Postfully Yours

While the total print market is still growing, the number of print shops continues to fall. Quebecor World is the first major player to collapse, but this is affecting all firms, from local shops to international giants.

It was inevitable that, in this climate, print hardware and software providers would need to consolidate as well. There simply aren’t enough purchasers to support an ecosystem of this size and complexity. HP’s purchase of Exstream Software is the latest step in this process.

This follows a series of related moves over recent years. Most similar is Xerox’s acquisition of XMPie in 2006. Owning their own VDP software suites allows major print and digital press vendors to offer a turn-key solution, rather than just a piece of hardware.

As complexity rises and the number of big buyers declines, this is critical. There simply aren’t the resources available to customize each installation. The short-term implementation costs and long-term support costs make this unworkable for all but the largest players (who don’t buy enough to make it work for the vendors).

Craig Le Clair has pointed out that document output management is becoming an increasingly major software category. I think that the ability to combine software and hardware into a single solution for clients is the real solution for this space. HP’s purchase makes particular sense in that context.

Of course, this leaves the huge segment of the market that can’t spend a million dollars or more on internal print capacity (or simply don’t want to). This is the area where Postful and other web-to-print vendors are rapidly expanding. The ability to standardize on a digital workflow and simply plug in print as one output option is a huge advantage for businesses.

These two trends will be highlighted over the next few years. The largest firms will increasingly rely on drop-in hardware and software solutions provided by single vendors. Meanwhile small and medium sized firms will handle their print needs through internet-based fulfillment services. Whether managed through internal or external appliances, print will be a service.