Question: What was the most important lesson you have learned? 

Answer: Print will always be popular. It will change, but I think we can all agree that it will remain an essential part of the communication mix for years to come. 

However, we need to modernise our approach. We need to be smarter in how we implement print for our customers, employees and our own business, making sure we respond to new demands, adapt to new working practices and be more efficient.

Ricoh has been at the forefront of innovative trends, working with our customers to build environments that use digital and print technology to improve capabilities, employee experience, productivity and operational efficiency.

Question: What do you think are the implications of hybrid working for print businesses? 

Answer: Print customers shifting to an outsourced on-demand service geared up for hybrid working will have new expectations. 

Therefore, the print industry needs to attract a younger and more diverse workforce while retaining and upskilling its existing one. We need to build diverse perspectives to meet new expectations and ambitions. 

This will drive innovation and new ways of doing business. Investing in people who engage with your customers and encourage new and exciting ideas is essential. We believe this will underpin the discovery and retention of new business relationships and drive the print industry forward.

Question: What is the biggest challenge facing digital print and how will changing trends affect the print industry?

Answer: Digital print needs to become more impactful, innovative and meaningful to compete effectively with online and digital-only campaigns.

In 2022, we expect more digital migration, impacted by the continued improvements of inkjet platforms. We also hope to see concerns around housing customer data and managing cybersecurity addressed through robust MIS software solutions.

Question: What innovation, new technology, or development are you most excited to see in the coming years?

Answer: We are very excited about our Z75 engine, which we previewed this year. 

Looking to the future, the print industry needs to optimise the value of print as a critical component of the marketing mix; it needs to attract younger and more diverse workers, focus on sustainability, and reduce carbon emissions. I look forward to seeing how we progress with these causes as an industry. 

Question: What is your organisation’s main goal for 2022?

Answer: To continue supporting, working and collaborating with our customers and partners within the print sector. We will help our customers to scale up and skill up in new directions and enhance their competence in delivering purpose-driven solutions.

Additionally, as a global digital services organisation we aim to drive alignment with the wider Ricoh portfolio. We see an increased number of customers taking advantage of our digital offering, i.e. cyber security, IT solutions, workplace solutions, sustainability solutions and manufacturing services.

Question: Is there a wider industry trend that you think will significantly make an impact over the next 12 months?

Answer: Hybrid working patterns may change print and fulfilment requirements. It will likely make production more localised to see a reduction in shipping, containers, and waste, as well as an increase in personalisation. 

Print businesses need to capitalise on the existing infrastructure in the upcoming year while challenging their current workflow process, identifying where manual processes could cause errors or slow production and transitioning these into digital. 

The quick wins and short-term benefits need to be identified first, and then an analysis needs to be undertaken as to where productivity gains could be made. 

This needs to be done carefully and considerately. Business leaders must take the time to further develop workers by upskilling them and nurturing their existing skills to optimise investments and collaborate efficiently with suppliers. 

Print businesses must ask for innovations, workflow reviews, and – most of all – remain curious about what is possible.

Question: Ricoh has announced a couple of DTG partnerships recently (Aeoon/Josero), so this is a market that’s important to the company. Can we expect any more news or developments on this front? 

Answer: Ricoh has an extensive range of commercial printing, corporate printing, and signage solutions. It is experiencing growth in these sectors, and it will continue to commit significant R&D resources and spending to improve its solutions in the DTG market. 

This Q&A was originally published in digital printer magazine in 2022.

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At Ricoh, we believe in the value of print and its ability to create human experiences, so we thought it was time to say thank you. 

Who are the Champions of Print?

Our Champions of Print video is a little tribute to the print businesses we work with. The print businesses on the front line, pushing the boundaries, advancing human communication and modernising a craft centuries in the making. 

They are enthusiastic about print and its ability to thrill and inspire. We see you, and the powerful outcomes you’re creating by fusing digital experiences with the familiarity of print. We admire the campaigns you’re producing. Your role in creating culture and the narratives you’re shifting, while delivering excellent service to your customers. 

You’re the people and the businesses that will keep our industry moving. 

Innovation in print

Despite the prevailing belief that the print industry is in a downturn, the reality is, print is experiencing significant growth. 

Our Champions of Print are at the forefront of this growth. We’re delighted to be working with you, side by side, to design and manufacture print technology that empowers innovation. Together, we can achieve groundbreaking results.

The challenges facing print

The pandemic, Brexit, digital transformation, and the shift from high volume to low volume, targeted print have all put pressure on the industry. But our Champions are always adapting and evolving, using our technology to make evocative and powerful print. 

Become a Champion of Print 

Print businesses don’t come to Ricoh just to buy a printing press. They come to us because we understand their journey, and they want Ricoh to join them as they innovate, collaborate, and problem-solve for a successful future. 

As a printer, you must be willing to embrace change, think hard and plan exhaustively as you chart a course forward, and invest in the people and technology that will enable you to put those ideas into effect.

We can advise you on how to move ahead. You can read more details in our Anything in Print ebook. 

Despite the challenges and ever-changing trends, we will continue to innovate and provide solutions to meet the demands of tomorrow. 

We are honoured to partner with some great purpose-driven print businesses, and we salute them, the Champions of Print. This is a proud industry, one that we are proud to be part of. Let’s carry on working together. 

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What is hybrid working?

Let’s start with the basics. There are different types of hybrid working.

1. Every employee has complete flexibility to work at will on-site or remotely. 

2. Every employee has a designated rota of on-site and remote days.

3. Some employees work fully on-site, some employees work fully remote.

4. Some employees have flexibility, some work full-time in one location.

There could even be other permutations but none of the options are right or wrong. Depending on your sector, your core services, and the size of your organisation, any of them could apply to you. You might already know which of these setups will suit you best. 

But like any large scale project, the first step is to consider the perspectives of your key stakeholders and your people. Find out what they need to communicate and collaborate effectively. You can then build a business case that gathers all the data, resources and insights. It must also balance the potential ROI of switching to a hybrid working model. 

The three factors you need to consider when talking to stakeholders

Depending on where your stakeholders sit within the business, three arguments are likely to be raised: productivity, staffing and culture. These core principles were introduced by Mark Mortensen, an associate professor in organisational behaviour, following hundreds of hours of interviews with business leaders in 2021. 

Keeping these principles at the forefront of your mind will ensure you’re well equipped going into conversations with key stakeholders, helping you develop a critical standpoint on the different needs and perspectives within your organisation. 

1. Productivity

Some argue that working side-by-side in an office allows for seamless communication. While others may say their team has been even more productive in remote working conditions where they can manage their schedule and be free of office distractions. Whichever side of the debate you’re on, hybrid working clearly impacts collaboration. 

This conversation is particularly relevant for your colleagues in operations tasked with identifying the optimal form of working arrangements to ensure your organisation delivers on its promises. 

2. Staffing

The question of a great resignation proves that some employees will quit if not granted some flexibility. It also stands to reason that companies who don’t offer this will be at a disadvantage when attracting and retaining quality talent. Ensuring this factor is taken into account is an important objective for HR. 

3. Culture

There are widely differing opinions on whether it’s possible to communicate company cultural beliefs and behaviours in a remote world and how to best do so. As culture is often implicitly understood, this argument is difficult to substantiate. 

The important takeaway is that hybrid working shouldn’t erode the culture that has made your organisation what it is and actively seek ways to support it. Your hybrid working model should also build a culture of trust, where management trusts employees to stay engaged and productive from remote locations. 

What are the operational benefits of hybrid working? 

To make hybrid a true success, you need robust technology. Ensure your business and your people achieve their goals from any location. As a result of implementing this technology, you stand to optimise efficiency. To define success, you need to explore what a positive outcome looks like for you, whether that be gains in productivity, business growth or staff retention. 

Communication and collaboration tools can remove everyday friction and enable your teams to connect, collaborate and create seamlessly wherever they are. By replicating the ease of jumping on a video call remotely in an in office environment you can make the office a destination again, where employees can come together to collaborate and seek inspiration. And when meetings run smoothly, applications work reliably, and collaboration is frictionless, your business is more productive and, in turn, more competitive. 

To power these applications, you will need infrastructure to carry and store the communication traffic as well as the cybersecurity measures to protect you from network breaches. Putting all this in place requires expertise from a trusted partner. The agility and flexibility these types of solutions provide will substantially accelerate the digital transformation of your organisation. 

By identifying the positive impact of the technology investments you could make to support your hybrid working model, you can impress your stakeholders most concerned with productivity and culture. 

What are the people benefits of hybrid working? 

Hybrid working has several people benefits, including increased morale and employee engagement. It also boosts employee retention and creates an enhanced talent pool. 

It also empowers organisations to become more diverse and inclusive by enabling access to talented individuals who may have previously been unable to apply, due to inflexible set working hours or locations. This can only be positive, leading to diverse views and experiences which can generate creativity and productivity.

Surveying UK businesses on their remote working practices, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has also revealed the following stats which support long-term flexible or hybrid working models. Not only do these statistics show a positive outlook for employees it also shows gains for employers. By putting people at the centre of decision making, it improves overall outcomes and user adoption. 

• 46% of employees believe they have seen increased wellbeing simply for having greater flexibility of their working hours.
• 34% of the respondents believe that flexible working leads to creative collaboration via IT.
• 33% felt that there was a reduction in distractions.¹

Ricoh can help you enable hybrid working 

As an organisation, we see hybrid working as the keystone to unlocking human potential, innovation and productivity. We work with organisations to implement successful hybrid working models. We also grant our own people flexible-first hybrid working arrangements. Explore our digital workspace solutions.

Hybrid working may seem ubiquitous, but by its very nature, it is rewriting the rules of the workplace. It is important to understand all the perspectives around you to lead change within your organisation in a positive way. If you are the person in your business pushing the hybrid working agenda, we can help you formalise your plans by introducing you to innovative digital workspace solutions and through discovery with our expert digital consultants, contact our team to find out more.

Or discover our on-demand webinars, giving you the latest advice and guidance from industry experts to help you to navigate the changing business landscape.

1. https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/flexible-working-lessons-from-pandemic-report_tcm18-92644.pdf

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IT, Operations and Logistics managers know the workplace is changing fast. In fact, they’re at the forefront of that change. They have researched new technologies to meet the growing demand for workplace digitisation. Further, they have had to find solutions that enable their businesses to maximise the productivity of employees in an increasingly disbursed workforce. Finally, they have usually had to achieve all these things within tight cost and time constraints.

Retail, corporate and logistics businesses are always on the lookout for smart solutions. They want to improve employee efficiency and end user experience. At Ricoh, we are seeing more and more interest in our Smart Locker technology to deliver exactly those benefits.

Whether viewed from an IT or a warehousing/logistics perspective, Smart Lockers give businesses greater visibility and control over inventory items. These can include computer peripherals, handheld devices and headsets. They help improve productivity and reduce costs. Being secure and contactless, they allow the provision of a 24-hour self-service process for employees to collect or deposit these kinds of assets when they need to. This means no waiting, and no need for additional IT or warehousing staff to be on duty to accept or distribute the items. Unlike some storage solutions, Smart Lockers do not limit who can store assets.

Ricoh and Trimble

One of Ricoh’s customers using the Smart Locker solution is industrial technology company Trimble, which installed Smart Lockers to gain better control over the handheld scanners used by employees at its distribution centre in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Previously, nobody supervised the collection and return of these scanners, and employees frequently damaged or lost them.

Distribution Manager Enzio Hermkens said of the Smart Lockers: “This has saved us a lot of time and money and greatly reduced scanner loss. The right person receives notifications of the scanner’s location. With real-time reporting, we have a constant overview of the status of the scanners.”

Smart Lockers impressed Coventry City Council with the amount of information their cloud-based software makes available. The council also praised the self-service distribution of IT peripherals, including new starter kits for new employees. ICT Engagement Lead Gary Griffiths said: “I think it is a very powerful thing to have that granular level of detail about how, where and what volume of peripherals have been consumed.”

These organisations, and others, are grappling with three significant trends in the 21^st Century workplace, and with each of those trends – as we see below – Smart Lockers can provide very real benefits:

Digital transformation

Digital and cloud-based technology is helping businesses to realise process improvements through automation and real-time traceability and control. In turn, they’re enjoying enhanced efficiency and productivity. A by-product of this is an increased capability to track and control a wide range of physical or electronic business assets, and their utilisation rates, without labour-intensive or time-bound manual distribution and collection processes.

Smart Lockers fit precisely into such a scenario, specifically in terms of tracking and controlling IT and warehousing assets. They facilitate self-service, thereby unleashing employee productivity. They can also be integrated with existing software widely used among businesses, such as Service Now, making the transformation simple for everyone to engage with. Issues with equipment and peripherals can also be dealt with in a timely manner. The Smart Locker system sends automatic emails to the relevant people or departments to initiate corrective action.

Workplace productivity

Consider these scenarios. Staff members have to queue up to get their devices or equipment when they get to work, and queue up again to give it back at home time. They might spend time searching through several devices, looking for the one they like to use best. Having picked up their device, they find the battery is low and their work is soon disrupted as a fully charged device is sought. They might damage a device – accidentally or otherwise – and fail to hand it back in.

These are all scenarios where the business is accruing extra costs and losing productive time from the workforce. Smart Lockers remove the queues, ensure full usage of all equipment, not just the favourites. They also enable tracking of a device to a staff member. This instills a sense of personal responsibility, and gives the business full accountability. Smart Lockers can be supplied with charging points, so that devices will be fully charged when collected. Few businesses know how much these kinds of delays and interruptions are costing them – Smart Lockers simply remove the cost at a stroke.

Hybrid working

It is well established that the modern workforce is no longer one that checks in every weekday at its place of employment at 9 am and leaves at 5 pm. People work remotely, they split their working time between home and office. They hold irregular hours and conduct cloud-based video conferences.

This fundamentally changes the nature of their need for IT support. They don’t necessarily need face-to-face support during “normal” working hours, which means the IT department must itself be more flexible. Smart Lockers provide many aspects of that flexibility. IT staff can pre-stock lockers with equipment that employees can pick up when convenient. You can track accessories and peripherals to specific employees, preventing abuse and enabling better management of inventory and utilisation rates. You can extend your IT department service hours to 24/7 self-service, without the ongoing expense of human resources at all times of day.

Conclusion

The workplace has changed in fundamental ways. Businesses now organise and equip their employees differently. Digital and cloud-based technology is capable of delivering real-time control and efficiency. Ricoh’s vision, articulated through its Leading Change at Work campaign, is to create a seamless digital workspace experience. Smart Lockers are a part of that unified digital workspace solution – one that, as the examples above illustrate, is already delivering smart value for business enterprises.

Click here to learn more about smart storage lockers, how they work and their potential applications.

Click to read The Key to Smart Asset Management

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Digital technology is growing all the time, at a ridiculously fast rate. Just think about the devices that are part of everyday life, and compare them to what we were using even 10 years ago. Smartphones, TVs and watches, 5G, apps and streaming services.

It’s no wonder the value of print is frequently called into question.

But, this digital evolution actually enhances the power of print for your business. Why? Because it delivers an experience your customers cannot get from their screens. In this article, we’ll go through six ways that print matters in today’s media mix, and why using print will make a lasting impression on your customers.

1. Print matters because it provides credibility

Print offers a higher level of credibility when compared to online content – with 82% of respondents to a MarketingSherpa customer satisfaction survey saying they trust print when making a purchasing decision.

Using print is a sign that your business is serious about business. After all, anyone can send an email – just think about the spam we have to deal with everyday. Print provides a much more considered approach which won’t get lost in the digital noise.

2. Print matters because it has a long lifespan

When your customers open an email, engage with a social post, or visit a website, that content disappears as soon as they move on. So, if you want your digital media to make an impression, it might only have a few seconds to do it.

With print, however, you are providing your customers with content they can constantly and repeatedly reference, for months or even years, as leaflets, brochures or posters in an office. They can also be passed along to friends or colleagues, maximising their reach.

3. Print matters because digital fatigue is real

The impact of digital marketing is waning due to oversaturation. According to SG360°’s 2021 customer survey, 75% of participants said they were overwhelmed by the number of digital ads they were seeing daily – not surprising, after a marked increase in consumption following the extra leisure time provided by the pandemic.

This is good news for the power of print, as printed media becomes an effective tool for cutting through the digital clutter and engaging directly with your customers.

4. Print matters because it forms connections

If you want to form a lasting impression on your customers, you need to create content they will engage with. A Temple University study evaluated responses to physical and digital media, and found that while participants processed a lot of digital media quickly, they spent more time with individual print ads.

In turn, this led to a stronger emotional response from the printed media – and ultimately, better recall of information when they came to make a purchase decision.

5. Print matters because it can be customised to each recipient

While digital technology has come a long way, producing content mass-marketed across huge online audiences, innovations in printing have also greatly evolved, enabling images and text in printed pieces to be uniquely tailored to an audience of one.

This allows your business to focus your budgets on printing relevant offers, images and formats for your customers. And because today’s digital presses can print affordable, short-run work, you can take advantage of much more highly-targeted print campaigns.

6. Print matters because it complements digital media

It might be easy to think this article is dismissing the merits of digital media and telling you to focus on print. In fact, it is incredibly effective to combine the two, with print driving customers to view online content like videos, eCommerce sites, or additional content.

You can do this easily with today’s print techniques, such as the inclusion of QR codes, personalised URLs or augmented reality markers. There is huge creative potential between print and digital, and your business should explore how they can work in tandem to deliver your customers effective marketing content.

Want to discover why print matters for your business? Ricoh is here to help

Now that we’ve covered the key reasons why print maintains relevance in the digital age, you might be planning on assessing how print can help your business improve relationships with your customers – by giving them effective marketing that drives growth and delivers results.

Ricoh has years of experience as a collaborative, people-first partner, and we understand how the powerful combination of digital and print can capture attention, generate excitement, facilitate engagement and support mission-critical business activities. 

We’d love to help you connect more deeply with your customers. Contact us to get started.

Topic first discussed on Business Booster.

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So, if we all experience life differently, how can a print business hope to meet the needs of every one of their customers? Today, a catch-all approach is destined to fail – and so is a workforce that doesn’t have the diversity to represent and reflect the people your organisation is talking to.

You can’t innovate if you can’t relate. And innovation is at the cornerstone of success when everything is on the move.

Diversity versus the print industry

Diversity has been a challenge for the print industry for many years, but combating the status quo and driving change is more important now than it has ever been. As print businesses strive to gain a competitive advantage, modernisation – a journey of digital transformation – is getting ever higher on the agenda. And the reason is, fundamentally, printers’ customers have also changed.

This kind of change is a huge challenge, and if they have not already done so, print business owners must assess whether they are equipped to address such a momentous upheaval with the skills and experiences of their existing teams.

How diversity leads to a competitive advantage

For many in the print industry, this huge challenge is one they are not prepared for. Yet, attracting new skills and new ideas is now an urgent requirement to ensure you can claim or retain a competitive advantage. 

Leading brands like Ricoh have already battled through this process. Ricoh identified that building a more diverse talent pool was fundamental to its success, both for its own approach to the many markets it operates in, and also for the benefit of its customers – who can gain by extension from Ricoh’s own injection of fresh thought. 

Data suggests that diversity drives innovation by up to 20% – and it’s innovation that will lead print organisations into the future.

The importance of perspective

Perspective is everything. The only way for your business to look at things from the right angle is to make sure you’re looking through the eyes of someone who understands your customer’s wants and needs. As a female Sales Director in the print industry, and part of a leadership team where half of us are women, I’d like to share how diversity drove success for our business.

“We are already finding and developing new and effective ways of working with our customers that utilise this new mix of skills, outlook and experience. This is relevant for our customers in the print industry because the diversity that we represent is a mirror of their own customers, whose backgrounds and personalities and motivations are varied. We can, therefore, help printers to interpret and understand what their customers are trying to achieve. We understand the voices of their customers because in many instances those voices match our own.”

Tanya Howe, Sales Director, Ricoh Graphic Communications

Why is diversity in print innovation crucial right now?

Different types of markets are emerging, and even though in the past customers have been served well by traditional print sectors like transactional print, it is now vital that print businesses actively support niche print services in both the commercial and corporate space. 

These different markets have a new range of clients that have different behaviours, experiences and characteristics and that in turn requires a renewed perspective and position.

Listen to Ricoh’s Anything in Print podcast with the BPIF on talent and diversity in print

Three stages for the future at Ricoh

Going forward, bringing diverse perspectives to bear on digital transformation within the print industry will be a key part of the way Ricoh builds and sustains client relationships; especially as they continue to develop their consultative approach through programmes such as EDGE, which was launched last year. EDGE delivers a three-stage process of:

• Discovery – where clients assess the barriers to production efficiency, with a focus on people, processes and production systems.
• Transformation – when new or improved structures, roles and responsibilities are created to build on the discovery findings.
• Sustainability – which promotes embedding that transformation as a culture and not a one-off review.

What other benefits does diversity have on the print industry?

It’s not just the print industry that benefits from a focus on diversity. This approach brings many additional benefits to any employer, and a wealth of research exists to back this up. 

McKinsey, for example, has shown that gender, ethnic and cultural diversity on leadership teams can improve financial performance. It also makes your company more attractive as a prospective employer to Millennials and those in Generation Z if they see this diversity already exists in your workforce. Beyond that, diversity is directly linked to profitability and is likely to increase it by 25%.

It’s down to richer and deeper conversations which lead to mutually benefiting strategies, building relationships that last, lower customer churn and sustainable business operations.

Moving forwards with a people-first partner

Our experience at Ricoh has only strengthened our commitment to diversity. We have found our organisation to be more willing to challenge the way things have always been done. We believe that this is giving us a competitive advantage in the marketplace, and with humility in our hearts, we think that print businesses that go on the same journey to build a more diverse workforce will also enjoy that advantage. Fresh talent and fresh ideas don’t just arrive on the doorstep though; you must go out of your way to attract it and nurture it, and therein lies the challenge for print.

Looking for inspiration on how to grow your business in 2022? Start by listening to our Anything in Print podcast on nurturing the next generation in print.

And you can also check out our ‘Anything in Print’ online brochure to discover a new world of opportunity!

Article originally published in Printweek November 22nd 2021.

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The rise in online shopping has put increased pressure on retailers. And it’s not just frequency that is causing challenges. The typical consumer expects real-time tracking, swift delivery and simple return options. Retailers must aim for faultless inventory management and an omnichannel customer experience to meet these expectations. 

Investing in barcode-driven inventory management can help you achieve this. 32% of retailers use systems to support their e-commerce activities that don’t interact with their other core systems², putting customers and staff in the dark. If your business is in that position, here are three key benefits of barcode-driven stock management to consider. 

Barcode-driven inventory management delivers real-time numbers 

Real-time stock management gives retailers a host of options that would otherwise be impossible. When every product item has a unique digital identifier encoded within the barcode, stock levels can be automatically adjusted every time a sale is made, and the identifying code is scanned throughout the process.

Visibility of this inventory database can be made accessible throughout the business, from people working on shop floors to warehouse pickers and head office. The customer interface will also know immediately whether a product is still in stock. The customers will also be able to see via a website or online portal how many, if any, items are left in stock.

This level of real-time inventory information available at every customer touchpoint is a fundamental enabler of omnichannel excellence and ensures customers have up-to-date information. It opens doors to new approaches that blend traditional and modern retail business models, one of those is BORIS.

Supercharge customer experience with BORIS

No, not the Prime Minister. The acronym stands for Buy Online Return In-Store.

Research compiled and cited by Invesp³ shows at least 30% of all products ordered online are returned, compared to less than 9% of in-store purchases. Meanwhile, 92% of consumers say they would buy from a retailer again if the returns process is easy to navigate, and 62% of shoppers are more likely to shop online if they can return in-store.

These new trends open up opportunities for retailers. Increased store footfall due to increased returns has the potential for additional sales, and devising a necessary process for in-store online returns can drive up efficiency. Again, barcode-driven inventory management can provide the solution.

Ideally, the returned product could be re-sold in-store, but both the item and its packaging need to be inspected first to ensure that product quality has not been compromised. This can take place in-store or at the warehouse, and either way, it can be tracked.

Barcode-drive inventory management can also enable customer visibility to track and trace a return, especially if they are waiting for a refund. An essential function when some 30% of consumers surveyed by international eCommerce solutions provider Doddle⁴ said they would not shop with a retailer again if they could not track a return.

End customers delivery anxiety with online order tracking

Consumers like to know what’s happening when they order something online. They may be excited, impatient or simply anxious that a gift turns up in time. Barcode-driven inventory management can offer full order tracking, which can add hugely to their customer experience.

And it could even prevent them from canceling an order. Rightly and wrongly, many consumers experience “delivery anxiety” if they don’t know the status of their order. Retailers must do all they can to mitigate this.

To enable online order tracking, systems must be in place to identify each product, using a barcode that travels with the product throughout its journey. This barcode will then trigger communications to notify customers of progress each time the barcode is scanned. From picking and packing right through to delivery, and beyond that, if the product is returned, refunded or replaced.

This is great for the consumer: they know exactly what’s going on, and instead of anxiety, they can enjoy a feeling of growing anticipation. It also means that consumers don’t need to bombard the call centre with enquiries about their order or refund status.

Invest in technology for future growth      

Ultimately if the experience is seamless, customers are more likely to return, and your brand will reap the benefits with better reviews than your competition. You might have some temporary systems in place to keep up with demand now, but in the long run, you can build a resilient basis for future growth by investing in barcode-driven inventory management in 2022.

Discover more about Ricoh’s partnership with Zebra and how we can offer a solution to power barcode-driven inventory management.

1. https://www.eversheds-sutherland.com/global/en/what/industries/consumer-law/evolution-of-stores-retail-report.page

2. https://www.tltsolicitors.com/insights-and-events/publications/retail-agility—the-digital-imperative/

3. https://www.invespcro.com/blog/ecommerce-product-return-rate-statistics/

4. https://www.doddle.com/us/the-returns-experience-is-critical/

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It isn’t news to anyone that climate change is at the top of the global agenda, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Increasingly, it will have dramatic effects on customer demand. Not just from their government, but from brands, suppliers and each other.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that this would create a problem for the print industry. In reality, it presents a fantastic opportunity for leading print businesses to converge innovation with future digital print technology, applications and partnerships to deliver a premium service that meets the priorities of today’s society.

The performances of different companies or sectors are diverging. Those who can and have adapted are arching upwards, those unable or unwilling to adapt are trending down. This article will help make sure your digital print business is on the up.

What do your customers demand from digital print?

Customer demands are the cause of this divergence. Certainly online purchasing has accelerated over the past two years, and to a very large degree, won’t return to what we consider normal. Digital printers must build a stronger online capability and back it up with automated processes to be able to thrive. 

Customers demand less plastic, less gloss, and more of a rustic, natural look and feel. In print, we are seeing this manifest itself in the increased use of uncoated papers for general marketing collateral – such as brochures and catalogues. 

Printers and agencies are telling us this is happening. Secondly, paper manufacturers confirm the growth in uncoated paper usage too, causing them to adapt their own operations to produce the required natural grades.

How is the digital print industry adapting to change?

The print industry has always pointed to digital print and on-demand as a great counterpoint to the environmental pressure our industry is facing. Today, there is the capability and technology to do smaller and more targeted runs, so there is less waste. As a result still being effective at reaching the right customers with the right message.

The development of hyper-local print markets takes the argument even further, augmenting the carbon-countering message. Platforms such as Gelato and Printify offer an example of digital technology, allied to the convenience of online purchasing. This now means a product designed in one part of the world, printed and delivered to a customer in another, the same or next day. 

These trends and capabilities send a strong signal about the need for digital printers to think about sustainability as they shape their service propositions in the post-pandemic world.

Listen to Ricoh’s Anything in Print podcast with Gelato

How is the future of digital print enabled by technology?

Printers can get great results on the more sustainable paper stocks your customers demand, thanks to the print engine improvements that different vendors have achieved. For example, Ricoh’s Pro C9200 digital press includes a matt fuser option that allows users to produce offset-like quality on uncoated papers – delivering a premium finish while being more environmentally friendly.

Alongside this advance on the Ricoh Pro C9200 is a feature called Auto Colour Diagnosis (ACD). It controls colour stability and image quality to reduce production errors and ensure customer satisfaction, which ultimately reduces waste. All strong factors in the approval of the on-demand, online print market, as well as improving environmental performance.

Work with a people-first partner to ensure best practices and results.

Customer demands have always varied. But in today’s online and connected world, there’s no doubt that there’s an acceleration of change and expectations. Ricoh has years of experience at the cutting edge of print devices and developments. Specialising in working alongside your business to develop the right strategy for you, your people and your customers.

We can help you be more agile and find greater uptime and efficiency. In addition, lower costs, provide speedier ROI and make the most of your devices and services. Together, we can embrace new customer demands through innovation, insight and experience – and help your business thrive.

Article originally published in Printweek September 20th 2021.

The post How the future of digital print is being shaped by customer demand appeared first on Insights - Empowering Digital Workplaces.

Export documentation has always been a complicated administrative process. But with the UK’s departure from the European Union, those businesses who export to countries still within the Union now have new layers of complexity to deal with. How they respond to this complexity may result in difficulties in getting paid and could be the difference between success and failure. Even if you use a freight forwarder or an agent, it’s still up to you to make sure that the right documents are available.

Value in the ability to adapt 

Businesses are constantly being challenged. If it wasn’t Brexit, it would be something else. So, even though it seems tough right now, it will get easier. Successful exporters are the ones who can adapt and navigate their way through these periodical challenges. Finding a sensible path through difficult red tape, ensuring you meet the export regulation needs for each territory. It’s likely that this will be an ongoing and evolving process as businesses continue to meet those requirements as and when they evolve.

Therefore it’s imperative that UK businesses manage their export documentation with efficiency and confidence. Not only do they need to keep abreast of changing regulations, but they should also look to implement internal processes. Allowing them to respond to new changes quickly, accurately, and consistently. Digital document management will reflect the quality of the documentation they produce. Also, their ability to maintain a smooth export process. 

How digital technology supports agile export documentation

Managing export documentation efficiently is an area where digital technology can make a huge difference. 

Digital document management and composition tools can support export businesses. Quickly creating compliant documentation for each territory they are trading with. Whether it’s Certificates of Origin, Letters of Credit, ATA Carnets, or Customs documents. These tools provide highly professional, clear export documentation based on multiple language requirements and formats.

Furthermore, built-in digital workflows in digital document management systems enable:

• Better control of versioning
• Process automation, including automatic document completion where appropriate
• Digital stamping, annotating, and correcting without changing original documents
• Seamless data import from other applications
• Remote access for staff to work from anywhere
• Secure storage and transparent audit trail

Such systems allow an exporting business to be truly agile when faced with complex regulatory changes. They can quickly make alterations to a master document and ensure correct usage of all export documentation across the entire organisation. They also reduce the burden of manual paperwork on staff, giving them more time to manage duties that directly contribute to profitability.

Is there a financial or IT impact when introducing a digital export documentation tool?

A very reasonable and appropriate question to ask. Exporters will be pleased to know that the cost and IT impact can be minimal. When implemented as “Middleware” a digital export documentation solution is easily integrated with existing IT infrastructure.

Smoothing the export documentation process and the bottom line

Completing export documentation correctly is at the heart of any international trading business’s ability to make money. Only efficient export documentation processes will smooth the sale and distribution of an exporter’s goods. 

Delays associated with contractual issues, customs penalties, or transport delays can be irritating at best, and at worst, critical in the case of perishable or time-sensitive goods. Not only can this immediately impact the bottom line, but it also leaves customers dissatisfied and less likely to want to do further business.

Underpin business success with Digital Document Management

On its own, agile export documentation delivered via a digital document management solution doesn’t result in a successfully managed and profitable export business. It does however underpin the business with an adaptable and robust approach to export documentation. This will future proof the business with the necessary agility and efficiency. Avoiding the damaging threat of incorrect export documentation. A massive step towards helping achieve the greater goal of being a healthy, vibrant export business.

Discover more about digital document management and how it can support an improved export documentation process.

The post Export Documentation: How digital document management can help UK businesses respond and adapt appeared first on Insights - Empowering Digital Workplaces.

Letting you manage critical sales, marketing, and customer information essential for success and growth.

Let’s look at three huge advantages that a CRM system provides:

Ensures That Nothing Falls Through the Cracks

A CRM is a database of everyone who comes in contact with a business—prospects, customers, partners, vendors, suppliers, employees, and contractors—and activities associated with them. Knowing the history of your contacts creates informed communications and superior customer service. For example, track customers with existing jobs and make sure they are proceeding on track.

Also, you can see how problems are being resolved—with tickers, cases, and incidents created within the workflow to make sure issues are dealt with. You can monitor and schedule communications and customer outreach. This includes calls, lunches, newsletters, and other opt-in selections so that you stay top of mind when jobs come up.

Ensure Everyone Feels Special

The more information you or your staff can access about your customers, the more important they will feel when dealing with you. As a result, when a customer calls, you can see who spoke to last, what orders were placed, and issues that were solved. Plus, all emails, tasks, calendars, notes on the account, and other relevant data. Having real-time data will make conversations go smoothly and make customers feel like they are in the good hands of a supplier they can trust.

A Great CRM System Creates Value If you ever plan to sell your company

Information from the past helps plan for the future. Buyers don’t want to rely on an owner’s memory to assess the health of a business. They want a database with a company’s entire community, history, pending orders, backlog, communications, and profiles. They want data about the most profitable customers and the least profitable, the profitable products and the losers. Buyers will pay a premium for this information.

What makes a CRM great?

Importantly, whilst a CRM system is great for businesses. It is only as good as the information that goes into it. Therefore, to truly make it shine, it needs the following:

An administrator

Without a doubt, this is a person who likes to work with software. Assuming responsibility for the completeness and accuracy of the database. Specifically, an individual will become an expert in using the system and is invested in running it efficiently.

A committed senior executive

Importantly, someone in leadership has to be a committed advocate of a CRM system. He or she must use the system, insist on it being used across the company. Plus,  lead the staff in doing what’s necessary for the health of the company. CRM is a long-term investment that impacts the culture of the company. Leaders have to adapt and drive that culture.

Visibility

Your business operation should be transparent to you and your managers. Therefore, the best practice is to integrate a CRM into a Print MIS system. Establishing one interconnected database that spans your entire shop.  Meaning you will have real-time visibility into every aspect of your operation and the flexibility to adjust as you need to.

Do you have further questions? If so, we can provide answers

Learn how Print MIS provides an effective CRM system to help your print business; if you would like to speak with a specialist, please feel free to get in touch.

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