For decades, it was easy to spot the growing, cutting edge print manufacturing companies. They were the ones mentioned in the vendor press releases. “JSM Printing Company, installs the very first model XYZ press in North America.” Leadership in our industry was defined by who had the fortitude to be on the cutting edge to outdo their competitors by always being faster, more efficient, produce higher quality or a combination of all three.

There are still plenty of good innovation happening in print manufacturing. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it matters. Although from my skewed perspective, your technology stack is now more important. The learning curve is the print owner realizing that the investment required to build out a competitive technology stack is equivalent to the purchase of the latest print manufacturing equipment. With the latest digital print engines, well into the seven figures, we’re talking about a level of investment that simply shocks most print business owners.

When a printer reinvents themselves by implementing an entirely new technology stack from order entry to invoice who will write that press release? There will be many vendors involved, the project has taken years, the project never ends – technologies keep moving. Many of these projects fail so writing a press release would be like throwing salt on an open wound. Your company keeps changing. Your customer keeps demanding new things. A technology stack transformation to become a modern data-driven company doesn’t have a clear beginning and end – just a very long “we’re in the middle of it.”