provided by: 
Commercial printers who want to add personalized communications to the list of products and services they offer face special challenges. First, they have little control over their customers' in-house IT systems or databases, so compatibility can be a significant issue. Second, print buyers come from every industry, and each field has its own communications conventions and objectives. Third, commercial printers traditionally have specialized in document output, but when it comes to adding variable data, input often determines the look, feel, and even the volume of the final product.
Because personalizing communications can be a complicated undertaking, industry consultants recommend that commercial printers cut their teeth by producing less complex projects until they're fully familiar with the process and can successfully manage full-blown, highly personalized production.
So when you take into account all of these concerns and decide to take the leap, what should you look for when selecting a software solution that supports your ability to offer personalized applications? As complicated as it may seem, it really comes down to three key attributes—functionality, flexibility, and potential for growth.
Functionality
To meet the personalization objectives of a variety of customers, robust and sophisticated functionality is a must. The software solution you choose must be able to easily integrate with your existing systems, as well as those of your clients. These include legacy and ERP systems, as well as graphic and text files stored on the desktop computers in the client's marketing department. The software should streamline the process of creating personalized communications, making it easy to develop and deploy new document applications. And it must allow you to help your customers get to market on a timely basis with relevant information and targeted offers. To ensure consistency across all outputs—and profitability for printers—the solution should allow you to create any type of document quickly and easily.
Flexibility
It is imperative to find a solution that is flexible enough to meet your own needs and your customers' current business requirements, as well as future needs. Some clients may delegate all responsibility to the printer, including database management and page design. Others will want to retain in-house control over these and other functions. Look for a solution that provides a collaborative authoring environment—a common platform accessible to you and your clients.
As printers expand their role of "print-only" to "communications solution providers," multi-channel document delivery becomes a necessity. It is crucial that the software supports document distribution to a variety of output destinations: to the press for printing and mail delivery, for e-mail distribution, or for posting to a customer Web site. To keep your operations efficient and competitive, it should require you to create a document only once.
Potential for Growth
Finally, think big, but start with simpler projects, like postcards, sales circulars, or retail price lists. Choose a solution that offers potential for growth. This means looking beyond entry-level programs with limited capabilities that you'll only have to discard for something more robust several months after installation. On the other hand, the software you select shouldn't require you to retool your entire operation.
The most successful implementations of VDP start with a solution that has the capacity to grow with your clients' demands.
Though technology that supports the use of variable data has been available for a few years now, the majority of early adopters have been transactional printers who produce ongoing communications such as utility bills and invoices. Combining variable data with the esthetic values of quality commercial printing is an area still open for exploration and innovation. New applications and techniques are taking personalized communications into the realm of true relevance and ongoing customer engagement; your software solution should support this.
Relevance Is Key
Relevance goes beyond inserting a different name and address on every document, and beyond segmenting customers by ZIP code or age group. Relevance reflects a customer's individual interests. Your software should enable you to predetermine automatic triggers that direct relevant information into flyers or catalogs based upon customer tastes and preferences as indicated in the database.
Most personalized mailings now stop at the delivery mechanism. Marketers track response rates, but rarely track specific customer responses. However, relevant communication requires engagement—round-trip interaction with the customer—which supplies further data for the next campaign. Engagement tracks the responses that result from an offer, including the lack of response.
As personalized print applications become more widely adopted, we're going to see both improved relevance and routine customer engagement. A retailer will send an offer and the customer will take them up on it. The next step will be to send a discount coupon. Then, when the coupon is used in the store, that response is tracked and used to create the next, more personalized and relevant offer. Any software you purchase now should support this cycle of feedback.
Software solutions are currently available with some or all of the features described here. They give printers a fully automated means of adding significant value to every printed item they produce, which translates into increased revenues and more—an edge in today's and tomorrow's competitive print marketplace.
John Nitti is vice president of diversified services for Exstream Software, www.exstream.com.
author: By John Nitti