The in-plant market is probably the most underestimated user of digital printing technology. In-plant printers are an important indicator of the market need for document production and digital software solutions. Historically, in-plants have played a leading role in technology adoption. For example, the in-plant market’s use of black & white digital printing technologies helped establish the print-on-demand market, and these technologies are now receiving tremendous attention from market suppliers that have digital color devices producing 60+ pages per minute. Because grasping the complexity of the evolving in-plant landscape is not easy, InfoTrends has returned to this topic with a recently published report entitled In-House Production Printing: Critical Trends for Corporations, Government, Education, and Non-Profits. Conducted in 2008 and released in February 2009, this report is a follow-up to a 2004 study entitled Corporate Print Services: The In-Plant Printing Opportunity. InfoTrends’ newest study examines the full range of corporate printing services, print technology utilization, and adoption of software solutions. Where appropriate, the results from our most recent survey are compared to those obtained during our 2004 study.

Just like the entire print-for-pay market, in-plants are in the midst of a radical transformation. The use of digital technologies, including the Internet, has triggered this transformation. Digital technologies and demands from users are forcing in-plants to adjust their service portfolios.

In a difficult economy, in-plants are confronted with the same challenges as the rest of the printing industry. Every internal dollar spent must have clear justification, and budget cuts will sometimes be necessary. In-plants must ensure that they are cost-competitive with external alternatives and prove that they are the best source for print and more advanced marketing services. In-plant shop management personnel are typically isolated from their overall organizations, and the expertise required to manage an in-plant shop can be quite different from what the overall business requires. InfoTrends’ February 2009 report is a clear indicator that in-plants are working aggressively to increase their value and strategic importance to organizations. They are increasing the use of digital color for marketing-oriented applications, increasing utilization of workflow tools to streamline operations, and increasing-value added service levels for organizations.