In yesterday’s press conference, printCafe illustrated once again their commitment to lead the workflow business of print. The company continues to land customers and their announcement with WAM!NET yesterday puts them squarely in front of more Internet savvy users of print collaboration solutions.

Yesterday’s press conference yielded more details about their recent announcements and a few surprises:

- The PrintFlow scheduling application integrated to printCafe print management systems has 10 customers signed up even though it is in beta.

- printCafe continues to integrate with CreoScitex Insite, the Internet portal for Prinergy and Brisque workflows which more and more printers are adopting.

- The company has completed integration from MAN Roland's PECOM to printCafe Logic.

- A unique relationship with SMARTworks.com which connects printers to Global 3000 customers' for enterprise wide e-procurement, inventory management, and fulfillment.

- printCafe validates further WAM!NET’s file transfer capability by selecting them to be included in printCafe’s EnterpriseSite print procurement solution.

printCafe also updated the industry on progress with major corporate clients including General Motors, The Clorox Company, Guardian Life Insurance and Land O' Lakes among others.

On the print vendor side, printCafe executives said all their major brands have experienced growth signing over 40 new customers in the last 3 months: (Prograph, PrintFlow, PrinterSite, Hagen, PSI and Logic)

New customers included Bassett Printing, Motherall Printing, Banta Greenfield, Holt Sublimation, CUNA Mutual, MWM Dexter, LP Thebault, Dixie Labels and Precision Litho.

Worldwide, printCafe has expanded their efforts into Europe with the office there selling PrintSmith directly. On the drawing table? - the international release of Hagen early next year.

Andy Schaer provided his view of the market to WhatTheyThink.com. He is Senior Vice President of Marketing and has served as Senior Vice President, and Director of Account Management and Strategic Planning and in a variety of other positions for Ketchum Advertising, a division of TBWA/Chiat Day. Andy holds a B.A. from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Overall, printCafe solutions are installed in or hosted for over 8,000 printing facilities and print buyers worldwide, including 20 of the 25 largest printing companies in the United States and over 50 of the Fortune 1000 companies.

Andy, many printers know they need to upgrade their workflow systems. Printers we speak to blame the economy and think they have all the time in the world to act.

Sure, the business climate is not ideal. But imagine what would happen if printers took advantage of this as an opportunity for change and revamped their businesses to become truly vital during these tough times. Imagine how fast and far printers might then go when the economic winds are at their back. Now is the time for printers to act, not hunker down and ride it out.

What would you say to printers in this frame of mind?

The issue isn't so much what to do. Most printers know they need to be more efficient, reduce their costs, shore up their best customers, focus on the profitable work, get better utilization out of their equipment, and cut down on the waste. The important question is how. How to manage? How to make the decisions to increase the fitness of their printing business. They need the equivalent of X-ray vision. They need to be able to see their business more clearly, all of it, objectively and analytically.

You mentioned the ability to “see all of their business.” What questions should they ask themselves?

Many printers have some sort of print management system. But they should ask themselves if it connects all of important parts of their business. Does it let them see which of jobs are truly profitable and which are not? Does it add value to their sales people? Does it help them respond more quickly to their customer requests? Does it let them price more competitively? Can it impact their win rate? Are they getting the information from the shop floor necessary to reduce waste? Does it let them optimize their schedules so they get the most out of every press, every shift. If they had this information, I believe they would run their business, or do their jobs, differently. If they had this information they would be more profitable.

The confusion of what printCafe is all about was wide-spread a year ago. You hear less from the critics these days.

For us to win, the printer must win. Since our inception some 18 months ago, much has been said of printCafe. While the confusion and fear surrounding us appears to be giving way to clarity and credibility, there is still much to explain. We are on an ambitious course to enable the automation of the print supply chain for the benefit of all involved. Our detractors, or those who don't yet understand us, would argue our mission comes at the expense of the printer. They'd say we're commoditizing print to the detriment of the customer loyalty printers have worked so hard to build. In reality, the opposite is true.

Our mission is to provide the business information tools and support necessary for the printer to thrive in this challenging business environment. We’re delivering on this mission with new products, new services, and new partnerships. We’re delivering tangible value, not just promises. We’re introducing PrintFlow a dynamic scheduling module that’s integrated to our print management systems to help our customers optimize the utilization of their equipment. Our Auto-Count shop floor data collection module is now available for all of our print management systems to eliminate waste. And the PrinterSite Web solution enables our print management systems to enhance communication between sales people, estimators, CSRs and print buyers.

During and after PRINT 01 - What message do you have for printers interested in a new, more profitable way of doing business?

Our print management systems, printCafe Prograph, Hagen, Logic, PSI, and PrintSmith are at the core of the automated print supply chain. Through them we connect all of the people, parts and pieces of the printing plant, inside from the shop floor to the accounting system and virtually everything in between. Outside, we're providing better connections to their sales people, customers and suppliers. Ultimately, they'll all be connected. With our print management solutions, printers have the visibility into their business to make better decisions. They'll be more efficient, less wasteful. They'll be able respond more quickly, and win more business.