X-Rite and Pantone Publish Digital Maturity Model for Brand Packaging

X-Rite Incorporated and its subsidiary Pantone LLC, along with MediaBeacon, Esko and AVT released a new white paper, "The Digital Maturity Model for Brand Packaging," highlighting the levels of digitization within the brand packaging process.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies experience continued pressure to produce new and more products quickly. This forces them to assess the current capacity and capabilities of their consumer packaging processes, including packaging workflow, color management, digital printing and coding. Senior leadership at many CPGs are adopting digital technologies and implementing digital automation to cultivate packaging as a core business capability.

"Brands understand the benefits of streamlining processes in order to increase speed to market for their products," says Cindy Cooperman, Global Director, Brand and Packaging at X-Rite. "Our digital maturity model allows CPG brands to identify their current capability level in developing packaging. It's also a valuable framework for defining the future strategies, processes, and digital tools required to more effectively address color requirements, drive revenue and improve operational efficiencies across the packaging value chain."

The "Digital Maturity Model for Brand Packaging" defines five levels of maturity: Reactive, Organized, Digitized, Connected, and Intelligent. In the white paper, each of the five stages is clearly described, as well as 14 dimensions that comprise the maturity levels. For each level, there are descriptions of what motivates a business to level-up their capabilities. The five main levels of the maturity model are listed below:

REACTIVE: Manual, offline tasks and processes are triggered by external pressures.

ORGANIZED: Tasks are triggered for established stakeholders by defined processes, timelines and physical quality measures using basic computerized tools.

DIGITIZED: Projects, tasks and processes are increasingly completed and measured digitally using configured hardware and software.

CONNECTED: Packaging software and hardware is continuously integrated with other business processes and systems of record.

INTELLIGENT: An integrated ecosystem of full product information and imagery automatically improves and synchronizes across internal and external interfaces.

"Many brands identify with aspects from multiple stages of the maturity model, and that's ok," says Adrián Fernández, General Manager of Pantone. "Our hope is that the model provides these companies a framework to simplify their processes and raise the level of conversation and cross-collaboration between departments such as design, marketing and package printers, while suggesting specific ways to take current processes to the next level."

To read more about the model and gain context as to where your business fits, visit: http://bit.ly/2DYVRpN.