According to InfoTrends – a market research and strategic consulting firm for the imaging, document solutions, production print, and digital media industries – American print service providers are investing in transformative technology such as web-to-print, cross-media marketing and workflow automation solutions to future-proof their business in spite of continued weakness in the US economy. InfoTrends’ Global & North American Print Production Workflow Market Forecast: 2011-2016 shows a 9.3% growth in software vendors’ revenues in 2011 and projects a 7.8% CAGR until 2016.

The high investment appetite is the result of dramatic and rapid changes in the way people communicate, which forces enterprises, service providers, and software suppliers to respond to new market realities. Interactive, customized, multi-channel communications are quickly becoming the norm, and the rise of Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service business models accelerates this transition. For service providers, not only do they need to operate at razor-sharp margins, they also need to diversify their business with value-added services. Print production workflow software is essential for achieving both objectives.

“Despite the economic situation, we’re seeing good levels of interest in print production software solutions,” says Kaspar Roos, associate director of InfoTrends’ Production Workflow & Customized Communications Solutions Services. “We expect the market to show healthy growth in the years to come, driven primarily by services expansion and business model innovation, e.g. through Software-as-a-Service and cloud computing.”

InfoTrends’ Global & North American Print Production Workflow Market Forecast: 2011-2016 sizes the market for software and its related services revenue by product category, and calculates the growth of the global market over the next five years with further details on the North American market. InfoTrends also offers a Western European focus with its Global and Western European Print Production Workflow Market Forecast: 2011-2016 report. Detailed break-downs for Latin America, Eastern Europe & Russia, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific and Japan are available upon request.

The production workflow reports size the following market segments:

– Creative Layout

– Variable Data Printing, including enterprise-class document composition solutions

– Cross-Media Marketing

– Print e-Commerce (Web-to-print)

– Production Workflow, including conventional/offset and digital workflow management solutions

– Print-specific Management Information Systems (MIS)

– Output Management, including data transform solutions

– Digital Front-End / Controllers

– Mail Preparation Software

– Prepress Point Solutions, including stand-alone color management solutions

These forecasts include splits by license types (new licenses, hosted, maintenance and professional services), category and geography. The market size section contains splits by establishment, including packaging.