Large Format Review - Business News

Czech Republic-based Grapo Technologies, a manufacturer of wide-format hybrid and flatbed UV printers, is to officially launch its renewed website – www.grapo.com – at FESPA 2010. The unveiling of the online portal is a key element of Grapo Technologies' new visual identity, and is timed to coincide with the release of its new Gemini printing system. FESPA 2010 takes place June 22-26 in Munich, Germany. Grapo Technologies can be found in Hall B2 at Stand 460.

"We're confident that Gemini will attract significant attention from the market," says Branislav Oravec, Grapo Technologies Sales & Marketing Director. "In anticipation of this interest, we have revamped our website so that visitors can quickly get all the information they need on Gemini and the other systems in our portfolio. The web is one of our main sales and communication channels, so it's very important that our website reflects the high standards set by our printers."

"Visitors will find the new website much easier to use – they can get what they're after in no more than two clicks. The look may have changed, but we've kept all the useful sections, plus we've made some really handy additions like GrapoAssistant, which gives users direct access to our service department 24 hours a day." In addition to providing customers with all the information they need to quickly evaluate a printer, Grapo Technologies' new website will continue to serve its existing customer base.

"Being printers ourselves, we understand that downtime means lost profit," adds Oravec. "GrapoAssistant quickly puts customers in touch with our service technicians, who are ready and waiting to get them up and running again in no time.

"But working with existing customers isn't just about solving technical issues. We want to share our ideas on how they can combine the web and our printing expertise to get the most out of their Grapo Technologies printer so they can boost productivity and increase profit," concluded Branislav Oravec, Grapo Technologies Sales & Marketing Director.

EFI, a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today launched four new initiatives – Fiery Global University, Fiery Implementation Services, Fiery Technical Excellence Center, and the Fiery Channel Incentive Program – aimed at making Fiery partners more successful and customers more profitable.

"These programs help our partners differentiate themselves and grow their business, while providing their customers with a comprehensive package of high-value offerings," said Parnaz Rafatjou, Fiery director of product and channel marketing, EFI. "The programs provide extensive education and support services, ensuring customers take full advantage of the value of Fiery technology to boost profits, lower costs and ultimately produce the highest quality digital prints available. In particular, the channel incentive program makes certain that our partners have the expert knowledge to offer, deploy and support Fiery technologies."

The new Fiery Global University program brings product knowledge and training now closer to everyone's door step. The program is a consolidation of eLearning courses, webinars and technical classroom training that make it easier than ever for partners and customers to develop expertise on Fiery solutions to improve their overall productivity and profitability. Fiery Global University's online eLearning offerings are interactive, highly visual, self-paced courses that help reduce support requirements, lower training costs, and decrease production downtime to ultimately drive more business through greater efficiency and knowledge. Fiery eLearning offerings are available as a single course, a bundle of courses, or as an annual subscription for all courses.

EFI's Fiery Implementation Services help partners increase customer satisfaction by offering professional and customized implementation by a Fiery product expert. Fiery Implementation Services offerings ensure hands-on knowledge transfer, a pain-free installation, and minimal downtime that result in cost savings for partners and customers.

EFI has always offered world-class technical support to Fiery customers through its channel partners. To complement this existing support infrastructure, dealers now have direct access to the Fiery Technical Excellence Center to reduce support costs, resolve issues faster, and create an even more satisfying experience for their customers. With these new support packages, Fiery partners can reach a live expert on the Fiery Help Desk support line or use the online resources from the 24/7 self-service website.

Ben Russert, president and CEO of ProSource, said: "Providing quick and excellent technical support ensures customers keep coming back to their dealer of choice. Our business is based on offering customers the right solution, service and support. We were excited to learn about the Fiery Technical Excellence Center and decided to take advantage of this offering to improve our customer satisfaction by meeting their needs quicker than before. This offering is just one of the examples of the high-quality programs and resources provided to EFI partners to help us succeed in today's marketplace."

Finally, the Fiery Channel Incentive Program, in addition to including all three service, support and education programs, provides Fiery partners with extensive tools, resources, information and essential training opportunities to improve product knowledge and increase sales. The tiered channel program distinguishes partners as value-added, integrated solution providers, enabling them to differentiate themselves and more effectively serve and support their customers.

EskoArtwork announces that its partnership with the HP Graphics Solutions Business has been extended to the HP Scitex Large Format Division. In reply to the fast growing need for dedicated prepress tools, EskoArtwork and HP Scitex agreed to co-market integrated workflow solutions specifically tailored for the sign and display market. These solutions include the complete EskoArtwork i-cut Suite, a collection of pre-production design-to-finish software to streamline the entire production workflow.

"In today's challenging economic climate, service print providers need more than fast, high-quality printing devices to compete," says Yariv Avisar, Vice President and General Manager, HP Scitex Large Format Solutions, HP. "They also require automated workflows that drive efficiencies while reducing turnaround times and costs. While many companies offer a series of fragmented tools to support the production of sign and display materials, EskoArtwork is uniquely qualified to provide a complete series of end-to-end tools that not only offers support for graphics, but also for the structure and finishing of displays. Our partnership with EskoArtwork brings this critical element to our large format printing solution, enabling our customers to streamline their workflows considerably, increase print productivity and grow their businesses profitably."

"We are delighted to partner with the world's leading provider of large format printing solutions," says Bryan Stringer, Worldwide Business Development Manager Sign & Display at EskoArtwork. "We respect their expertise in delivering exceptional digital print devices to the market, and feel that our know-how in developing software solutions complement them superbly."

Partnership in action at Fespa 2010

Visitors to Fespa 2010 will have the opportunity to see the new partnership in action. On the HP stand, located in Hall B2 stand 120, they can experience a live demonstration of the end-to-end workflow – from design to finishing – integrating the EskoArtwork software solutions with HP Scitex large format printers. The initial creative design will be performed using EskoArtwork Studio 3D design software. i-cut Suite will show a prepress solution handling files with i-cut Preflight for efficient PDF preflighting and editing while interactive nesting, data and cut path preparation are done through i-cut Layout. Once the layout is prepared, the job will be produced on HP Scitex FB7500 and FB500 Printers, before printed sheets are moved to a Kongsberg i-XL24 die-less cutting and creasing table. Throughout the entire workflow, the advanced automation functionalities of the EskoArtwork Automation Engine, reduce the manual operation to a minimum. It also improves the integration with structural data and allows users to detect errors at an early stage which increases overall quality and reduces costs.

i-cut Suite drives complete digital production workflow

The latest addition to the EskoArtwork workflow solutions, the new i-cut Suite, is launched at Fespa 2010. The software is unique in the industry, as it offers a workflow solution that spans the complete print production cycle: from initial design and layout through to print and finishing. By driving the complete digital production workflow, i-cut Suite ensures data integrity throughout each stage of the process and will even correct errors when detected, resulting in less reworks, minimized set-up times, and faster delivery of jobs.

The full range of EskoArtwork products will also be demonstrated on the EskoArtwork booth, located in Hall B1 stand 270.

EskoArtwork announces that it has entered into an alliance with EFI to co-market EskoArtwork software solutions specifically aimed at the large format sign and display market. Under the agreement, the companies agreed to co-market the new EskoArtwork i-cut Suite, the expanded collection of pre-production software, beginning at Fespa 2010. In combination with EFI's Fiery XF solutions for the wide-format and super wide digital inkjet market, the combined offering streamlines production substantially.

"EskoArtwork since long is the leader in developing prepress, automation and workflow solutions, and their years of experience make them a key player in this market," comments Stefan Spiegel, General Manager EFI Inkjet Applications. "Their i-cut Suite is a unique offering that, in combination with our EFI Fiery XF solutions, will enable our EFI Rastek wide format and EFI Vutek super wide format customers in single- or multi-printer environments to improve their efficiency and reduce costs, and ultimately increase print productivity."

"We are very pleased to enter into this alliance with EFI. As the industry continues to evolve, printing and workflow technology must become faster, less costly and more efficient. In this highly competitive market it's critical that suppliers are able to offer a true end-to-end automated solution," adds Bryan Stringer, Worldwide Business Development Manager Sign & Display at EskoArtwork. "Along with EFI, we recognize the importance of partnering and combining the unique strengths of best-in-class solutions that answer the specific needs of the sign and display market. We strongly believe this benefits the industry by delivering true integrated solutions that help customers to become more competitive and profitable."

Streamlined production workflow with i-cut Suite, introduced at Fespa 2010

With i-cut Suite, EskoArtwork offers companies that drive a large format digital printer and/or digital finishing systems a complete end-to-end workflow solution. The company stands alone in delivering prepress and automated workflow solutions specifically for the large format digital printing and finishing industry. That industry has no truly integrated solutions available, but relies on fragmented tools that lead to trial and error and create problems for production shops. With the i-cut Suite, users can smoothly and efficiently resolve problems associated with file preparation and layout.

i-cut Suite is comprised of i-cut Preflight for efficient PDF preflighting and editing and i-cut Layout for interactive layout and nesting. The precise and accurate die-less cutting, the i-cut Vision Pro control system is essential. With i-cut Suite, users don't have to go back to a native application, working within a PDF file. It reduces errors by spotting them before RIPping, and it optimizes the layout, which ultimately reduces material costs and minimizes the set-up time.

At Fespa 2010, the full range of EskoArtwork products will be demonstrated on the EskoArtwork stand, located in Hall B1, stand 270.

Outgoing president Anders Nilsson recognised for significant progress against ambitious corporate objectives

Gyorgy Kovacs will be inaugurated as FESPA President at FESPA 2010, with an official ceremony at the Gala Dinner on Friday 25 June at Munich’s Nockherberg.  Gyorgy takes over from outgoing President Anders Nilsson, who has held the position since FESPA 2007 in Berlin.

During his three-year tenure, Anders Nilsson has worked with the FESPA executive team to meet an ambitious set of strategic objectives.  Since 2007, the FESPA Digital event concept has gone from strength to strength, with events in Geneva (2008), Amsterdam (2009) and India (2009) attracting significant new visitor audiences.  In the Americas, FESPA acquired the established imageWORLD event, rebranding the show as FESPA Mexico which is now in its third successful year.  FESPA has also embarked on an active event programme in Asia Pacific, launched a Digital Textile conference to address this rapid growth market, and staged a series of leadership events and Summits in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

The success of these events has enabled FESPA to maintain an active reinvestment programme, ploughing more than Euros 1.5 million of surplus revenues into educational and best-practice initiatives to directly benefit members of the global FESPA community.

FESPA CEO Nigel Steffens comments:  “We’re grateful to Anders for the energy and enthusiasm he has brought to the Presidency during this challenging and exciting period for the FESPA community.  In the last three years our industry has been substantially reshaped by rapid technological revolution and market consolidation, culminating in a deep global recession.

“Against this backdrop, Anders has worked with the FESPA board and executive team to drive a series of extremely successful global events in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.  The FESPA brand is now globally recognised and FESPA events are considered a benchmark for quality in our industry.  We have set a clear path to be the leading global connected community for wide format imaging professionals, uniting printers and suppliers on every continent.”

During Gyorgy’s Presidency, FESPA will host FESPA Digital events in Hamburg, Germany (2011) and Barcelona, Spain (2012), and take its flagship event to London, UK, in 2013.  Singapore will be the host country for FESPA Asia 2011, and the first FESPA Americas show will take place in Florida, USA, in the same year, reinforcing FESPA’s presence in the Americas.

Gyorgy Kovacs states:  “I look forward to building on the work done by Anders and the team since 2007. I’m immensely proud of our achievements, and passionate about the benefits that print service providers can access through FESPA.  The growth opportunities for our members have never been more exciting, and FESPA is committed to helping printers meet and profit from the changing demands of brand owners and print buyers.  I’m thrilled to be given this chance to steer us through the next stage of FESPA’s development.”

EFI, a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, announced today, just ahead of the opening of the FESPA 2010 in Munich, Germany, the sale of its 80th VUTEk GS Series UV superwide printer to commercial printer Segnobit in Creazzo Vicanza, Italy. Owner Nicola Cracco purchased a VUTEk GS3200 for its photorealistic quality, superwide production speeds and the wide range of applications that it is capable of producing. The VUTEk GS Series printers, which include the 3.2-meter GS3200 hybrid flatbed and roll-to-roll printer and the 5-meter GS5000r roll-to-roll printer, were unveiled by EFI just one year ago.

"We're currently running two VUTEk superwide printers and have been very happy with the level of service from EFI – we have a very strong relationship with the company," said Cracco, owner of Segnobit. "Our company is growing and we decided to step up to a 3.2-meter roll-to-roll and rigid hybrid printer to enter new markets. The quality of the GS3200's output is unbelievable. Digital superwide printers have incredible advantages, and the VUTEk GS3200 is the top of the line. As these printers are becoming faster, more versatile and more economical, the gap between high-volume and digital printing continues to close. Our new ability to economically produce shorter runs with expanded regionalization to a range of non-standard materials – all while carrying lower inventory – makes the GS3200 a sound investment with a brilliant ROI."

By adding the VUTEk GS3200 to their shop, Segnobit will be able to perform shorter runs, more regionalization, as well as print on a wide array of non-standard rigid and flexible materials, all while carrying lower inventory. Because the company is heavily involved in visual communications and advertising, they purchased their GS3200 with EFI's Fiery XF RIP solution to achieve accurate color and reduce lengthy production times. "EFI's innovation and technological advancements provide the tools that businesses like ours need. We're obviously moving in the same direction," added Cracco.

EFI's VUTEk GS3200 complements higher-volume commercial production printers, and is the perfect replacement for multiple wide- and grand-format printers in a single shop. Its versatility expands the reach of superwide printing into new industries and applications with breakthrough speed (up to 2400 square feet/233 square meters per hour) and incredible photorealistic image quality (up to true 1000 dpi) in the same printer. The VUTEk GS3200 exemplifies flexible, versatile production with its ability to transition from rigid to roll-to-roll in less than one minute, its capacity to print on an increasing range of traditional and specialty substrates, and its in-line, three-layer white-printing capability.

In addition to the successful GS3200, the other product in the GS family, EFI's VUTEk GS5000r 5-meter roll-to-roll printer enables digital print providers to efficiently produce applications ranging from exhibition graphics and fine art reproductions to billboards and building wraps with its dual resolution capability. The GS5000r can print in eight colors at true 1000 dpi, or can switch to Fast-4 and print in four colors at speeds up to 3100 square feet (288 square meters) per hour. The flexibility and versatility of this printer makes it ideal for digital print providers who are focused on growing their business by offering more applications and capabilities.

"In addition to the increasing success of the GS Series, so far this year our VUTEk UV ink volume is up 35 percent from last year – a clear sign that VUTEk users are handling more work, winning more market share from their competitors and expanding their businesses," said EFI President Fred Rosenzweig. "Our mission has always been to help printers move from analog to digital workflows, and this percentage increase is evidence of the success of that strategy for our customers and partners."