Finally a Technology to Bring Online the 96% of the $160B US Print Industry Still Not There

CHICAGO, GRAPH EXPO – After 3+ years of development and months of private beta, Silicon Valley-based Keen Systems (www.keenprint.com) today announced the launch of its comprehensive and revolutionary ecommerce and customer management online service for the print industry.  Keen also received the coveted Worth-A-Look award at Graph Expo.

Despite its importance as the third largest manufacturing industry in the U.S. with over 1 million people employed (source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) and shipping in excess of $160 billion annually (source: Printing Industries of America), the print and promotional products industry has been falling behind in Internet technology for years.  Remarkably, today less than 4% of industry volume is transacted online (source: InfoTrends). While over 40% of advertising dollars are still spent on print media (source: Robert Coen's Insiders Report), the industry has stood still for years watching digital media march into the double digits.

The print industry is highly fractured with over 34,000 providers in the U.S., 80% of which have 20 employees or less (source: Printing Industries of America). To date specialized ecommerce solutions for print have been clunky, expensive and ridiculously difficult to implement. Print service providers have been frustrated with and jaded by this status quo for years. 

Keen is aiming to democratize ecommerce with its intuitive and turnkey end-to-end system.  The first true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) developed for the print industry, Keen removes license fees, setup and maintenance expenses, and provides instant access, quick setup and an unparalleled user experience. Keen allows print companies of all sizes and capabilities to finally use ecommerce as the primary way of doing business.  This is not to compete with national players that simply engage in online marketing arbitrage such as Vista Print, but to optimize their everyday customer communication, empower their sales teams, and give their customers the transparency and self-service they've been demanding in today's always on, 24/7 world.

Keen's unique and patent-pending architecture is designed to allow virtually infinite expansion of functionality via partner plugins and integrations. Today, Keen is also announcing its network of plugin partners. Going live later in the year, this program allows print service providers to put new products and services directly in front of their end-customers while retaining full control of the order flow and relationships. Commitments already include industry front-runners such as leading trade-only supplier, ASAP Printing; and the world's largest design template library, Tweak.

"With Keen, print service providers can expand their offering with high-quality graphic design via Tweak's creative library of self-service customizable templates," said Jerry Kennelly, CEO of Tweak. "We are excited to expand our reach and seamlessly integrate with Keen's platform, partnering with printers across the United States."

Integrations also include direct connections with leading email newsletter service, MailChimp, and the industry standard, Intuit Quickbooks (available at launch).