In the InfoTrends U.S. Production Software Investment Outlook 2014, 150 commercial printers and 50 in-plants were asked about their current and future software investments and their growth. An interesting difference was discovered when the commercial and in-plant printers, who had experienced growth, were asked what they attributed their growth to.

As you can see in this figure, when commercial printers were asked to what they attribute their growth, the top answers were:

• More services offered
• Better economic conditions
• More sales and marketing efforts
• Better technical abilities
• Focusing on niche markets

This is consistent with what we see in successful companies. A company that is successful in launching a new service has accomplished three things: (1) market research, (2) invested in the hardware, software and training in operations, and (3) training their sales people to identify the pain points and articulate the value proposition.