Yellow Springs, Ohio-based DMS ink has thrived in the direct mail space for more than 30 years through its ability to adapt — staying at the forefront of the industry with cutting-edge concepts and solutions while serving a dynamic customer base. The company — originally known as Dayton Mailing Services — was founded in 1983 by Robert Hale, and has been led by Hale’s daughter, Christine Soward, since she purchased the business in 2005.

With a commitment to innovation, Soward and her team put an equal focus on finding a digital press (or presses) that could help diversify their client roster and overall offerings while handling new and more diverse applications with an eye toward profitability.

“We spent a good amount of time looking,” Soward comments. “Tom [Cooper, vice president of operations] and I looked at many types of equipment and continually looked at the toner because that’s what everybody is comfortable with.”

After several months of research , DMS ink initially installed the ColorStream 3900 inkjet press from Canon Solutions America. DMS ink knew that the emergence of new inkjet technologies was the direction it needed to go in order to grow, so the installation of an VarioPrint i300 inkjet press quickly followed.

“The new products have allowed us to run jobs at an unbelievable rate and with incredible quality,” adds Jim Hoffman, vice president of business development at DMS ink. “Of course, [we] always want to get the most out of [our] investment, [but] with the VarioPrint i300 and ColorStream 3900, we can now fully leverage our finishing capabilities, which has resulted in heightened efficiency and automated workflows. Our core goal of becoming less of a mail house and more of a strategic partner has been greatly enhanced with the print functionality we now have with our newest acquisitions.”

“I cannot stress enough the level of activity and excitement within DMS ink as we continue our migration to a critical document company with state-of-the-art digital print capabilities,” says Soward, whose commitment to innovation and emerging technologies has increased the company’s revenue by double digits over the last several years. “You’re not making money when a piece of equipment is being serviced and maintained. Having a machine that has a predictable uptime — that’s crucial to meeting SLAs. You can predict your maintenance and it’s a smaller footprint. It’s a no-brainer to me.”

“We were up in two to three weeks. We were actually pushing print through in four days,” Cooper adds.

“With the VarioPrint i300 we are able to get a much more robust color, much more pop from it onto standard substrates,” Hoffman says. “Now, with the VarioPrint i300, we’ve got the speed, we’ve got the quality, and we have the technology to go after it all.”

According to Soward, the VarioPrint i300 inkjet press was a game changer for her company. The VarioPrint i300 inkjet press specifically has been a “great bridge” which allows the company to capture more direct mail business. “Being able to put white paper in and create a [specific] document for that particular product is a game changer for anyone who manages inventory,” she says. As DMS ink has seen, the digital press was designed to offer premium quality output with proven inkjet productivity and flexibility.

Uptime is crucial to meet today’s demanding SLAs. For VarioPrint i300 inkjet presses, uptime is enhanced by automated maintenance routines that help enable uninterrupted production — simultaneously helping maintain print quality, productivity, and uptime.

DMS ink has transferred about 90 percent of its color work to the VarioPrint i300 inkjet press. There is still one job that has to print on their toner presses, but the team is working with ColorGrip and the substrate to make the transition. “It’s a big job that has to happen every day and it’s getting hard to manage because we have to print it on a roll toner environment, cut it down, [and] UV coat it. We have to reprint all the time because of color issues. We are working very hard to transition it over to the VarioPrint i300.”

Leveraging printhead technology from the ColorStream inkjet web presses, the VarioPrint i300 inkjet press provides 600 x 600 dpi output with drop size modulation to deliver 1,200 dpi perceived image quality. Automated inline quality control detects nozzle failure and automatically applies compensation to help maintain quality. “It’s exciting,” Soward says. “Being able to print from the VarioPrint i300 and compare it to quality we had previously. It’s always consistent on the VarioPrint i300, so I don’t have to worry about getting the best one out of the stack. Every one is the same.”

Research is essential when it comes to purchasing a major investment piece like a production inkjet device. Soward advises looking at what you are spending now on toner and clicks. “We took about six or seven toner boxes out and replaced them with the VarioPrint i300. You’re talking about an operator and a half for every machine — and when they’re all down at the same time, you’re not getting any production,” Soward says. “I think, to me, being able to scale predictably and have a scheduled maintenance is more important than anything as you grow. Time to market is crucial.”