For Immediate Release
Contact: Glenn Michaels
602. 272-1525
Phoenix' First Commercial Digital Printer, Access Laserpress, Leads the Way
to Variable Data Printing, the Next New Wave in Print Communications
April 18, 2000. PHOENIX: In 1991, Access Laserpress, Inc. took delivery of the first Xerox DocuTech laser printer delivered to a commercial printer in Arizona. The original DocuTech-a digital, one-color press-heralded a new approach to printing and created the "print-on-demand" revolution. Today, Access Laserpress spearheads a revolution in printing still virtually unnoticed by the business world: variable data printing.
Variable data printing, also called database publishing and one-to-one printing, combines the power of computer driven digital presses with databases to generate unique documents. In other words, each document on the press contains different information than the one preceding and following it. Variably enabled digital presses produce large and small runs of unique documents at rates equivalent to traditional presses producing a single static document. The amount of unique content is only limited by the database, the application, and the technical expertise of the printer.
Access Laserpress president, David Seid, anticipates that marketing professionals will be among the first to take advantage of variable data printing's benefits. "Variable data printing makes it possible to use databases to create sophisticated mailings with customized text, charts, colors, illustrations or photos that appeal to a particular individual or group. Applications vary from postcards and letters to complete catalogs. The end of generic mass mailings is now clearly in sight."
The Xerox Corporation recently published an article in an in-house publication describing a unique application of variable data printing developed by Access Laserpress. On behalf of an NYSE-listed company, Access Laserpress created a turnkey survey management program that enables its client to collect vital business information from professionals across the country. A copy of this article can be found at http://www.access-laserpress.com/news/dec899.asp.
The process entails printing and mailing of nearly one million, variably printed, multi-page surveys each year. Each survey includes a live check that carries the recipient's name (the technical term is "personalization") and address. In addition, every page of every survey contains unique bar codes. The bar codes identify the survey page, survey type (there are over 11 different surveys), and the targeted recipient, enabling automatic scanning and tracking of responses when the surveys are returned. Access Laserpress also developed a customized intelligent character recognition scanning process that reads the handwritten survey responses. Ultimately, Access Laserpress is able to scan 10,000,000 fields a year and report results with 98.5 percent accuracy or better.
According to David Seid, the ability to produce and harvest variably printed data from a single high-powered database has resulted in enormous process quality gains. "Our client tracks survey responses from the same professionals over time. In this process, variably printed bar codes are vital tools because they ensure complete accuracy and consistency in tracking and reporting."
Recently, Access Laserpress demonstrated the potential of variable data printing in print advertising. In this application, Access Laserpress inserted one of several different ads-depending on the recipient's line of business-into a newsletter that it produces for the Arizona Direct Marketing Association. It also seamlessly inserted the recipients' names into the body of the text, using the publication's mailing list as a database. "In the future," predicts Seid, "it will be as easy to place customized ads in general circulation publications as it is to generate a variably printed direct mail piece."
Access Laserpress was founded by David Seid, in Phoenix, in 1986.
For more information, contact Glenn Michaels at 602. 272. 1525, extension 603. Access Laserpress' Web site address is: www. access-laserpress.com.
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