On the eve of closing its acquisition of Avanti, I sat down with the leadership team at eProductivity Software (ePS) to get an update on the business, the recent launch of ePS Nubium, and the company’s strategy around its latest acquisition. It was a wide-ranging discussion that touched on the role of AI in both the printing industry and within ePS itself, supply chain integration, and product direction. Joining me were CEO Daniel Vertachnik, President Doug Surrett, and Chief Product Officer Nick Benkovich.

ePS is no stranger to acquisitions. Over the past two years, it has acquired Tharstern and Enterprise Print Management Solutions (EPMS), building on a long history of acquisitions dating back to its time as the print management software division of EFI. While its latest acquisition may not come as a surprise, the fact that it’s acquiring Avanti from Ricoh is notable. Ricoh has been involved with Avanti since 2013, becoming its full owner in early 2017. The acquisition originally served to expand Ricoh’s production print workflow offering and to equip customers with software tools to improve efficiency and productivity.

Editor’s note: The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

WhatTheyThink: How would you describe where the company stands today in terms of growth, stability, and market position?

Doug Surrett: We’re seeing consistent growth across most of our product areas, particularly in North America. In Europe, growth is currently concentrated in the enterprise space. There are fewer deals in that segment, but it’s an area that’s picking up, and we’re excited about the momentum there.

Globally, the picture is strong: we’re seeing solid growth across the board. One standout is Nubium, a new product we officially launched last week at PacPrint in Australia. We initially aimed for a soft launch with early adopters in Europe and the U.S., but demand has exceeded expectations—to the point where we’ve had to hold some interest back. The reception has been incredibly positive, especially within the SMB market.

Nubium is a cloud solution that’s very simple to implement, highly prescriptive, and includes built-in AI tools to help customers onboard and configure it largely on their own. It’s still early, and of course we’re working out some kinks, but we believe it has the potential to fundamentally shift our position in the SMB segment.

Beyond that, our mid-market suite has shown strong growth over the last 12 months, and the enterprise space is seeing traction as well. iQuote is gaining popularity—particularly among enterprise customers who are looking to take productivity to the next level. Many have gotten everything they can from Monarch, and now they’re adding iQuote, often alongside PrintFlow and AutoCount. That combination is really driving productivity gains.

So overall, we’re seeing meaningful growth across all segments.

Nick Benkovich:  We’re seeing significant growth in that $3 to $7 or $8 million range of commercial printers. That’s really where Nubium is hitting its stride—it’s a hot product in a hot market. I think we’ve got a strong story there, and as we continue to build the portfolio, the momentum is only growing.

We’re in a great position right now. I often tell people—and Dan coined this—we are the MIS for the print industry. It’s as simple as that.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a mom-and-pop shop operating out of a shed or a company the size of mega printer—we can support you. Whether it’s commercial print, wide format, direct mail, or a highly diversified operation, we can handle it all, start to finish.

Dan Vertachnik: We’re seeing strong activity in emerging markets, particularly among printers in the $1–10 million revenue range. These companies are in growth mode, and increasingly, they’re looking for cloud-based solutions. That’s where products like Nubium are really resonating.

There’s also a lot of buzz around AI—Nick and I were just at the Imagine AI Conference including a dedicated Print track, and there’s real curiosity around what AI can do to support business operations. Customers are asking: Are you bringing AI-powered technology to market? Can it help us drive productivity and reduce costs? That’s a big focus.

Sustainability is another major theme. Customers are asking how our solutions can support more sustainable practices. They want to ensure their paper-based products and print operations meet the growing demand for environmentally responsible business practices.

At the same time, the market remains highly competitive. Cost and productivity are front of mind. Companies are asking how they can stay competitive on price while maintaining margins, and they’re looking to technology to help them do that.

And finally, while traditional segments like newspapers and magazines may not be growing, we’re seeing real momentum in areas like digital printing, packaging, and specialty applications. So, at a high level, those are some of the key trends we’re seeing across the industry right now. 

WTT: How do your evolving solutions support customers in navigating disruptions driven by the accelerating adoption of AI and connected supply chains?

NB: It’s really a natural extension of what we’re seeing with e-commerce. The reality is, while we’d love for every customer to use MarketDirect StoreFront (MDSF) as their single e-commerce solution, that’s just not how it works in practice.

Most of our customers run two or three different e-commerce portals. Sometimes it’s another vendor in our space, and other times it’s a generic platform like Shopify. So, our approach has been to build strong APIs using the same integration framework that we use to connect MDSF with core platforms like Pace, Nubium, or EPMS.

We’ve taken that same framework and said to customers: “Whatever you’re using—Shopify, a third-party web-to-print provider, or a custom storefront—there’s a proven integration path for you.” This isn’t theoretical; it’s the same logic and structure we use ourselves to bring sales orders from our own e-commerce tools into the system.

By making our platforms open and extensible, we’re helping customers stay flexible and resilient as supply chains become more connected and digital commerce continues to evolve.

WTT: In recent conversations with printing company executives, a key emerging trend is growth driven by integration with platforms like Shopify, Canva, and other tech applications. What advice would you give to companies exploring these types of integrations to support growth?

NB: The foundation of any house is critical—and it’s the same in this case. You can’t build a great backyard or a second floor if the foundation isn’t solid. For print businesses, that foundation is the MIS. If your core system is outdated, lacks APIs, doesn’t support integration, and the vendor isn’t thinking about AI as part of their future roadmap—that’s where you need to start.

At the end of the day, our customers put ink on stuff. They want to do it efficiently and bill for it quickly. If the system that supports that becomes slow, clunky, or labor-intensive, it drags down the entire business. So first, make sure you have modern MIS that enables seamless integration and is built with scalability in mind.

Look, “integration” is one of the most overused words in tech. But we mean it—we’re an open system vendor, and we can prove it. Our APIs are documented, modern, and built with tools like Swagger. It’s not like the old days where you’d get a 400-page PDF. This is dynamic, developer-ready integration built directly out of the codebase.

We’re investing in an agentic AI framework—what we call “Genie”—which begins as a chat-based interface but allows customers to plug in other AI agents and services. It’s all designed to work within an open, API-first architecture.

These are the kinds of capabilities that may not seem urgent—until they suddenly are. And when they are, you’ll want a system that’s ready.

WTT: Today you announced the acquisition of Avanti. What is your strategy with this latest move?

DS: When we look at any acquisition, there are always multiple factors at play. Sometimes it’s about accretive revenue—a numbers game that adds up on a spreadsheet. And yes, that’s certainly one component of this deal. But what really excited us about Avanti goes far beyond just the financials.

As Nick mentioned earlier, we’ve positioned ourselves as the MIS for the print industry. We have strong coverage across most segments—but there are still pockets where we haven’t had as much traction. In particular, in-plant operations and government institutions have been areas where we’ve had limited penetration. We do have some accounts in those spaces, but there’s one company that has consistently outperformed us there, and that’s Avanti.

They’ve done an excellent job with their solution, and they play exceptionally well in those specific markets. Over the past six months, we’ve had several internal conversations about how we could more effectively serve the in-plant space. It’s a large, often overlooked market—government agencies, universities, insurance companies—all with their own internal print operations. But it’s not a space that’s usually top of mind in the broader industry.

Avanti has excelled there. That said, their growth has likely been constrained by their size and by being part of a hardware-focused organization. Ricoh is a valued, long-time partner of ePS but their primary business focus is hardware.

By bringing Avanti under the EPS umbrella, we can apply our software-first mindset, go-to-market strategy, and broader platform capabilities to their well-established presence in in-plant and government sectors. Strategically, it’s a strong fit.

There are also clear opportunities to expand—both through upselling and cross-selling our broader suite of solutions to their existing customer base. And interestingly, there’s minimal overlap between our customer bases, which makes the combination even more compelling.

So at a high level, this acquisition is about complementary strengths, strategic market expansion, and unlocking growth in an important but under-served segment.

DV: From my perspective, this acquisition reinforces our position as a leader in the global MIS market. We’re strengthening our mid-market solutions and making a clear commitment to the industry. What’s equally important is the team—we’re bringing in a group of talented, capable people who will integrate well with our existing organization. Finding the right talent is a challenge for any business, so adding a strong team like this is a big win for us.

Doug really nailed it: you acquire companies either to expand your product portfolio or to enter new markets. Often, we ask ourselves—do we need to build a solution to enter this space, or can we acquire to accelerate our entry? In this case, acquisition made more sense. Avanti knows the in-plant and government market extremely well, and with our backing and cloud-based, AI-powered solutions, we can move faster and offer even greater value.

This is about combining strengths—bringing together their market expertise with our technology and vision to create something stronger than the sum of its parts.

WTT: What do Avanti customers gain from joining the ePS platform? What does the roadmap look like for customers to access and integrate these capabilities into their existing platforms?

NB: It’s always the first one we get. The first thing we do is honor the existing commitments made by the vendor. That’s essential. From there, everything begins with eFlow, our core integration framework. It’s the foundation for licensing, connectivity, and platform extensibility across our entire ecosystem.

So in the first few months, the Avanti team will be learning and adopting the eFlow. Once that’s in place, it unlocks access to the broader ePS portfolio. One area we’re particularly excited about is integrating MarketDirect StoreFront. That’s a perfect fit for in-plant and government customers, who are often looking for low-touch, traceable e-commerce workflows—whether it’s purchasing via credit card or internal account billing.

From there, other capabilities—like PrintFlow, AutoCount, or additional tools—can be introduced based on customer priorities. One of the things we value is engaging with customers directly through customer councils. We ask: Where’s the value? What’s going to deliver the most impact? In some environments, things like JDF/JMF and direct machine interfaces are essential. In others, not as much.

The beauty of eFlow is that once the framework is in place, everything else becomes modular. Want to send scheduling messages? Great. Need to do data collection or sales order processing? It’s all possible through the same extensible architecture. That flexibility is what allows us to scale and tailor solutions to what each customer needs most. 

WTT: Will ePS continue to sell Avanti?

DS: At the end of the day, our goal is to provide the best-fit product for each vertical or market segment. This was the same conversation we had with the Tharstern team and their customer base. Naturally, with the number of acquisitions we’ve made, there’s going to be some overlap in our portfolio—that’s to be expected.

But our strategy isn’t about forcing customers into a one-size-fits-all solution. We want to align each customer with the product that best fits their needs. Since acquiring EPMS, for example, we’ve seen customers move from EPMS to another solution in our portfolio—and others who have moved to EPMS after finding their legacy system no longer suited them.

We’re fortunate now to have broad coverage across the industry, and with Avanti joining the platform, the chances of us having the right fit for any given customer are better than ever. Our priority is making sure customers are using tools that deliver real value and meet their evolving needs—so they feel confident in their investment.

So yes, we’ll continue to sell Avanti, and we’ll do it with a strong focus on customer fit and long-term success.