PRINTING United Alliance collaborated with IT Strategies to provide the printing industry with a comprehensive taxonomy designed to address the printing industry’s under-representation in government statistics across all markets and locations, and to help prepare the printing industry for growing business in the future.
The primary goal is to create uniformity of nomenclature, which helps discoverability of content and information online, at events, and across the industry. Using the same names and definitions in the same way will allow printers, OEMs and suppliers, and everyone else involved in printing to utilize a common ‘language’ that eliminates some of the confusion that currently exists. It will also be very useful in providing statistical tracking and analysis across the industry in a more coherent manner. If successful, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and equivalent global entities, will adopt a new and more precise classification which will help everyone understand the breadth and depth of the printing industry much better.
Through this effort, under the guidance of Marco Boer, Vice President of IT Strategies, and David Zwang, President of Zwang & Co., PRINTING United Alliance is drafting an open standard printing industry taxonomy for the global printing industry to bring together the various printing taxonomies currently in use by the US Government (NAICS codes), taxonomies in use by the various printing trade associations, and taxonomies by private companies like Dun & Bradstreet under one consistent and comprehensive taxonomy that will be available to all.
The need for a printing industry standard taxonomy is even more critical as printing commerce becomes increasingly global and marketing and buying of print becomes ever more virtual. Surprisingly, the printing industry does not have sub-segment representation on the Global Standards body (formerly the Uniform Code Council responsible for the advent of UPC barcodes, and now called GS1). GS1 standards are critical for e-commerce, with companies like Google and Amazon requiring Global Trade Item numbers (GTIN) in order to be correctly classified in their search engines and listening.
The printing industry’s inadequate representation is costing the printing industry billions of dollars in opportunity cost. The inability for printing customers to easily and consistently search and discover ever-expanding print options; the inability of the Department of Labor Statistics to comprehensively roll up print market data or drill down for more details; and the difficulty to calculate the full economic contribution of the printing industry to the economy; has allowed the narrative of the value of print to become distorted.
PRINTING United Expo has used the UPT to classify all the exhibitors’ products and services for the 2022, 2023, and 2024 events. This real-world application has put the taxonomy through a “stress test” to uncover any immediate changes required.
The Alliance is pleased to offer the international print community, the Unified Print Taxonomy (UPT) as a free classification system for your reference and use as you deem appropriate.
The Alliance hereby grants to all individuals and organizations which create an account and download the UPT from our website, a worldwide, royalty free license, in perpetuity, for your use of the UPT in whatever manner best suits your needs.