishing this relationship manroland does not have to start from scratch on digital equipment. Oce and manroland both have access to a wider customer base. Each organization can share expertise to create new products.

manroland now distributes Tensor web presses in twenty-one countries around the world. manroland already makes web presses for a number of markets. By distributing the Tensor presses they fill out their line without having to manufacture the presses themselves. Tensor gets a global reach, expanding their distribution area.  

Printers can look at developing strategic alliances with companies that have services and expertise they may not have, such as database management, digital printing, wide format inkjet or marketing services. This brings not only more services to both companies but a wider customer base without having to develop the expertise in-house.

xpedx has also taken the approach of selling more to the same customers. They started out as a traditional paper merchant, then, redefined their business model from paper distributor to distribution solutions. xpedx began by adding packaging and janitorial supplies. This was expanded with a variety of graphics consumables and further expanded to various types of equipment. Additional services have been added in warehousing and fulfillment for traditional printers and larger corporations.