By Jonathan McGrew, EDP
I started our conversation last month with an aim to bridge the terminology gaps in our vast and complex print industry. One of the first terms I want to take a whack at is Transaction Print. Since I work in this part of the industry I had a pretty good idea what I thought it was, but I was curious to see what our peers would say. That meant polling one of the largest print groups on LinkedIn—yes, the Print Production Professionals.
Before we get there though, we should take a look at our good friend Wikipedia. Now I love the Wiki and I think many times it has good information. Here is how Transaction Printing is defined:
“Transaction Printing describes a mode of submitting a job to a printing device.”
It goes on:
“In simple context transaction printing is the printing of multiple transactions for each customer along with the fixed line details like name and address. This is more used in BFSI sectors. (Example Bank statements).”
That definition tells me why we are all on different pages! I think most of us would agree that the first statement is off the mark. The second statement is not wrong, but it puts the cart before the horse with regard to being very detailed and then throwing out an example that most people could digest.
The next step is to look at our LinkedIn discussions. There seems to be comingling of the meaning of transactional and TransPromo, or informational and added-value content with marketing purposes. The “Reader’s Digest” version is this:
“Transactional print is typically a bill, notice or statement that has enhancement opportunity.”
This statement is okay if you lop the end off of it…the “that has enhancement opportunity.”
I think many of you can see where I am going here. One of the challenges in our industry is untangling the complexity and the alphabet soup nature. Transactional print evolved to describe an industry that boomed as financial institutions expanded their offerings into credit and investment.
If you consider that there was a time when utility and phone bills were the most regular transactional mail you would get, you can start to see why we needed a word for this type of print. After the boom of the ‘50s, the rise of the credit industry, and the increase in regulations surrounding financial communication, people today receive more bills, statements, invoices, government notices, retirement portfolios, explanation of benefits and more.
In the end, like fractions, we should take this down to the lowest common denominator. In its simplest form transactional print covers regulated, must-send documents that play a role in the financial life of a consumer or business. And yes, they can be delivered through physical print or other multi-channel methods.
I know, I know—there are those of you screaming at your computer: But what about TransPromo, TransEd, TransInfo? What about onserts?
There is no doubt that they have their place within the transactional print and document sphere; they just don’t define transactional print or documents at their core. With that, comment early and often and make sure you look out for a glimpse of next month’s post in the Print Production Professionals LinkedIn group where I will be conducting more polling questions!
Jonathan McGrew spent his formative years being exposed to Xplor and the Enterprise Output Management & Customer Communications Management (CCM) industries (read high-volume transactional printing). Today, Jonathan is Marketing Communications Manager at Crawford Technologies and responsible for Worldwide marketing. His experience spans data management, branding, print (hardware, software & design), graphic design and marketing communications with specialization in Business to Business (B2B). Jonathan completed his MS in Marketing from the University of Colorado at Denver in December 2013 and was awarded his EDP certification at the Xplor Conference 2013.
Connect with Jonathan: Twitter @JEMcGrew / Facebook
