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InfoTrends’ New Study Examines Customer Requirements and Market Dynamics for Digital Front-Ends
August 2011 by InfoTrends
As digital front ends (DFEs) are getting more powerful, production printer OEMs, DFE vendors, RIP-technology providers, and other companies with an interest in the DFE market space, have a need to understand how customer requirements and the market dynamics are evolving. To gain a better understanding on how technological and market developments will impact the DFE market in years to come, InfoTrends is pleased to announce the launch of a new multi-client study entitled Digital Front-Ends: Understanding Customer Requirements and Market Dynamics.
“Understanding why PSPs choose a particular DFE, and what functionalities they require, is essential information for next-generation product planning, and identification of opportunities such as strategic expansion, new service-offerings, and partnerships,” commented Kaspar Roos, an associate director at InfoTrends. “Our goal for this study is to provide an extensive analysis of the U.S. print production DFE market. Knowing customer requirements, combined with actual market share insights, are important tools to identify and justify future product investment decisions.”
Through primary research of an end-user survey in addition to in-depth interviews with hardware equipment and DFE vendors, as well as end-users such as print franchise chains, office super stores, and large print service providers, InfoTrends intends to provide information surrounding critical issues including:
Placements and installed base of digital color production equipment, with
DFE splits of: Creo, EFI, and OEM solutions as well as by vendor in each duty
cycle and speed category
DFE deployment: embedded, bustled (built-in server), or as stand-alone server
Identifying brand preference by environment and application
Commercial printers
Copy shops, quick printers, print franchise organizations
Other printers, such as direct mail, transactional
In-plant/CRDs
Comprehending future requirements around scalability, integration, remote access/control
Understanding connectivity to digital and hybrid workflows
Understanding integration points between DFE and other workflow solutions, such as workflow management or Management Information Systems
Recognizing satisfaction levels, bottlenecks and cross-over points of features between work flow management solutions and DFEs
DFE kernel requirements, e.g. native PDF rendering
Architectural considerations, e.g. clustered ripping
