Translucently Symbiotic – the case for Integrated Print

Integrated Print is a myth. There are two worlds of Print that are all but invisible to each other. Worlds where core principles and tools and processes are shared. Where the desired outcomes – the reasons Why to Print – are often the same. Worlds where the content, messaging and design may be identical.And often, the customers for these two Worlds are the same exact people.

So, why are Office Print and Production Print two distinctly different worlds? Why are the two almost never integrated?

(Oh how I Love Great Questions!)

Translucently Symbiotic

When I first heard that curiosity from Jim Jensen of Intermountain Healthcare, I blew it off. Didn’t think much about it. I wasn’t even sure I knew what he meant by Office Print.

But he kept asking.

Then Jim introduced me to Chris Telesco of Les Olson Company, and I was hooked. Les Olson is the leading Office Print company in Utah, and Chris has spent much of his life there, helping customers buy and manage printers, copiers and fax machines. All of the cool print devices that live in the hallway or office or operating room. Anywhere but in a production printing company.

In just a short conversation with Chris, I was intrigued. He used words I’d never heard, and described problems I didn’t know existed.

I had to know more…

So I’ve spent several months learning and studying. Learning about Office Print, and Managed Print Services, and In-House print operations. Studying why customers choose one over the other. And learning that most often it’s a choice they are inappropriately forced to make.

Much left to explore here, much yet to be learned, to understand. But I have come to see one thing clearly from these two friends…

There IS a connection between Office Print and Production Print. And there ought to be a more meaningful connection. Integrated Print should be a reality for most large organizations, and even some smaller ones.

I can see that these two worlds need each other…that the most vexing limitations and intractable constraints of each, can sometimes be solved by the other. I am absolutely convinced that these worlds are symbiotic.

And that our customers – many of whom Les Olson and Hudson share – can benefit greatly from such a connection.

Today that connection remains translucent for me… I know it’s there, but it is not yet obvious, my vision of what it could be is not yet complete.

But it’s a vision that’s absolutely worth exploring, worth clarifying.