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My name is Aaron Tavakoli; I've been the Senior Product Marketing Manager for EFI's web-to-print and marketing solutions for nearly six years. My primary responsibility is to manage the product positioning, branding, and marketing programs for EFI's MarketDirect and Quick Print Suite platforms. In addition to working with the product teams to help identify key trends and markets to determine what products and solutions will help our customers, I also work directly with our customers to understand how our products are used and how they help print service providers go to market.

By Aaron Tavakoli, EFI & Morten B. Reitoft INKISH

Morten B. Reitoft: As Senior Product Marketing Manager, I wondered what do you find the biggest challenge to convince/enlighten customers and prospects about the advantages of EFI, but new technology?

Aaron Tavakoli: The biggest challenge in communicating and sharing new product information is always competing for limited bandwidth with the customer. Many customers are, of course, incredibly focused on short-term business continuity during the pandemic, and every single vendor has increased their communication and marketing messaging. We're having to find more creative ways of sharing information – and providing it in smaller bite-size pieces, relying primarily on video – so that it can be consumed quickly and easily anywhere. No one has time for traditional marketing collateral, multi-page solution brochures, 1-hour product demo video's or webinars. They want to get right to the point and to the specific details that are relevant to them.

When it comes to EFI, we have an advantage because we have pretty strong brand awareness and recognition – our core differentiation is based on providing a complete workflow, not just pieces. Customers understand today that trying to integrate technology from multiple vendors can be time-consuming and expensive.

Morten B. Reitoft: Do you find education a vital asset in the printing industry's future? It may be very important for generating interest for your products and services in the future, but it's not really a marketing budget, or?

Aaron Tavakoli: Education is absolutely fundamental. The business buying cycle has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Customers prefer, in many cases, to perform research by themselves without engaging with sales. They use testimonials from other printers, 3rd party peer review platforms like capterra.com, or softwareadvice.com – to get real unbiased data. Furthermore, MIS/ERP and eCommerce technology can get complicated quickly. To maximize the value in the platforms printers invest in, they often have to change their work, which involves education. When you base your communication programs around education, you're providing value beyond and moving into the role of trusted advisor or partner. When customers are ready to make a buying decision – they will seek you out.

Morten B. Reitoft: You and I got to know each other because of EFI's webinars about your storefront software. Is it challenging to convince PSPs about the future and importance of web-to-print?

Aaron Tavakoli: Ten years ago, it was challenging to convince printers that they must have a comprehensive eCommerce strategy. It was the shiny new toy, many printers invested in it without a clear strategy for making it successful – and as a result, many languished. I don't think printers still need to be convinced how vital web-to-print is. I believe everyone understands it's critical; however, I believe there's still work to be done when it comes to strategy from an operational, sales, and marketing standpoint. Not so much should they – but how should they add web-to-print in order to ensure success. The pandemic has, of course, changed everything – all of a sudden, everyone was forced to very quickly figure out how to do business remotely.

Morten B. Reitoft: EFI was pretty early into the web-to-print business, and for sure, the competition has become denser over the years - what should a PSP consider the most when choosing a supplier?

Aaron Tavakoli: As pioneers in the web-to-print space, we've seen many transitions in the technology and market. A few things remain critical – and some of these apply to any technology investment decision, not necessarily just web-to-print software. One of the most important aspects of web-to-print software unique compared to other software printers may be using is that it is customer-facing. It's one of the few pieces of technology a printer will invest in that will directly touch their customers. That means it's critical that the platform is kept up to date, conforms to the latest browser requirements, functions well with mobile devices and critically is secure. You need regular release cycles to do that – ask your vendor to see the past 12 – 24 months worth of release documentation. This will give you a really good idea of how often they update, release new features and innovation, and fix bugs. What's also critical is the workflow. Web-to-print systems don't work in isolation. At some point, orders need to go to press. Without automation, you'll find your team will be stuck rekeying data to schedule and produce jobs; worse yet, the same thing will happen when it's time to ship – or when a customer calls for the status of a job or the shipment tracking information. Even invoicing is a challenge for many customers who don't have a fully integrated workflow. That's always been EFI's strongest benefit – it's no longer good enough to have basic "integration" between a web-to-print system and an ERP or MIS. They have to function as one system.

Morten B. Reitoft: Will Web-to-print become the primary sales channel for print in the future?

Aaron Tavakoli: No question – for some of our top-performing customers, this is already the case. They have successfully transitioned the majority of their business to online ordering – and they see the dramatic benefits. Here's the interesting part – it's not just about lowering customer support costs and overhead and increasing job turnaround time. One of the most attractive benefits of web-to-print is increased customer satisfaction. The majority of buyers now actually PREFER to self-serve. We've gotten so used to it at home; we now want the same convenience in the workplace. So printers who have moved their customers online have seen better satisfaction and critical retention rates. We've seen yr/yr growth in web-to-print eCommerce by as much as 15% in the print industry in markets where good data is available – it's too early for 2020 data, but I suspect we're going to see that skyrocket.

Morten B. Reitoft: Will online business, in general, saturate the value of skills and personal advice?

Aaron Tavakoli: No, online business is no substitute for relationships, skill, and advice. There are two aspects to this – online business will, in some scenarios, give you access to customers you would not otherwise be able to reach. It simply wouldn't be profitable. But for the customers you have where a relationship exists, web-to-print will remove the transactional overheads and free sales, and customer support resources add more value. To look for new innovative ways to service a customer, find new products and services to offer, and understand their challenges.

Morten B. Reitoft: When PSPs are now selling print online - can you imagine that EFI only sells online as well?

Aaron Tavakoli: Perhaps we'll get to that point someday. We're working towards continuous simplification of our solutions; it may very well be practical to enable customers to self-serve. One of the challenges today is there's still a lot of operational complexity involved in setting up and provisioning, and operationalizing a web-to-print solution. That's why we have a worldwide team of service professionals who assist with implementation and training. Because so many aspects of each customer's business are unique – as is their environment, there's a certain amount of work we need to do upfront in understanding how a printer will ultimately deploy and manage their system.

Morten B. Reitoft: Being a huge and very diverse company, do you believe you can keep momentum in the future in all the business segments you are covering, or will you have to focus more?

Aaron Tavakoli: Focus is always a challenge for larger organizations and one we continuously work on. While we have a large number of resources to support our customers – it is easy to get pulled in many different directions. We rely on constant communication with our customers to ensure our priorities are aligned; where they aren't, we make corrections and adjustments. Certain products are strategically critical and will always be a focus – web-to-print is one of them. Another critical element that helps us stay focused is our partner network. Worldwide we partner with some of the most significant vendors in the industry like Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Canon, and Xerox; we make sure we stay aligned with their businesses and customer needs.

Morten B. Reitoft: Where do you see print in 2, 5, or 10 years perspective?

Aaron Tavakoli: People talk about print's digital transformation; to me, it's more about becoming increasingly more adaptive and innovative to meet new economic opportunities. I see our customers who are increasingly becoming more vertically integrated into their customers' businesses, becoming critical components and stakeholders in success. I also see innovative and game-changing new print technology driving a shift in how companies go to market and do business – barriers being removed for smaller businesses to compete. And then there's a fundamental shift in the way creative professionals produce content – democratization of sorts. Where previously print was a "craft," technology is enabling more people to participate. Printers who continuously innovate will see these changes as opportunities, not problems. But truthfully, after this past year – I think anyone who sits down and professes to know where we'll be in 5 or 10 years must have a crystal ball!


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