"As you walk the floor at Print 09, you'll see that more and more the exhibitions are not about what the technology can do, but about the business reasons for using the technology. This application focus puts the customer at the center, and the conversation focuses on their business and their potential return."
 
That was how Peter Muir, president, Bizucate, Inc., set up his presentation on "The Next Killer Digital App" to open the 2009 Xerox Corporation Premier Partners Global Network Congress in Chicago on Sept. 10. About 80 Premier Partners from North and South America attended the day-long session of presentations and networking opportunities.
 
"A killer app is remarkable to the receiver, sender or both," Muir explained. "It sparks a story about value that begs to be told, uses an approach that fits an audience or individual need at the moment."
 
The rest of the program explored many elements of killer applications. Dan Adler, president and founder, D.A. Digital, described opportunities in transpromotional documents that bring relevant marketing communications to bills and statements. Waleed Ashoo, president of Lithexcel, Inc., a Premier Partner in Albuquerque, N.M., presented on "Pricing for Value," an alternative to cost-plus pricing that is better suited to achieving profitability with today's mix of communications services.
 
A panel of four Xerox customers described some of their most successful applications.
    •    Juan Luis Sommers, owner and president, escaneografica, Santiago, Chile described how his 20-year-old company has changed from a service bureau to a digital printing company, and is initiating a photo books business with a major Chilean retailer.
    •    Chris Hutson, president, DCG Digital Color Graphics, Indianapolis, Ind., spoke about convincing Habitat for Humanity to use greater personalization in a campaign during the recession, helping the non-profit meet its goal of funding a new home's construction.
    •    Eduardo Najera, president and owner of Printshop, Mexico City, Mexico, discussed how his firm is using business development tools from the Xerox ProfitAccelerator Digital Business Resources collection to refocus its business on value-added services.
    •    Alin Jacobs, president and chief marketing evangelist, the Direct Marketing Alliance, Daytona Beach, Fla., offered his view that to effectively drive VDP (variable data printing) business, providers need to think more broadly of VDC (variable data communications).
 
Several Xerox executives also presented. Gina Testa, vice president, Xerox Worldwide Graphic Communications Business, exhorted Premier Partners to prepare to come out of the recession as leaders. She also reported the results of the second annual survey of Premier Partners, including that 80 percent are generating new revenue with digital printing. Another speaker, Peter Crean, senior fellow, Xerox Research Center, Webster, N.Y., offered a glimpse of current initiatives in Xerox research labs and future directions in graphic communications technologies.
 
"The meeting was great for learning about industry trends, and what other companies are doing to cope with the recession and help their customers," said Eduardo Najera. "In particular, I learned a lot from Waleed Ashoo's presentation on value pricing, because we're starting to sell more variable data information, but we don't always know how to price those jobs. I expect to use many of his ideas when I return."