Five tips to making the most of your business in 2018

By Eef de Ridder, Director, Commercial Printing of the Commercial & Industrial Printing Group, Ricoh Europe

At the start of a new year we are all encouraged to take a fresh look how we do things. There are many ways, we are told, that our personal and professional life can be improved.

But with such a choice it can be hard to know what is the right thing to do and to trust that the desired results can truly be achieved.

For me there are five stand out areas that European printing professionals should all be paying attention to in this new year. Some, like number four are unavoidable and implementation is more about avoiding any liabilities. Others, like number three highlight exciting opportunities that, when forming the right partnerships, can help co-create a brighter, profitable future.

They are:

1.Creativity

As you may have read in a recent article in Britain’s Marketing Week magazine, the increasing automation of marketing activity, based on programmed systems and data, is a risk to creativity. Now brands and their agencies are waking up to how automated marketing can threaten their ability to cut through to influence their consumers. As a result many are returning to print, a proven and trusted medium. And getting excited by its enhancement technique options that can generate attention and, especially when using data-based personalisation, strong consumer engagement. These include metallic media and printing with neon and white toner. Think about investing in production technology that will enable you to unlock the full creative potential and margin opportunities of Digital Print Enhancement to support your clients in their quest for creative impact.

2.Training staff

Richard Branson said: “If you look after your staff, they'll look after your customers. It's that simple.” We agree. That is why we believe in ensuring employees are fully skilled and can take advantage of the latest developments in technology. For example, an automated workflow is crucial to streamlining throughput and when run effectively can save many production hours. Comprehensive staff training not only boosts their morale but also ensures any spend on systems achieves maximum return on investment (ROI) because they are being used to their full operational potential.

3. Expanding your offer

Now is also a good time for forward thinking operations to consider their current product offering and be aware of what areas are generating revenue and what are not. They should also be talking to their clients about what complementary services they can offer. In the past 12 months we have seen increased interest in Direct-To-Garment (DTG) solutions and Sign & Display production systems. Both of these are thriving sectors which should be considered for a broadening of the offer and a reduction in dependence on existing services.

4.GDPR

This one is more about ensuring you are ready for the GDPR which comes into force on May 25th. It replaces the current European Data Protection Directives. Non compliant operations can face fines of up to €20 million or 4% of total worldwide annual turnover in the previous year. There is also the reputational risk which could impact existing and future business.

Ensuring data accuracy is crucial to compliance and has two main aspects:

·        Technical - how will organisations, independent of their size, be able to prove that they have taken action to check and correct their records and keep them secure.

·        Human Data Responsibility (HDR) - an organisation‘s ability (and desire) to treat customer data as a valuable asset and with a proper level of respect.

Any print or marketing services provider handling clients’ data needs to build their trust by complying in full. Part of this should be a global software solutions that corrects, and can enrich, existing data by performing real time look-ups.

5. Perfect partnerships

Partnerships can play a pivotal role in successfully making the most of the previously mentioned trends. They can also help open any other new worlds of opportunity you might have identified for your business. When choosing a partner consider one that can guide you through the future challenges that face your business. Will it advise and support you as you invest in new capabilities and services? Will it advise and support you as you invest in new markets and applications? Can it help in co-creating a bright future for you?

If you would like to discuss these topics further or investigate other services and solutions in Ricoh’s extensive portfolio, contact your local Ricoh company and consider a visit to our European Customer Experience Centre (CEC) in Telford, central England.

For more information, visit www.ricoh-europe.com.