Interest in ‘Convergence’ Peaks as Show opens

On the eve of PRINTING United, an exploration of the “convergence” phenomenon by industry thought leaders Marco Boer (I.T. Strategies) and David Zwang (Zwang & Co.) turned into a freewheeling, open discussion that featured as much commentary from the audience as it did from the speakers – an early indication of the enthusiasm and curiosity that attendees are bringing to the printing industry’s biggest event.

Presenting a breakdown of “convergence power rankings” and the potential that these opportunities hold for convergence-minded print service providers, Boer and Zwang urged PSPs to be clear about the number of competitors they will face in the spaces where they would like to expand.

They said there are, for example, 5,000 sites in North America where marketing collateral is produced — more than the 3,000 sites offering wide-format graphics, and in even sharper contrast with the 1,000 sites where the specialty is soft signage (signs printed on polyester substrates using dye sublimation).

The result is that there is, according to Boer, “a lot of jumping into different buckets” as PSPs weigh the opportunities that convergence affords. But, he cautioned that not every jump is a guaranteed leap into prosperity. He noted, for example, that despite the industry’s increasing adoption of Web-to-print based production, there still are “less than 10 ‘pure’ Web-to-print providers in North America with more than $10 million in revenue per year.”