VeeDeePee: get up close and personal with variable-data publishing (vdp)

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New XMPie Offering

XMPie recently announced a strategic partnership with Roger Gimbel. For those of you who don't know Roger, he runs a US-based consulting firm and is a regular (and somewhat vivacious) speaker at industry events. I was curious to find out more, so I spoke to an XMPie insider to get the inside scoop...

While this is a new offering from XMPie, they won't be shipping Roger with every box of XMPie software. Rather, this is a professional services program that has been established help XMPie customers get the most out of their software investment. The program includes several coaching options from developing and selling VDP, to advising in operation and production implementation. It's understood that Roger and his team of advisors are also on-hand to speak at events including staff parties, weddings and bar mitzvahs*.

I'm glad to see that XMPie has established this initiative. Xerox (XMPie's parent company) has offered their Profit Accelerator business development program for a while now and other print vendors offer similar business development programs. In addition, PODi offers business development services for it's members through their S3 and AppD Councils, but XMPie are the first VDP software vendor (that I'm aware of) to launch a business development program. It's refreshing to see a software vendor who recognises that technology is not the sole enabler for successful VDP campaigns—in addition to having the tools to create and produce a campaign, you also need to understand the different elements required for a successful campaign, along with application knowledge and sales strategy.

I hope to see similar initiatives from other VDP software vendors in the future, and a shift in this market from box moving to helping customers succeed with their investment.

* Not really, I made this bit up.