PRINT CONSULTANTJohn Charnock, managing director, Print Research International
"An app that teaches printers the difference between turnover and profit would be good. But seriously, anything the customer has a need for would make a good app. Apps are simply the presentation of information in a way that is easy and appropriate for the user. Publishers could develop an online resource that gives a way of filtering appropriate articles for the user, making life much easier for their readers. Direct mail customers could develop a call centre app that interfaces with printed campaigns, the next step in integrated communications maybe? Basically, apps should be driven by the users’ needs not the technology."
PRINT MANAGERJon Goulding, chief executive, Gutenberg Networks
"The app that would help run our business is the ‘app(rove)’ app. Managing pan-regional, multimedia workflows, the ability for our teams to be able to monitor a multitude of approval loops is essential. Doing this online is already well embedded across everything we do with our clients. Doing this from our mobiles would ensure an even better experience for our teams and all our clients. Monitoring is fine, but this app would have to receive alerts, link to our online systems, updating core data, view digital assets and manage these securely within specific workflows, all from the mobile device directly linked to email. And of course, we’ll be launching this in 2011."
PRINT CONSULTANT
Paul Sherfield, managing director, Missing Horse Consultancy
"Personally, I think an instant estimating app would be useful for both printers and their clients within the industry. It would be hugely useful if an app were able to simply take you through the specifications and come up with a quick estimation for the cost of the work. I’m sure that it would save both the printer and its clients time, which is likely to also result in money savings as well. Anything that can make the relationship between a printer and its client easier has to be a good thing. It would be great as you would be able to use it on the road and maybe even link it up to the MIS."
DIGITAL PRINTER
Paul Manning, sales director, Printflow
"I’d like to see an app/game in which you are challenged to work out how Philip Green managed to come to his conclusions in his recent ‘report’. If you can boil an entire industry down to the price of flyers-per-unit in under a week you win a seat in the House of Lords and your bosses win a mandate to slash government spending further. You could cross it with the Angry Birds game and perhaps you could fire flyers across the screen with the object of the game to try and get the glass, wood and stone buildings to crush Philip while hosting a party for Kate Moss."
