A glimpse into print’s future Jo Francis, Printing World, 12 December 2008

12th December 2008

Taken from an article in Print Week:

One print company that has been IT-savvy for more than 20 years is imageData Group. The £25m-turnover firm lays claim to being a world pioneer in this respect, as it has been producing data-driven print for more than a quarter of a century thanks to the foresight of chairman Roger Birkin. Chief executive David Danforth says: We’ve always been a very forward-looking company, and our chairman Roger Birkin foresaw commodity pricing on a large element of print work. With data-driven print we have a relationship with our customers and we are not just ships that pass in the night. The company has always maintained an IT department as a fundamental part of the business. It’s not something that’s internal-looking, it’s more external, adds Danforth. We have 10 pure IT staff which is a lot for a business of our size. They spend a lot of time visiting customers, and looking at data streams. They visit every major customer we deal with.

imageData has finessed its processes to the extent that some work is automatically loaded onto its digital presses via external instructions from clients, and will be printing before it’s been manually touched in any way onsite. Danforth believes the cost-effectiveness of digital kit will continue to improve, but he can’t see litho being completely phased out. That said, our new business conversations are more focused on things that will be printed digitally. 

Click here to read full Printweek article.