HURST, Texas U.S.A (July 9, 2008)---A 2008 report from EDSF, the international, non-profit organization dedicated to the document management and graphic communications industries, seeks to evaluate and understand the priorities and plans of print-for-pay service providers. The study, called "Supplier and Service Provider Priorities: 2007 Survey Results," also strives to obtain an understanding of how the views of suppliers and print providers align, and considers how these views change over time. The report---with survey results and analysis---is available as a free PDF download at the EDSF Web site: www.edsf.org.

The new paper, an annual research study, is a collaboration between InfoTrends, a worldwide market research and strategic consulting firm for the digital imaging and document solutions industry, and the Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Print Media. This survey builds on previous industry trend studies completed in 2005 and 2006 by InfoTrends and EDSF to gauge the current state and future direction of the print-for-pay market.

To evaluate the industry, InfoTrends conducted a Web-based survey in 2007 with suppliers to the print-for-pay market and print-for-pay providers. The free 2008 report analyzes the print provider responses and then the supplier responses (with in-depth comparisons of the two groups in this category). Analysis of these comparisons suggests where the supplier market and the print provider market need to better understand each other. Overall, this study is relevant to print providers, providers of products and services to the print-for-pay community and end-users who purchase print.

Key Findings
---Print providers remain optimistic that their gross income will continue to increase, although they recognize that costs will rise at a faster rate than prices paid to them for their products and services. Similar optimism was reported in 2005 and 2006.

---Among the print providers surveyed, Adobe PDF continues to be the most common print language, and companies continue to retain a high level of use and interest in a PDF-enabled workflow.

---The skill set gap is recognized by print providers, who list skills in programming, sales, marketing and data preparation as the areas where current employees have the weakest skills to adequately support the overall direction of the company.

---A total of 27.8 percent of respondents want their current press employees to acquire more technical skills, with 41.8 percent wanting future employees to have more industry-specific skills. This hints at the reason behind the perceived technical skill set gap of current employees.

---Over 73.1 percent of print respondents were unhappy with the skill sets that they have been seeing from the marketplace pool of potential employees. The majority of these (41.8 percent) want future employees with more industry-specific skills.

For the complete EDSF report, "Supplier and Service Provider Priorities: 2007 Survey Results," visit www.edsf.org and click "Research and  Publications" for the EDSF Industry Library. The report is listed under "EDSF White Papers." Many other research reports on a variety of industry topics and trends are also available from EDSF and posted at the site.