FESPA 2013 provided plenty of evidence that the traditional screen industry is transforming and moving further down the digital path. However, despite a wide assortment of wild and wonderful digital printers, which get snazzier every year, a couple of smaller printing companies didn't find what they were sought. "I want something that I can look at and say, yes, I can sell that [output] straight off," one printer complained to me at the event.

As the technology becomes more sophisticated, printers must put in more effort with customers if they want to grow the business. Successful printers are willing to do just that: Fujifilm sold five Uvistars in the first couple of days of FESPA and demonstration machines tended to become covered with 'sold' signs as the show progressed. There was certainly no shortage of hardware on display, from Mimaki's new UJV500-160 roll-to-roll LED UV-curing engine to the new Inca Onset Q40i.

There was, however, a discernable shortage of workflow options, reflecting the transitory state of the sign and display sector. The star of this technology area at FESPA was Agfa's Asanti PDF workflow system, a version of Apogee – the first PDF-based workflow technology and the most widely used system in the commercial sector. Asanti reflects the knowledge and experience in workflow Agfa has gathered over many years, as well as its extensive colour management expertise. Asanti is a powerful tool for managing quantities of jobs automatically and has a very robust web-to-print dimension.

Asanti Storefront is template-based, but templates can be customised for individual printers or their clients. Most impressive is the support for variable data, an emerging need in the sign and display sector, where it is used more for logistics management than for individualising pages. Asanti displays source databases so that operators can check the details, which could be file content or delivery information – clever stuff.

EFI and Esko also have proven technologies now tailored for wide-format production. The EFI Fiery XF RIP now supports Esko's i-cut Suite, as does Esko's own Automation Engine, a response to the frequent need for wide-format output to be cut, either directly on the print device or on a near-line digital cutting machine. Automation really should be called digital process management as it is not just about data and task processing but also control.

Vendors are doing their best to help educate the market but there still seems to be a digital divide, which grows as workflow systems get more complex. For instance, Hybrid Software demonstrated its cloud-based system, which integrates and manages multiple third-party RIPs and MIS systems using Javascript and HTML5, an XML application. It sounds very complex but it means that users can leave software management to a service provider such as Hybrid. Understanding how these technologies work is key to understanding how they can benefit a business.

This digital divide can be hard for many printers to leap, but leap it they must if they are to be able to compete. Once the transition has been made, the next step is to tighten process controls. Caldera's Print Standard Verifier runs on the company's core RIP architecture and provides quality assurance for wide-format output based on ISO 12647-2 (process control for offset printing) criteria. EFI's Fiery FX RIP has long supported ISO 12647 compliance, as has Colorgate.

Process control was also a theme in several of the FESPA JetSet conference sessions. To a man (yes, they were all men), printers describing their sustainability policies said that they were based on robust business policies. When combined with quality and turnaround the sustainability argument clinches it every time, but sustainability must be linked to business performance. As environmental consultant Clare Taylor put it, environmental impact controls are 'a way to keep moving, thriving and balanced'.

Despite the 'dinosaurs' who dismissed it, sustainability was all over the show floor too. Mimaki's ink is now supplied in bags, reducing packaging and waste. Since its launch in 2010, EFI has installed over 100 LED-curing VUTEks, which use much less energy. Kiian and Marabu were just a couple of the many ink makers and substrate providers touting green credentials. The environmental message is still important, though appreciation of environmental policy benefits is still not the norm.

FESPA 2013 visitors came looking for answers and for technologies that they can use for profitable services. Inks, substrates and machines are the start, but the winners are those who fully exploit digital processes and maximise hardware investment returns. Workflow control and quality assurance are the next battleground.