The notion that dynamic CRM initiatives made by American businesses will fuel significant growth in variable information printing (VIP), has been one of my long term beliefs. A recent announcement by HP’s Bill McGlynn, vice president and general manager of Hewlett-Packard’s Commercial Printing Solutions Division, further strengthened this belief. "Accurate and targeted communication anywhere, any time, and on any device is what customer organizations are trying to achieve. This is what people have been discussing for years." McGlynn’s comments were made as he announced a new alliance between HP and Banta Corporation.

For years, corporate America has been acutely aware that keeping existing customers coming back is more cost effective than finding new ones. A fact which is apparently lost on the customer service representative of my local fuel oil supplier! CRM is really the motivator behind printing industry convergence. Previously, I have discussed XML and CRM as focal points, actively being addressed by corporations. CRM is really the key driver for both XML and digital printing.

Variable data printing is inexorably tied into CRM, and CRM means big growth for printers who have links with customer-focused corporations. Many corporations possess IT and data manipulation capabilities within their normal customer servicing functions. What they may not possess, is the capability and, more importantly, the understanding of what it takes to deliver professionally executed and finished customer communication pieces. Print providers, downstream from corporate datastreams, should be able to cash in on this CRM megatrend without having to go into the IT business themselves.

Companies want to be able to store and retrieve their corporate assets and customer specific information from immediately-accessible content repositories. These important bits of customer specific information are often referred to as corporate assets or knowledge. Once this information is defined, a meta-data description about the content is written, is tagged and stored. Once done, this content melds with account histories and psycho demographic information and is served-up on demand, whenever, however and wherever necessary. This includes wireless devices, on-line queries from customers through the Internet, immediate access via an internal, intranet portal for customer service representatives, and product information in the form of brochures and individualized customer communications. These can be printed, displayed electronically or e-mailed.

Being able to put the middleware in position to accomplish this corporate wish list is exactly what McGlynn hopes the Banta/HP relationship will do. Banta’s B-Media solution is like a giant tool box which can be configured to track, recall and reassemble content at will. This partnership positions HP squarely on both the printing and content server sides of the CRM equation. Banta’s B-Media is a robust product which can be tweaked for specific applications. It has built-in hooks to connect with the bits and pieces needed to retrieve content elements from central and multiple repositories and enable the creation of highly individualized documents.

Variable data print sales, according to a new GAMIS’ (Graphic Arts Marketing Information Service) study, are projected to grow from $2.56 billion in 2001 to $6.28 billion in 2004. Personally, I believe this growth will be further enhanced by the Anthrax scare. Since Anthrax has caused mail recipients to be wary of handling and opening bulk mail, future direct mail will be both personalized and individualized for the interests of the addressee. No matter, whether it’s a four, six or eight billion dollar market, such rapid growth suggests that printers will be lucratively tied into this CRM boom. Undoubtedly, McGlynn also sees a few more printers and print consumables in the mix for HP. Remember that HP recently acquired Indigo. Indigo print engines can crank out high quality, individualized, one-to-one marketing pieces on demand. Taken together, HP, Indigo and B-Media should provide a significant tool for VIP growth.

Savvy print providers should build alliances with customer-focused corporations in their region. These printers can become the outsourcing recipients for corporate print jobs. Corporations, themselves, can handle the IT function, crunch the data and feed the variable information, via the Internet, to the print provider. The printer then executes and fulfills highly-individualized communications on behalf of the company. Such partnerships facilitate participation by print providers in this high growth segment, without requiring them to learn a totally new business of information technology. Conversely, by aggressively pursuing corporate CRM initiatives, print providers can provide corporations with a reason to outsource customer communications, rather than go into the printing business themselves.