The Australian printing industry needs a coordinated approach to deal with the impact of digital technology, according to the recipient of the 2015 Visual Connections overseas research grant.
Steve Strang, national account director, Fuji Xerox Document Management Solutions, was awarded $15,000 to complete a research project which explored the impact of mobile technology on print and other industries in Israel and Europe.
“The world is becoming digitally integrated in a way never seen before and the Visual Connections grant has given me the opportunity to view some ground breaking technology that can make step changes to our industry both in cost-out initiatives and new technology integration," said Strang.
The key challenge facing the print industry is the need to focus on collaboration with digital partners, he said. “The printing industry cannot survive if it tries to operate in isolation as the rest of the world continues to move forward into an integrated and automated future. The technological advances and the amount of funding being poured into the digital space will simply wash away the industry that does not change.”
Strang believes that by 2025 “there will be four billion new broadband users, the data traffic each person consumes will increase more than 500 fold, and more than 100 billion 'things' will be connected. 2K and 4K video will become mainstream, driving rich user experiences, and new technologies not even thought of yet, most likely in the augmented and virtual reality arenas, will see notable integrations and improvements. The digital and physical worlds are integrating rapidly, presenting not just the printing industry, but the ICT industry with new opportunities and challenges."
The Melbourne-based digital systems expert has now completed his research project which was conducted in Israel, where he visited Top Image Systems in Tel Aviv, and at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
"This experience has provided me with new channels to gather information, new sources of reading material, and contacts internationally to hear about developments within the mobile and digital arenas. It is my hope that the industry will gain some benefits from this overseas investigation and I will support any future programs or engagements that are related to innovation within our industry."
Strang believes the printing industry has many of the skills needed to transform including budgeting, leadership, management, and infrastructure, but is lacking a cohesive and coordinated approach. "The question is: what will the print industry do in response to proactively take advantage of the huge range of opportunities never seen before?”