I must congratulate St Ives on their recent acquisition of Occam – a well thought-out and considered plan, I am sure. However, I have a warning to others wishing to follow suit – before rushing out to invest in data, it is extremely important to be clear what type of data you are talking about.

Data is a generic term that means different things to different people and, unless you are clear, you may find yourself going into a state of confusion and failing to add any value to your customers.

Data has many forms, in the same way as print does. In my view, there are three areas within our environment that I think are appropriate, but they are very clearly different. These three areas are data management, data integration and data processing.

The three datas
Management of data is what the likes of EDS, Cap Gemini and database groups do for retail and corporate customers. It is heavy-duty data handling – in print terms, postcode bashing. I am sure they do much more, but they make sure the data is accurate and up to date, based on enterprise resource planning systems.

Data integration involves taking the data from these data managers and combining it with other information, such as images or information streams, to help the client produce a creative and compelling campaign or product. This is more of a creative function than a technical one and these companies offer services with creative ideas and imagination.

Processing is simply where any company that can take data from both data managers and data integrators, successfully processes it to manufacture a product, without wrecking the content. This would include processes, such as read and print, checking sums against the data received, and reporting job status to a third party and processing it accurately and in the required way.
My concern is that organisations may rush into the ‘data’ arena thinking that they are being strategic and can add value, when in fact they are not. It is a bit like someone who doesn’t understand print rushing into litho saying ‘I’m going into print’ without fully understanding the subtleties of the different attributes of the sector.

My advice is that you need to fully understand the differences as well as what your customers need and which attribute of data you wish to offer before you invest. For instance, it is unlikely that a decent-sized retailer will want its printer to offer data management because they use this data for fundamental business decisions in many areas other than print and will probably use a specialist – something much bigger than most printers can offer.

However, data integration and data processing are absolutely crucial to the fortunes of a print service provider. Taking data from a data manager and integrating it with imagery and something like a weather forecast to produce up-to-date appropriate content on a piece of print will definitely be of high value to a customer.

If you want to be serious about digital printing, data processing will be fundamental to delivering a well thought-out campaign and variable or digitally printed product. So when someone next tells you ‘its all about data’, ask them to be more specific. And when you are planning your business, don’t leap blindly into any data organisation; be clear what your customers need and look for partners and service providers that can professionally offer one or all of these segments, which, in turn, will offer value to your clients.

John Charnock is the managing director of Print Research International