InfoTrends has announced the launch of a new multi-client study, Photo Production Workflow Solutions and Sales Strategies. This study aims to identify best practices across all the U.S. photo service segments and profile service providers that are best positioned to grow their photo businesses. The information obtained will help vendors more effectively work alongside service providers and provide more holistic support.

As companies recover from the economic recession, many service providers are looking to incorporate photo publishing and merchandise into their portfolio of services as a way of supplementing their current business with new offerings that are sheltered from commoditization. In addition, new companies are being built and organized specifically to capture emerging opportunities within the photo publishing and merchandise markets.

The two critical challenges service providers face are customer acquisition and establishing workflows that are optimized for photo production. The variables associated with the photo production environment range dramatically and influence everything from IT infrastructure, to photo creation software, to production hardware, and more. To further complicate this challenge, no two production workflows are identical.

Matt Rees, a Senior Consultant at InfoTrends, states, “The specialty photo products market as a whole is a relatively young marketplace with few blueprints to follow in regard to optimal workflows. Service providers are seeking direction from their vendors on how to best align their hardware and software in a way that allows them to produce products in the most cost efficient manner. However, given the number of variables and range of solutions to meet small to large scale volume production, the process of pairing the right solutions with the right workflow can become difficult for vendors to navigate.”

InfoTrends will uncover the information vendors need to support their print service provider customers through extensive primary research efforts including structured surveys deployed to commercial print service providers and photo labs; personal interviews with PSPs, labs, and national photo retailers; and personal interviews with customer-facing organizations. Objectives of this research include:

Study automated workflows, operational efficiencies, and best practices within the industry

Explore the infrastructure requirements for effectively “brokering” photo merchandise between production suppliers and customer-facing organizations

Understand the substrate needs of photo product manufacturers

Identify how photo software and equipment vendors can more effectively enable print providers and drive sales of photo products (e.g. key verticals, licensed content, product development)

For more information or to sign up as a participant, contact Matt O’Keefe at +1 781 616 2100 ext. 115 or e-mail [email protected]. Early subscriber discounts are available until March 31, 2011.

InfoTrends, a Questex company, is the leading worldwide market research and strategic consulting firm for the digital imaging and document solutions industry. We provide research, analysis, forecasts, and advice to help clients understand market trends, identify opportunities, and develop strategies to grow their businesses. Additional information about InfoTrends is available on the Web at www.infotrends.com.