Let the circle be unbroken
by James Bickers, contributing editor * 18 November 2004
To say that photo processing has changed over the past decade is a whopper of an understatement. Digital methods and media have taken the photography and film processing business in directions nobody could have foreseen.
Traditional film processing locations and retail stores that provide photo-related services have watched with keen interest to see where digital processing trends are heading. Early adopters of photo kiosks dealt with the problems common with new technology: different platforms running different software and using different media.
Things have begun to settle in the digital market somewhat. People are buying more digital cameras than their film counterpart, but they’re printing less than 4 percent of the pictures they take.* If retailers can find a way to make it easy, inexpensive and enjoyable for customers to print their digital images, they will have found the next retail holy grail.
The challenge, then, becomes integrating all of the component pieces — kiosk, computer network and photo finishing — into a system that runs smoothly.
“We’re offering a total digital solution for a lab or a retailer for digital photos and printing,” said Judy Mezzullo, executive vice president for the Virginia-based firm Lucidiom.
Lucidiom calls this their APM 360-degree initiative, a set of technologies that handle each sales transaction from beginning to end. On the front end is the Lucidiom automated photo machine. Once the photo data is loaded at the APM, it’s conveyed to its ultimate destination via Lucidiom’s proprietary network, APMNetwork.com. The network not only makes sure each order ends up where it is supposed to, but also provides high-end management and monitoring tools for business owners.
Finally, we arrive at orders and fulfillment, which is where Lucidiom has recently placed the last piece of their puzzle: Labs and retailers can now offer a robust Web site for ordering pictures, which ties in directly to the network back end. The Web template, APMPhotos.com, allows customers to view and order their photos from any Web browser, anywhere in the world.
This offers strong potential for word-of-mouth marketing. If a customer takes a batch of really great pictures at a baby’s first birthday party, she can upload and easily share them. This means Grandma and Grandpa can purchase all the prints they want, whenever they want.
When it‘s time to print, Lucidiom’s software offers a variety of choices. Their system can be connected to in-house dye-sub printers and to minilabs. If the APM is in a remote setting, it sends the photos to the proper output location.
Mezzullo doesn’t want retailers to simply use the new technology to generate sales; she wants retailers to make sure they’re putting as much revenue in their own pockets as possible.
“Today, if you go to order photos online, a good percentage of them are printed by the company that owns the site, and the lab loses the business,” she said. “He’s losing his own customers to someone else for that application.”
But the good news is, he doesn’t have to.
