The Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey 2016 found that the top IT person is now more likely than ever to be called a CIO and be reporting to the CEO; both clear indicators of the growing strategic nature of the role. 

The same survey found that the proportion of organisations employing CIOs is increasing across most sectors, but the printing industry, despite relying on a lot of technology, isn’t renowned for its IT expertise, and so it begs the question: do printing businesses need a CIO?

When PrintWeek asked several experts within the industry, the general consensus was that not all printing firms need a CIO, or indeed a chief technology officer (CTO), and that it largely depended on the type of organisation in question. 

Simon Lewis, business director of HP’s graphic solutions business suggests that printers don’t necessarily need officers with a full-time CIO or CTO position.

However, he says that the duties usually carried out by a CTO or CIO should be taken on by other IT literate employees. The CTO duties would require someone to look after technology developments in printing and finishing, as well as areas such as media and ink.

And the CIO duties would require someone to follow advances in IT areas such as computing, software, workflow and management information systems (MIS). 

The difference between this role and that of an actual CIO is that this person would be more of a network or IT manager whose role is operative, where as a CIOs role incorporates planning, strategy and vision for an entire organisation.

While Lewis believes that the CIO role is more likely to become a full-time position within a printer before a CTO role, he explains that companies with £1m to £10m turnover can seldom afford a CIO. As Jim Todd, sales director at Heidelberg states “you can’t have a CIO that’s paid more than the owner of the business”. 

And this is why, he too believes that while it may be harder to hire people within specific ‘C-level’ positions, it is imperative that printers are focusing on hiring talent that can drive the business forward from an IT perspective. 

“If you want to do more with less and have slick IT to ensure that your accounting IT systems are integrated with your CRM system then it’s critical to have someone that is clued up about IT,” says Todd.

“It’s easy to be sold to [by vendors] and get a mixed bag of different apps that don’t talk to each other, and we see it frequently in the environment we work in, that integrating machinery and presses into one workflow isn’t that easy even when you’re working with JDF and JMF which are supposed to be common languages that everyone understands,” he adds.

Printing companies are currently faced with tight margins and therefore it is essential to maintain momentum through the aggregation of marginal gains, according to ProCo chief executive Jon Bailey.

“A focused deep-rooted presence can capitalise on efficiencies and opportunity with timely, well evaluated plays,” he says. 

“In my opinion, those that want to be able to add value to their printed product should have a well-informed technical  lead who has the understanding of the wider business.”

Worth the cost

Todd argues that it is worth investing more into a IT-specific role, perhaps even to the extent of matching the sales director’s salary. This is because of the importance he places on ensuring that the right tools are procured.

Bailey adds that innovative solutions can make a difference when it comes to meeting customers’ needs.

“For a print outfit to deliver such relevance, it needs to ensure that it can understand clearly its customer requirements as well as have the competency to deliver quickly and effectively. The end product, usually driven by technology, needs to be one that the customer can clearly understand and use to add value,” he states, before emphasising that printers shouldn’t fall into the trap of ‘tech for tech’s sake’.

Bailey’s suggestion is that both the CIO and CTO would be involved in customer delivery – which is essential to all organisations.

“An effective CIO will be the initial surveyor and architect of the solution. This person will work closely with the customer, particularly in the early stages of brief, have a firm grasp of the customer’s issues and challenges and hence be able to identify quickly where value can be added and delivered,” he says.

“The CTO in turn, will take the CIO’s brief and bring it to life – ie working on the ‘how’. The CTO will be expert in understanding the tools available to him and also have time to undertake R&D. Working in partnership, both these positions are key roles for today’s customer-led, innovative printers,” he adds.

The flipside to the idea that technology is now so intertwined with business that it is essential to have a CIO and/or a CTO, is that technology has become ‘consumerised’, meaning it is easier to use and deploy.

“Ten years ago, most software would be locally hosted in a room with beige servers. Now it’s more likely to be cloud-based and configurable without needing to know code or Linux server commands,” says Peter Gunning, who was promoted from CTO to CEO of Grafenia back in February.

He claims that with more IT literate people joining workforces, there won’t be a need for a full-time CIO or CTO, but rather someone able to lead a digital vision for the organisation.

But HP’s Lewis argues that these continual changes in the IT industry demonstrate the necessity for someone with deep understanding of technology to chart the course. 

Although uptake of CIOs in the printing industry may be low at the moment, many believe this is likely to change within the next decade. 

“It’s essential that print businesses evolve into modern day communication production companies, which are tech enabled. [They need to] think of the CIO as the person who designs the engine, and the CTO as the modern day mechanical engineer – or the quiet driving force that keeps it running,” says Bailey. 

Heidelberg’s Todd uses the analogy of colour management, when explaining how important it is for printers to have some IT expertise in-house.

He says if printers don’t have anyone who understands how colour is managed on press and can mentor new starters, that knowledge will fall by the wayside.

“We come into organisations as experts, and then when we leave it all falls about; and when people come back to us, we have to say that they haven’t done the things that we had suggested or put in processes to maintain those standards, and it’s because no one really understands or is taking ownership,” he says.

“So you need someone who is clued up about colour, who we train and then becomes a guru for the organisation, and IT is the same, you need someone who can take on that role alongside everything else he or she does,” he adds.

Specific skill set 

Like many other positions in organisations – be it a CMO, CFO or CEO – there are basic requirements for all people within those positions. However, different industries require different skill sets, and so the CIO at a printing business would need some experience or knowledge of print.

Lewis says that a CIO would have to understand the specific challenges of graphics files, image processing, and personalisation, while Gunning explains that the printing industry is essentially a mix of e-commerce, manufacturing and artwork services.

“In other industries, you might just be thinking about selling the commodity online. With print, you’ve got the added dimension of customisation and handling graphic files,” says Gunning.

“Standardisation can take you so far, but every graphic file is different from the last one. So the skills surround handling multiple individually manufactured items, on time and to specification,” he adds.

According to Bailey, the right balance between a traditional ‘techie’ and a production ‘techie’ is difficult to find.

“For us, it’s about having the expertise in both the CIO and the CTO areas or at least to combine both, but that is a big cost to absorb or justify, so you have to make sure you understand how to commercialise the role,” he says.