This past week, I attended the IPMA Conference in Milwaukee. This year’s event had a Harley-Davidson theme and a tagline of “Full-Throttle Communication.” The in-plants in attendance demonstrated that they are revving up their engines to meet and exceed customer expectations.

Analysis of the in-plant market indicates that operations are expanding their services to enhance the value that they offer to customers. Rather than a revolution, in-plants are experiencing an evolution up a services-oriented value chain with a clear path for success. The progression starts with an investment in digital print technology, which includes cut-sheet as well as large format solutions. Once this component has been stabilized, in-plants will typically web-enable their operations to create “stickiness” within the user community. The next steps include variable data printing (VDP), e-mail and personalized URLs (pURLs), basic data/campaign management, and mobile/social media capabilities. Ultimately, the in-plant becomes a provider of integrated cross-media marketing services (including mailing and fulfillment operations).

Figure 1: The In-Plant Value Chain