IBM Demonstrates its Commitment to the Future of One-to-One Marketing Print Solutions at the On Demand Conference
Offers InfoColor 70 Customers New Options For Implementing Variable Data Content
On Dem & 98, Booth #406, NEW YORK (May 05, 1998) – Expanding the range of its document cutomization solutions available to digital printing
marketplace, IBM will demonstrate three creation tools and services here. The offerings include the distribution of Barco’s VIPDesigner**; the
offering of FAIR Information Services’ customized solutions; and collaboration with Bitstream to develop new software which is being
previewed at the show.
These offerings complement existing packages for the IBM InfoColor 70* such as Merge Doc* — which combines all the variable elements and builds PostScript** pages that can be output on the InfoColor 70; and IBM IntelligentMiner* — an application which analyzes and categorizes text documents and searches for hidden information stored in traditional files, databases, data warehouses and data marts. By offering a
number of software choices with the IBM InfoColor 70 — a full-color, 70 impressions per minute (ipm) digital printer — IBM’s customers have access
to totaloutput solutions, making it easier to create customized material based on their needs.
As the InfoColor 70 has generally been used for short-run color printing, more businesses have begun to recognize the value of one-to-one
marketing. The tools that IBM extends to its customers can significantly increase sales resulting from targeted campaigns. Car manufacturers,
insurance companies, retailers and financial institutions which have implemented this technology in direct marketing campaigns have achieved
response rates in excess of 28 percent, compared to 3 – 5 percent using traditional, non-personalized campaigns. Other materials that can be
generated include coupons, catalogs, invitations, manuals, notifications, directories and dealer-specific literature.
The latest solutions which are being demonstrated at IBM’s booth, # 406, at the OnDemand conference include:
Barco’s VIPDesigner — VIPDesigner supports all the standard features for page composition and text formatting, assigning variable data
place-holders, or fields, simplifying the process of creating variable data layouts in a QuarkXPress document.
FAIR — FAIR Information Services, an IBM business partner based in the Netherlands, provides customized, integrated variable content system
integration and support to customers, based on their specific needs. The variable content documents are created with information accessed through the Internet. An new industry application using this technology will be demonstrated.
Bitstream’s PageFlex** and MediaBank** – PageFlex is a page composition software that enables users to automatically produce customized pages for print. Utilizing data field inclusion, conditionalization and variability down to the character level, PageFlex creates customized documents on-the-fly for an audience of one. By separating form and content, PageFlex redefines a document from a static, single-purpose entity into a dynamic, multi-purpose asset that can be used repeatedly.
“IBM took its first steps in the color print-on-demand market nearly three years ago providing offset quality, short-run color printing. Today we are taking color one step further by making fully-personalized color printing easier,” said Bob Cooper, color production and one-to-one
marketing segment manager, IBM Printing Systems Company. “The breadth of our product line allows us to to meet the specific needs of our customers, helping them create effective direct marketing campaigns achieving results which exceed their expectations.”
VIPDesigner has already been implemented at select InfoColor 70 sites. According to Jerry Cicero, president of Cicero Graphic Resources,
Inc., “We have found that VIPDesigner gives us far more variable data capabilities than we’ve had before. It has already been valuable in our
first steps to increasing the flexibility in the type of variable data jobs we’re creating.”
Source: IBM