Each year, thousands of Graph Expo attendees grab the slim brochure that lists the industry's Must See 'ems and Worth A Looks. This program has been a highlight of the Executive Outlook Conference since 1999, and these selections by a panel of experts have become an industry-wide guide to compelling print production technology and products.

This year, of the approximately 1,800 products being exhibited by more than 475 suppliers, 29 were selected as Must See 'ems, and another 64, primarily niche products, were given the Worth A Look tag. This is important work conducted by a panel of volunteers. However, there is another aspect to the panel's work that is generally underreported. And that is the designation of critical and opportunistic technologies available to printing operations to spur growth, offer market differentiation and more.

The report of the panel says, "As the printing business has become more complex and competitive, business, marketing, and production transition planning with strategic and tactical components have become an integral part of successfully implementing and integrating a technology into current operations.  Attempts to implement a new technology without a plan often lead to failure and/or an increase in undesirable unintended consequences.  Although not a technology per se, full scope planning based on an in-depth knowledge of customer/prospect requirements was selected by the committee as the foundation for the implementation of the critical and opportunity technologies included in this year's work."

Print service providers should be paying close attention to these observations as they enter planning mode for 2012.  I will highlight the top results here; for more information, readers can visit www.mustseeems.com.

The 2011 panel of 19 leading industry analysts, consultants, educators and trade magazine and informational web site editors identified Computer/IT/MIS capability and utilization as the top critical technology, saying, "New era printing companies run on information generated by the full utilization of Management Information Systems. " This requires computer and IT skills in house.

MIS has been at or near the top of the list for some time now.  It is surprising how many companies do not have an MIS-perhaps they use Excel spreadsheets for pricing, estimating and scheduling, but this does not count! Even more surprising are the number of printing companies who do have an MIS system and have not fully implemented it to take full advantage of the invaluable business and production information these systems generate. This includes keeping the system up to date. I recall not too long ago speaking with a printer who had just acquired a new press with much shorter makeready times.  He commented to me that every time he ran special stock through the press, the operator would ask why he ordered so much.  The reason? The MIS had not been updated to include the reduced makeready waste! For the want of 10 to 15 minutes of systems updating, this printer was potentially throwing away hundreds of dollars, not a good idea in the world of slim margins in which many print firms exist today.

Do you have a print MIS system?  Is it fully implemented? Do you keep it updated? These are questions you should be asking yourself as you plan for 2012. And while doing so, go back to the Must See 'ems-there were ten products given either a Must See 'em or Worth A Look in the MIS category.  This is a good place to start.  Keep in mind that while implementing an MIS is not trivial, those who have come to depend on these systems to effectively run their businesses will tell you the investment is worth it.  In addition, look outside the box-with the growing availability of Cloud-based applications, you can expect the cost and complexity of first-time implementations to decrease for all but the largest printers.

The 2011 Selection Committee identified the combination of computer skills, information technology and properly utilized full MIS as the most important capabilities for printing companies' profitable survival.