Eliot Harper, industry analyst, has joined our site in an arrangement to management our Dot Com Watch. Eliot was educated at RIT. He has written for many leading trade publications and spoken at industry trade events. The Dot Com Watch is an effort to track the different e-Print and publishing companies. The list is a resource for printers and print buyers to examine different options in this growing area. Eliot has tracked these companies since the birth of the Internet. We wanted to formerly introduce him to our community. We look forward to his contributions to the site.

Eliot, why did you select the print industry as a career?

I stumbled into it. While I was looking for a suitable college degree, I assessed many different industries and found the printing industry to be an interesting and prosperous one. So, I chose to start on a Bachelors degree in Printing Management. I had little knowledge or experience of print at that stage—I thought 'Heidelberg' was a type of German wine!

From your experience, what makes a good print buyer?

A good print buyer is someone who understands the printing industry and it's technology. Unfortunately, there are few such people. I believe that many print buyers need more education about the processes, work flows and technology in our industry. The people who should be educating these print buyers are those with industry knowledge; printers.

Discuss adoption rates of technology - is it too slow?

In the past, the printing industry has always been cautious to adopt new technology. It seems many printers have adopted the policy "my technology works for me, so why change?". I used to regard that policy to be valid, but not anymore. Today, our industry is highly motivated by changes and advancements in technology, and it is important for printers to monitor, understand, and consider adopting such technology in order to succeed in this highly competitive arena.

What are the challenges for today's print buyer?

The main challenge for print buyers is keeping up-to-date with technology in our industry. New printing technology opens a mountain of new markets and opportunity. Print buyers need to understand this and use it to their advantage. In addition, print buyers need to open their eyes to what opportunities the Internet offers them—online service offerings are filled with many advantages to the automation, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the print-buying process.

What about challenges facing printers?

The largest challenge for printers today is in maintaining a competitive advantage against other market players. The problem throughout the printing industry is that there is little service and product differentiation between printers. They are all offering the same products; print. Online services enable printers to obtain a competitive advantage against their competitors, as such value-added services allow printers to extend their service offerings. The obstacle for printers is in influencing print buyers to use such services.

As we stated in your introduction, you have followed the “e” portion of the business for a long time. What will happen with the dot coms in the print industry space?

It is my belief that the Internet is the future for print. It is going to change the way printers and print buyers do business. However, such a transition does not occur overnight, it takes time for industry acceptance and implementation. Many of the 'print dot coms' did not predict this, which is why they are in their current state.

I predict that the 'print dot com' market will continue to develop, but the number of providers will continue to decline and consolidate. This development pattern is comparable to that of CTP (computer-to-plate) technology. Five years ago, there were many CTP vendors. Today, this market has consolidated down to a handful of vendors. Although the adoption of CTP was relatively slow, and did not happen overnight, the technology is still here, and its adoption is still increasing. We can expect to see a similar market development pattern for the 'print dot coms' of tomorrow.