PRIMIR Offers Financial, Transactional and Transpromo Printing Study

Reston, VA-A new PRIMIR study focused on transactional printing at commercial printers as well as in-house data centers and print-for-pay data service bureaus is now available. A principle objective of the study entitled "Trends and Future for Financial and Transactional Printing" was to develop a comprehensive analysis of the digital printing (including inkjet) market opportunity for this application, and identify drivers and threats to printed output in 2006 while, at the same time, forecasting trends and opportunities through 2012.

The research was unique since, in addition to the traditional round of expert and industry interviews, it captured the responses of 547 consumers in an online survey about their current and future use of paper and online transactional documents.

Marco Boer of I.T. Strategies who conducted the research for PRIMIR noted, "The rate of migration to e-statements is highly varied, depending on business sector and size." For example, banks who on one hand have a 40% online banking rate find that 70% or more of their customers still want paper statements. While some credit card providers encourage electronic payments to save on remittance processing costs plus paper, printing and postage costs, other providers see paper as a great monthly communication vehicle with their customers. The latter group is generally open to the transpromotional opportunities.

There is much industry buzz about opportunities in transpromotional statement printing, however, the operational/technical challenges for implementing this new 'marketing opportunity' in-house requires corporate level decisions far beyond the simple acquisition of a high-speed color transaction printing system. Despite the challenges, transpromotional printing is an opportunity for the astute 'commercial' or digital printer who has already mastered the technical skill sets, implemented new workflows, and has the high speed color printing system in place.

On the consumer side, the study confirmed without a doubt: people like paper . To quote one consumer: "Paper statements are a necessity. Online bill paying is also a necessity. I want both, and am not very happy with companies that don't provide both."

The bottom line according to the study is that financial and transactional printing is still a strong viable market, despite all the hype about electronic bill presentment and payment. Transpromotional printing is highly effective in certain markets, but printers entering this market segment need to understand the overall costs for implementing a totally new workflow that supports transpromotional statement production.

The study "Trends and Future of Financial and Transactional Printing" was released exclusively to the PRIMIR members in early 2008 and is now available to other industry participants for $4,500. For order information, or to view a table of contents of this comprehensive study, go to: www.primir.org.

About PRIMIR
The Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization (PRIMIR), provides in-depth research and analysis for the graphic communications industry. PRIMIR research is funded by member dues as well as through support from NPES. PRIMIR annually provides over $600,000 in current research studies including relevant market data and detailed information on graphic arts and related fields. Members also benefit from meetings, market research skills building, and robust networking opportunities.