Print Software and 2021’s Business Trends

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Print Software and 2021’s Business Trends

Working from home, data as an asset, and automation: three business trends and their specific impact on print businesses.

By Jennifer Matt

Wednesday, February 03, 2021

At the beginning of every year, many futurists write articles about trends. I’m no futurist but I find it interesting to see what people choose to focus on. Then I like to translate that to our situation—the print industry and specifically print software technology.

My favorite 2021 trends list is from Forbes by Bernard Marr. He outlines 10 trends. I’ll translate three of them into the print industry with a not-to-slight bias towards print business software.

At some point in the last 12 months, some portion of your staff worked from home for some portion of time. This was out of necessity. It is still necessary. When it becomes not necessary due to widespread vaccination and the transition out of the COVID era, it will still be a solid option for your company. Pre-COVID, there were a lot of naysayers about “work from home” centered mainly around trust or an outdated reliance that people have to be face-to-face to get things done. Yes, your press operators need to be in close proximity to the press to do their job, but customer service?

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About Jennifer Matt

Jennifer Matt is the managing editor of WhatTheyThink’s Print Software section as well as President of Web2Print Experts, Inc. a technology-independent print software consulting firm helping printers with web-to-print and print MIS solutions.

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