The Hindu Business Line : Settling for innovation

Variable Data Printing is a form of on-demand printing in which elements such as text, graphics and images can be customised for each and every document without stopping or slowing down the press, and by using information from a database.

There's more to the bill. - BIJOY GHOSH

Your phone bill looks grey and uninviting, even if you aren't making a face at the amount, right?

But then how innovative can bill printing get, you might wonder.

Bhavish Graphics, started in 2003 as a Unit of S. Viswanathan Printers & Publishers Pvt Ltd, which caters to the commercial printing business, would like to think differently.

The company won the first prize in the transactional printing category for an entry titled, `Telecoms/Toothpaste mailer', in the Printing Innovation with Xerox Imaging (PIXI) awards 2006, the annual showcase for Xerox equipment users to demonstrate their digital printing applications in Birmingham (UK).

Shree Kumar of Bhavish Graphics

And Shree Kumar, Director-Marketing, Bhavish Graphics, says if you are paying your bills on time and they actually make you smile, then the way the bills have been printed could have something to do with it.

Excerpts from a chat with eWorld:

What is variable data printing?

Variable Data Printing (VDP) is a form of on-demand printing in which elements such as text, graphics and images can be customised for each and every document without stopping or slowing down the press, and by using information from a database.

Marketers, realising the importance of personalised communication, use variable date printing, which is an integral part of digital printing.

The banking, telecom and insurance industries remain the biggest users. Studies have shown that applications such as personalised print application evoke a 500 per cent higher response rate than a static (offset) application.

How does this application help the end consumer?

A leading telecom service provider in South India used the application.

The client was sending monthly telecom bills to customers in the normal black and white format.

The client was also printing the bills in cluster printing format. An acknowledgement form was printed along with the bills additionally, and attached to the envelopes. The post office/courier got the acknowledgement from the customer.

The service provider, on receipt of these acknowledgement forms from the courier company, fed them into the system, physically, using temporary staff. All this increased time and cost.

The client was looking for a more effective solution in this context.Xerox India proposed variable data printing as a way out.

We offered the customer the following options: Pre-printing the first page of the bills in offset with multi-colour advertisements, thereby giving some life to the bills. We offered our DP 180 EPS printing solutions that brought down their bill printing time.

We inserted a barcode solution in their bill — a unique customer ID was converted into a barcode and was printed as variable data along with the address of the customers.

The barcodes are visible through the windows in the envelopes. After inserting the bills into the window envelopes, the envelopes are swiped through a barcode reader, which picks up the unique ID and prints the customer's address and other details.

The barcode sticker is then pasted in the acknowledgement sheet with perforation that is pre-pasted in the window envelopes.

The courier/post office delivers the bills and gets the signature on the acknowledgement sheet and tears along the perforated lines and retains the same. The acknowledgement sheets are then sent to the client's office. On receipt, the acknowledgement sheets are scanned for the barcode sticker on them and the details are automatically captured in the system.

What were the perceptible gains?

There were a number of reasons that influenced the telecom provider's decision to move from regular office machines to production equipment.

These include: Double-sided printing as against simplex printing, increase in speed by 100 per cent (the pages per minute increased from 100 pages per minute to 180 pages per minute) and reduction in printing cost by 40 per cent.

The bills reached the customers faster, in turn giving them more time to pay, and hence, improving the cash flow.

There were savings in direct and indirect cost such as real estate, transportation, focus on core competency by complete outsourcing.

The total cost of printing the bills was cut down by 22 per cent. The turnaround time was reduced by 50 per cent.

The improvements on the bill design helped to improve the brand perception.

The telecom provider also experienced cash flow benefits.

What is the current potential of the digital printing market in India? Where do you see the market in 2007-08?

Pharmaceuticals, retail and publishing are the sectors that will drive the growth of the digital printing market.

According to print and packaging research organisation Pira International, India's printing market is projected to grow to about $17 billion by 2010 from an estimated $11 billion in 2005.

paromita@thehindu.co.in

More Stories on : Interview | Software | Printing

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Expanding the footprint...

Winning, by design

Marking time

IT in IP and IP in IT

Flights that catch the fancy

System information, diagnosis

Enabling auto logon

Settling for innovation

`Open' chat on Linux

Caught looking!

Quiz

From Microsoft to the land of monks

Cartoon

Sound sans noise