The buy up of NZ Print Companies by overseas investors continues, along with new players coming in via the net. Last month saw Vistaprint targeting small businesses here. Just this week it was announced global on-demand print provider, Yamagata is also setting up shop downunder, targeting the Corporate market.

A "full-service print-on-demand, content management, and logistics support" provider.  A company with a strong process engineering, manufacturing and logistics heritage, they run HP Indigo Presses, fed by their own XLDoc web portal technology. It all ensures their corporate clients have 24-hour access to a suite of online Order Management, Brochure Versioning and Job Tracking tools, guaranteeing fastest customer response and delivery times, worldwide. Their list of value-added services is impressive.

But in a market flooded with digital print capacity, why would another player bother to enter the Australasian market? The reasons are obvious...

Firstly I guess, they want to better support their existing base of clients based in Europe, Japan or America. Local offices of these customers can now obtain customised materials within a couple days, instead of waiting a 2 weeks to have it shipped in from the US.

Secondly, they will see many new, untapped market opportunities here. Like Vistaprint, they already have the web portal sales machinery and necessary back-end infrastructure in place. Adapting it to work for Australian and NZ customers is easy. The web support tools Yamagata have will hit an instant accord with many big Corporates here looking for better methods and processes to obtain short-run, fully customised manuals and marketing materials. 

Marketing, Sales and Procurement Managers in big business are singing the praises of these types of tools in the US and Europe. Many have been using them to order print for 5+ years. Marketers especially love the ability to do more of the design, personalisation, proofing, ordering and inventory management online. Anytime, anywhere. It saves them time and costs. Even if our local printers manage to match (or better) the raw print price, they still can't compete on the instant service or contribute to the client's own internal cost-reduction strategies.

If you've ever seen a demonstration of this type of online procurement technology in action you'll see why big business likes it. The Yamagata XLdoc system is special. Even our own best Digital Storefront technology, can't match this stuff. XLdoc we understand is highly customer-focused, having specific procurement and logistics features that fits the big business mindset.

However for those that are interested in what makes the younger 'new-age' marketers dribble, the nearest "off the shelf" equivalent we've seen is at www.saepio.com A professional-grade system that's light-years ahead of local developments. 

Check Saepio out. It's the way the way the world (and your major customers) are going. Call us if you want us to arrange a formal demonstration...

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