Graph Expo 2011 was a great venue for meeting with customers, launching our new brand and showcasing new solutions and technologies. We were lucky enough to spend some time with Skip Henk, the CEO of Xplor and discuss some of the many innovations that Bell and Howell was announcing.
One of the solutions that Skip and I spent a lot of time discussing was JETVision Navigator, our next-generation system controller. This product is an innovative inserting user interface that uses voice commands and other automated technologies so that operators can send and receive machine status updates while efficiently working the machine. This helps the operator avoid time-consuming tasks like searching for system errors and updates to production results, and results in dramatic improvement in productivity.
Additionally, live chat technologies have been integrated into the user interface to provide even faster response to any technical issue an operator may encounter.
JETVision Navigator offers hands-free, intelligent system operation — just one of the many new innovations from Bell and Howell.
To hear more about Skip’s feedback after seeing JETVision Navigator and other products at Graph Expo, view his interview below:
The 2011 Graph Expo show will be opening soon, and this year Bell and Howell is very excited to be using our new company brand. At the show we will be announcing many new innovations that will help companies improve their message relevancy, increase the productivity and quality of every job processed, lower operational and postage costs, and improve or extend the solutions and services they can offer their customers.
We’re introducing so many new solutions that one booth couldn’t hold them all!
Booth 3611: Software and finishing solutions
Booth 4050: High-speed inserting system and Plastic Card System
Booth 4622: BCC and ADF software solutions, and our Presentation Theater
We hope to see you at the show, and below is a short video that highlights some of the exciting new offerings we will be demonstrating live at Graph Expo.
I am pleased to announce that the new Bell and Howell company has been launched. You can find out more about our new company here.
The new Bell and Howell includes all existing operations in North America, including BCC Software in Rochester, N.Y. and Bell and Howell Canada.
Our new company has strong and stable financing from Versa Capital Management and Access Value Investors that will support the growth and strategic vision of the organization.
Digital Co-mingle is a new solution from BBH that optimizes postage and manufacturing process workflows. It identifies the optimum discounts and the most efficient and cost-effective workflow for manufacturing the mail to achieve the highest discounts available for that mailing. The key to this solution is in the analysis. This analysis tool is ideal for mailing facilities that own the data and the mail manufacturing process or have the ability to influence the staging of the mail they receive.
Many companies performing the co-mingle process have little influence over the mail coming to them. And often, mail finishing from a press run, inserting process, or table-top ink-jet is provided to the co-mingle process without understanding the value and cost of the additional process.
Digital Co-mingle offers the ability to understand the overall value a mailpiece has in a single mailing or in a co-mingled mailing. Diagram A describes the typical process of mail flowing from data, through finishing and into co-mingling.
Diagram A (click to enlarge)
Diagram B demonstrates the process when driven from a complete analysis of all the data being presented.
Diagram B (click to enlarge)
The opportunity is identified; the value is realized in process and execution. With the Digital Co-mingle process you define data from different mailings with various rules. This allows playing digitally with the data, before creating the physical mail, to determine the optimum value and establish a plan for the manufacturing and presentation of mail for acceptance.
When an optimum plan is determined, the analysis allows you to set data flags in the data files used to drive the process. The data flags are used to select process methods through BCC software, and onto print and inserting or mail finishing processes. The output from finishing will result in finished mail trays receiving maximum value or mail designated for a co-mingling process for enhanced value.
The Digital Co-mingle process does not just consider 5-digit levels for finishing from an inserter. All levels provide opportunities. The analysis considers finishing a Mixed AADC piece at the inserter when it is determined that it remains as a Mixed AADC mailpiece in a co-mingle process.
You may have noticed mention of BCC in our process. We are working to enable a more integrated approach with BCC software that will allow more automation throughout the platform. In addition, the analysis tool creates data for pushing to NetSort. Overall, our Digital Co-mingle solution creates opportunities to move 90% or more mail into a one-pass process.
We look forward to sharing more innovation and upcoming capabilities in our solutions in the coming months.
Bell and Howell is a leading provider of solutions and service for production mailers in all vertical markets. At Bell and Howell, helping customers achieve success is our number one priority. With innovative mailing and document management solutions and a wide range of processing and postal solutions, we help customers increase productivity, decrease costs and [...]more →
