The Xplor conference in Orlando earlier this month may have had a lot fewer attendees than usual, but there certainly wasn't a shortage of examples of document management and print production and distribution technologies. Print engine vendors rolled out their latest engines and strutted their most powerful software for enabling new ways of controlling documents. On the floor and in numerous conference sessions the many aspects of convergence were mentioned time and again. In fact, it was highlighted as one of the key trends affecting the industry in a special session with editors of leading industry publications. In walking the show floor two aspects of convergence were readily apparent.

Flexibility
The broad range of applications and information being created across an enterprise has made flexible printing capabilities a critical requirement. Such flexibility is becoming especially important for companies seeking to maximize investments in document management and production hardware and software. But in many firms, printing legacy transactional documents such as statements and bills originally designed for 300 dpi print engines is at odds with the need to print production publishing quality documents at 600 dpi.

"Chances are, many legacy applications cannot be recreated to run at 600 dpi," explains Walter Young, DemandStream Product Manager at Océ Printing Systems USA. "Meanwhile, new applications with graphics, tints, and line art require 600 dpi."

This requires companies to either rewrite the legacy applications--usually a prohibitively expensive proposition with a limited return on investment--or have both 300 dpi and 600 dpi print engines. The vast majority of companies with both transactional and publishing applications take the latter approach, bearing the associated staffing, training, maintenance and space requirements of supporting two machines.

"Rather than invest in two different workflows and two different printers, it would be much more efficient and cost-effective to have a single workflow and printing architecture," says Young.

At the same time, either type of job may need short runs that don't fit economically on a larger machine. For example, many billing and statement applications are run on continuous feed printers, driven by AFP, IPDS, Metacode, and LCDS datastreams. At most companies, some percentage of these documents usually need to be reprinted to correct errors or provide replacement copies. Such replacement copies don't always fit well into data center and service bureau workflows, requiring comparatively expensive exception processing. "Using a lower-cost, cut-sheet device for such copies is the best solution for this," says Wayne Slotka Marketing Program Manager for mid-range systems at Océ Printing Systems USA. "A smaller machine doesn't take up much space and can be operated by existing staff, so it adds a lot of flexibility without a major capital investment."

High-speed, multiple resolution
Convergence is resulting in jobs coming into data centers that vary significantly in their print requirements. Oftentimes, machines from different vendors are used to accommodate the varying needs. As demonstrated at Print 01 and Xplor, the Océ DemandStream 8090cx can serve as two printers in one. The 8090cx can print production publishing documents at 744 images per minute at 600 dpi using fine toner, then speed up to 1062 ipm for printing transaction documents using 300 dpi consumables. Océ's Quick Change Developer Stations (QCDS) reduce toner changes to just minutes, minimizing downtime between jobs and often enabling one machine to do the work of two. The flexibility also extends to highlight color, which is becoming an increasing part of many transactional jobs. On the DS8090cx and most other Océ printers QCDS enables fast color changes, along with the unique ability to add customized spot colors to a document. This enables companies to add corporate colors to virtually any document, aiding branding and enhancing readability.

Such flexibility provides a significant benefit by enabling companies to produce a wide range of jobs on a single machine--doing more with less equipment. Fewer machines can also reduce staffing needs, decrease space requirements, and may eliminate the need to send out some types of work. For example, jobs using pre-printed paper stock for incorporation of a logo or a background color may require outsourcing the color printing and also incur costs for storage and management of the pre-printed inventory. In many cases, a highlight color printer can do the necessary color printing, eliminating these costs.

Mid-range, short-run
But what about those short-runs and reprints that aren't efficient on a large printer? The new Océ 750 and 3275 printers are intended to serve the short-run needs of many companies. These 75 page-per-minute machines are designed to fit well into workgroups, corporate networks, data centers, and CRDs, and can produce documents from a full range of page description languages, including LCDS, IPDS, PostScript, PDF, and PCL. This provides the flexibility needed for virtually any printing requirement across an enterprise. A reprint of a bill normally produced using a LCDS or IPDS data stream, for example, can be quickly produced on these smaller machines, aiding responsiveness to customer needs. Likewise, a single copy of a customized training manual can be produced to replace one damaged during finishing or binding.

Small printers like these exemplify some of the changes wrought by convergence. Although workgroup, network, data center and CRD environments are very different, physical production of a document relies on similar techniques and processes. When backed up with software (such as Océ PRISMA and Squadron) offering comprehensive document management and print production controls machines such as the high-speed DemandStream 8090cx, the mid-range DemandStream 4040, and the new Océ 750 or 3275 deliver flexible cross-enterprise solutions for document production. Being able to produce documents truly on-demand in widely separated locations provides the flexibility needed for reaching into new markets, and being more responsive to customer needs. Consider, for example, a customer request for a replacement product manual. Rather than storing an indeterminate number of hard copies or batch printing them periodically, a customer service rep could send an order for the needed manual to the printer where it would be printed as a one-off copy and sent to the customer.

Quality
Among the array of cut-sheet and continuous-feed print engines shown at Xplor, quality ranged from outstanding to mediocre. When considering print quality, though, it's important to consider the application. While 600 dpi is the generally accepted standard, it is by no means essential for all documents. If sharp, clear halftones are important, then a 600 dpi engine is key. But for many transactional documents, a lower resolution may well be a better choice (even if the document can be successfully printed at 600 dpi), for there is also a cost differential for the consumables. The plain text of mutual fund statements, credit card statements and utility bills, for example, may not require higher print resolution, so the higher cost of consumables associated with printing at a higher resolution does not have a quantifiable benefit.

Furthermore, quality in transactional documents may have less to do with resolution than appearance or eye appeal. A 300 dpi document (or one printed using 300 dpi consumables on a 600 dpi print engine) may be made more effective--essentially improving quality--through the use of spot color than by crisper-looking text. In bills, for instance, spot color can draw attention to important messages and to the balance due. In mutual fund statements color can highlight fund values and percent changes, making statements easier to read.

"No matter the resolution or colors used, the objective is delivering excellent print quality from existing data streams in the most cost effective and timely fashion," says Young. "And in the case of a bill, what's most important is that the bill get there as soon as possible."

Still, the increasing convergence of applications and print streams across transactional and on-demand printing is keeping print quality an important issue for print engine vendors and their customers.

Viewed as parts of the converging print production process, flexibility and quality are becoming tightly interrelated. Using a fast, lower-quality print engine or a slower, higher-quality one are no longer mutually exclusive choices, and the cost implications of higher resolution do not have to be restrictive. Similarly, smaller devices are gaining capability and flexibility, enabling end users to do more with less.