On Demand 2009: Preparing for Change

This year’s On Demand Conference and Expo was held March 31-April 2 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. More than 20,000 technology industry professionals gathered to network, attend conference sessions, hear from industry leaders, and look for new products and services from more than 300 exhibiting companies.

“From the show floor we heard very positive feedback from our major exhibitors including Canon, Xerox, Konica Minolta and Océ,” said Debra Brown, event director for Questex Media Group, producers of the show. “The conference sessions were well attended, and the buzz throughout the four-day event was that qualified buyers were walking the show, and were buying.”

Keynote speakers discussed the most pressing issues in the printing industry and key factors to keep business running smoothly in today’s rapidly evolving world of technology. The theme from all of the presenters throughout the four-day event was to take advantage of the moment and move businesses forward.

Mary Lee Schneider, president, digital solutions and chief technology officer of RR Donnelley, told her audience, “The opportunity to invest and grow your business is now.” She emphasized the importance of being cost efficient and making the correct equipment decisions that are most beneficial to any digital printing company.

Another digital printing expert, Sophie Vandebroek, chief technology officer and president of Xerox Innovation Group, stated, “Productivity is important for your business,” and went on to discuss all angles of value in productivity and quality control.

Robert Shimp, group vice president from Oracle, led a discussion with CIOs from Blue Cross Blue Shield, the U.S. Air Force Medical, the Organizations for American States, and Wells Fargo on how to successfully promote an ECM project and make it a priority in both the private and public sector.

John Mancini, the president of AIIM, said during his State of the Industry ECM Address that in a recent survey 47 percent of organizations found that managing electronic office documents is still a challenge and that modern business communication channels—instant message, text message, blogs and wikis—are uncontrolled and off the corporate radar for 75 percent of businesses.

What’s New

Canon demonstrated the imagePRESS C1+, which utilizes a clear toner station. Canon also showcased its imagePRESS 1135/1125/1110 B/W digital presses, which won Best of Show Awards along with the imagePRESSC1+.

Canon announced the latest version of the imageWARE Prepress Manager, a document and production workflow tool, imageRUNNER models such as the MEAP enabled (Multifunctional Embedded Application Platform) and Color imageRUNNER C5185, the imageFORMULA ScanFront 220e and ScanFront 220eP Compact Network Scanners, and the imageWARE Scan Manager Connector v1.0 for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.

EFI launched Command WorkStation 5.0 and debuted the Fiery SeeQuence Impose and Compose Suite, an innovative makeready software application. Also showcased were Colorproof XF version 4.0 proofing solution, Digital StoreFront, and the latest versions of EFI Pace, PrintSmith, PrintSmith Site, PrintFlow, EFI Colorproof eXpress, Fiery, and Fiery XF (including integration to PrintSmith and Digital StoreFront). Command WorkStation 5.0 also won a Best of Show Award. For more information, visit www.efi.com.