By the end of the song “Bein’ Green,” Kermit the Frog embraces his greenness with the phrase "It's beautiful! And it's what I want to be…." We at InfoPrint Solutions Company couldn’t agree more with this sentiment. In Old English, the word green means “to grow,” so it’s an appropriate color to represent environmentalism. In this issue, we’re pleased to introduce our Chief Sustainability Officer, who is developing our green strategy and programs, which are bolstered by Ricoh’s environmental experience in the printing industry. In future issues we’ll share more about how we intend to work with customers, suppliers and partners to minimize our impact on the planet. Let’s take our cue from Kermit and be as green as we can be.

To send us comments or feedback and to learn more about the topics in this issue, please use the links provided within the articles and at the bottom of the newsletter or contact your InfoPrint Solutions Partner.

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An interview with our Chief Sustainability Officer.
Joe Czyszczewski answers a few questions about sustainability and our green initiative.

Q. What is your vision for the InfoPrint green initiative?
A. There's a shift occurring from environmental compliance to sustainability. It is not enough to focus on the environment alone. Our actions must also be economically and socially sustainable, meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. So my vision for InfoPrint Solutions Company is a strategy that is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.

Q. How does Ricoh's experience help us?
A. Ricoh publishes a sustainability report every year that touches on the three aspects of sustainability I just mentioned. The more I learn about Ricoh's policies, standards and results, the more enthused I am. For example, Ricoh has accomplished a zero-waste-to-landfill initiative at its Ricoh Electronics site in California. And the company has implemented a 5R policy – refusing, returning, reducing, reusing or recycling. Companies can play a huge role in restoring environmental health to a level where the Earth's self-recovery capabilities can take over. Ricoh calls this philosophy the planet-people-profit balance.

Q. What is our history with environmentalism and where do you see us headed in the future?
A. InfoPrint Solutions Company has been associated with the Energy Star program and toner cartridge recycling for a long time. More recently we added programs such as RoHS to reduce hazardous materials and Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Europe. We're looking into production toner waste recycling, used printer programs, consulting with customers to help them move toward sustainability, and much more.

Q. Can you share an example of an InfoPrint solution that reflects our sustainability strategy?
A. TransPromo is a good example. This form of direct mail – adding personalized messages and offers to recurring customer communications such as statements or policy notifications – can eliminate inserts in favor of "onserts." This means less paper is consumed while companies can increase response rates while consumers save time and money. It's a win-win all around.

Q. What are your next steps?
A. My team expects to spend some time researching and reaching out to a variety of groups and organizations before we complete our strategy and action plans. Our goal is ambitious – we want to set the industry standard on sustainability. As our new programs take shape, we'll communicate with employees, customers, suppliers and partners and invite them to participate in our mission to leave as small a footprint as possible on the planet.

TransPromo. The next marketing miracle? Many think so.
The concept of TransPromo – adding personalized promotional messages and offers to transactional documents – has been around for a long time. Recently the concept has taken off worldwide. Why? A combination of factors. Marketers are looking for new ways to retain customers and increase revenue. Postal rates continue to increase. Consumers prefer personalized communications and new ways of doing business that save time. And technology has evolved so that customer data, document design, printing and mail management can be accomplished while appropriate data privacy, compliance and reporting requirements are met.

Most companies already produce many types of transactional documents. Transactional is the catch-all term for recurring customer-facing documents such as statements, invoices, policy notifications, and point of purchase interactions such as hotel key folders, shipping documents and so on. TransPromo is a targeted, measurable method of direct mail that helps "unleash" the latent value of these documents. Instead of a cost of doing business, they can become a profit center by integrating highly targeted marketing messages driving customer retention and up-sell/cross-sell opportunities.

Think about how difficult it is to compete for consumer attention. Consumers are bombarded with up to 3,000 marketing messages a day but that the average consumer receives only 12 highly personalized transactional documents a month – and 95% percent of these get opened and read - that's a paradigm shift opportunitiy for direct marketing!

Personalization (one-to-one marketing) is the most important success factor for TransPromo. The use of color has also been proved to lift response rates. TransPromo can be implemented throughout an enterprise – essentially anywhere there's a customer touch point – and integrated into existing or new Multichannel campaigns including e-mail, Web, telesales and customer service. The implementation of TransPromo can be challenging so we recommend starting with small, single-offer projects. The good news is if you're already producing transactional documents you have the data to start TransPromo.

The InfoPrint TransPromo solution is comprehensive – consulting, hardware, software, services – to help you get it right from the start to minimize the complexity. For more information, read our white paper, which addresses both marketing and IT considerations, and visit our TransPromo solution page.

RFID. My, how it’s changed since 1983.
"Data communication without physical connection" is a neat summary of Charles Walton's 1983 patent for radio frequency identification (RFID). Print Professional magazine recently interviewed Doug Seitz, manager of the InfoPrint RFID/thermal solution portfolio, to learn how far RFID has come in 25 years after its debut in operating rooms as a way to track surgical sponges.

Seitz sees steady expansion in the use of RFID, which now tracks fish in public aquariums, kids in amusement parks and inventory items. It enables cars to zip through toll gates and unlocks car doors from a distance when it's embedded in key fobs. Mandates from the Department of Defense, Wal-Mart and a few other major retailers have boosted RFID use in supply chains. "Adoption increases as effort and risk decrease," Seitz commented.

Seitz predicts that bar codes will remain in the picture for a long time but remains confident that innovation and engineering will achieve "RFID kit-in-a-box" simplicity, which is the key that can make it possible for more companies to try RFID with minimal effort. "In addition to InfoPrint Solutions' current RFID products, we have an active network of partners with software, readers, training courses, and integration capability to assist customers in evaluating the potential for RFID in their business and implement an end to end solution" says Seitz. Please contact your InfoPrint representative with any questions on RFID or to learn how your business might benefit from our thermal/RFID solutions.

Read the article.

The First American Corporation. Delivering services 11x faster.
In the real estate financial and services business, timeliness is everything. First American provides real estate tax valuation services, flood zone certification, appraisal services, credit reporting services, title insurance, property/casualty insurance, equity loans and home warranties. To meet strict service level agreements, the company had to get its print environment right – in other words, faster and more flexible.

By installing an InfoPrint solution, the company experienced an 11-fold boost in output, radically simplified print management of mainframe and non-mainframe jobs, reduced the number of printing shifts, and reassigned print supervisors to more important, growth-oriented projects. The solution includes InfoPrint Manager software, InfoPrint 4100 continuous forms printers, a TCP/IP connection to the IBM System z mainframe, and links to Lasermax pre- and post-processing equipment.

OnDemand China. Opening a door to the Chinese market.
In the first OnDemand China Conference and Exposition in Beijing, we observed first-hand the entrepreneurial spirit behind the emerging Chinese market. During the three days of the trade show, November 15-17, 2007, more than 7,000 visitors learned about the latest print solutions, mingled with InfoPrint employees and carried away calendars built and bound on-demand in our booth by the InfoPrint 2210 cutsheet printer.

We also demonstrated Transpromo printing solutions on the InfoPrint 5000 color printing system and the InfoPrint 4100 monochrome system along with InfoPrint Manager print management software and InfoPrint ProcessDirector workflow. Joining us at the event was our partner, PrintSoft.

OnDemand China gave us an opportunity to introduce the InfoPrint 5000 in another region of Asia, where we already have a substantial presence with monochrome solutions. The enthusiastic reception we received in China reinforces our commitment to international growth.

InfoPrint 6500 trade-in. Act before December 28, 2007 and earn up to $900.
Purchase a new InfoPrint 6500 printer (it must ship before December 28, 2007) and earn rebate money for the trade in of selected Printronix, Tally-Genicom and IBM legacy impact printers! Review the guidelines for additional information on eligible trade-in models, trade-in value, and terms and conditions. This promotion is valid in the U.S. and Canada.

The InfoPrint 6500 line matrix printer family is designed for demanding back office and data processing applications. It prints up to 2000 lines per minute, more quietly than many laser printers with the enclosed cabinet design. It's easy to use and manage, especially with Printer Management Utility remote monitoring and management software, which is complimentary. When you use the InfoPrint 6500 in conjunction with MAPPING Suite software, you can go from zero to 10 on the flexibility scale to redesign documents, print them or send them electronically.

Spotlight on Sirius.
One of the largest InfoPrint solution providers in the U.S., Sirius Computer Solutions is based in San Antonio, Texas and has more than 6,500 clients across the country. With dedicated imaging specialists and more than two decades of printing experience, Sirius provides clients with total output solutions that include print and electronic delivery across platforms—including midrange servers, UNIX servers, x86 servers, blades and mainframe servers. Sirius' InfoPrint printer specialists make sure clients receive expert technical assistance, and keep them informed with InfoPrint executive briefings, product updates and local events.

In addition to providing expert technical assistance with printing solutions, Sirius provides information about current rebates and promotions in proposals and helps clients find easy ways to trade up by taking advantage of trade-in and 'old product removal' programs that InfoPrint (teaming with Printronix) offers to InfoPrint customers. So if you need cost-effective printing solutions to increase your competitiveness in today's marketplace, it's time to get Sirius. For more information, visit www.siriuscom.com.