How have the numerous economic, political, and supply chain challenges that have dominated 2022 affected you and your customers, and how have you had to react?
2022 was a tough year for the supply chain and I expect to see this continue for much of 2023. What this has meant for customers is the need to be flexible and adaptable to last minute estimating and planning changes due to supply constraints or allocations. Often changes are happening right up to the last minute in production moving from device to device due to these constraints.

How have your relationships with customers and their expectations from you as a supplier changed in the past 12 months?
I think the partnership has often grown stronger and we are working with them on more strategically where their business is going and not just the challenges they face today.

What do you expect to be the main trends, key industry developments, and biggest opportunities for printers in 2023?
The next wave of digital or digital 2.0 is here. 20 years ago we saw digital start to impact our industry but we are seeing the second wave with higher speed, higher quality roll-to-roll inkjet not simply being an alternative for short run or when variable data is needed, but in many cases a true replacement for digital capacity with all the benefits. This is impacting everything in workflow from estimating, order acquisition, planning and production. For many it is a total rethink of how they produce.

How can suppliers better help printers navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities in 2023?
This is where suppliers need to become partners and engage with their customers on strategic thinking. Bring fresh ideas, fresh solutions and not point products or islands of automation but real end-to-end automated workflow and production thinking.

How can suppliers do more to promote the effectiveness of print to the broader business community?
I think the entire industry needs to promote print. Not what our products do, what our capabilities are, but how collectively the solution print delivers impacts our world.

Note: This prediction is taken from a special Briefing article in the new issue of Printweek featuring insights from industry suppliers, hence it does not follow the same question template as the other predictions.