Inkjet & Digital Printing
HP Graphic Arts: Progressive, Profitable Printing
Monday 02. June 2008 - Confidently pursue opportunities to grow your business
By Susan Twombly, May 2008
HP.com: Manny, we hear a lot about how digital technology is enabling new business possibilities for our graphic arts customers. Can you tell us more about that?
Manny: Sure. Today we’re living in an inter-connected world where everything is digital and driven by the web and print is no exception. For graphic arts businesses, it’s a time of great challenge and opportunity.
Companies, whether large or small, want better ways to deliver refined messages in a very noisy space. They want to get the right information in the right context to the right people at the right time, and in the right format.
So, graphic arts businesses are looking for new ways to meet a growing demand for short-run and on-demand printing. Before digital printing solutions, it wasn’t profitable to take on those jobs.
To help their customers reach highly targeted markets, print shops want ways to deliver more personalized, variable-data printing capabilities. Beyond handling ‘one-off’ projects, they want to extend their revenue potential by offering more integrated, cross-media marketing campaigns.
Further, they want to leverage the web to streamline and improve business processes. And, they really want to offer not just printing, but a range of printing services to expand business opportunities.
HP.com: How does HP help graphic arts companies tackle all that?
Manny: First of all, as one of the world’s leading IT and imaging and printing companies, HP is uniquely qualified to help graphic arts businesses succeed in an increasingly digital world.
We have one of the most innovative, comprehensive portfolios of digital products, end-to-end solutions and services, backed by an unwavering commitment to customers and the environment. HP is fully committed to this market and to helping them grow their businesses through progressive, profitable printing.
In fact, four years ago at Drupa the world’s largest printing equipment exhibition we said we were investing heavily to deliver the most complete portfolio for the graphic arts market. And we did.
Since then, graphic arts companies all over the world are realizing the benefits of our continued R&D investments and technological innovations in areas like color experience, color management, scalability, productivity, efficiency and more.
And, HP solutions are among the fastest-growing, widely used solutions in their respective markets worldwide including large-format commercial and industrial printing, large-format technical printing, high-volume digital production printing, digital label printing and mail addressing.
HP.com: Tell us about the exciting solutions you just introduced at Drupa 2008.
Manny: Today, we took our graphic arts portfolio to the next level. This next generation of digital print platforms are designed to help companies succeed by building their competitive advantage and successfully pursuing new, profitable growth opportunities that digital printing can deliver.
We introduced a full range of end-to-end solutions for low-to-high volume production printing for virtually every market, with specific emphasis on the marketing collateral, publishing, label, packaging, signage and photography markets.
We have three new HP Indigo digital presses that offer significantly higher breakeven points compared to analog printing. We also have two new solutions that leverage our $1.4 billion R&D investment in scalable print technology: A new high-speed 36-inch digital Inkjet Web Press an HP first for low-cost, high performance production printing. And the HP Designjet L65500 printer, which expands the possibilities of large-format printing and reduces the environmental impact of printing.
We also introduced HP SmartStream Digital Workflow, a portfolio of print servers and software tools for complete management of the prepress imaging and print environment.
When you put these new solutions together with our recent acquisition of NUR Macroprinters and MacDermid ColorSpan, Inc., HP now has the industry’s broadest portfolio of digital color solutions.
So, it’s really a great time for graphic arts companies to combine the strength of our portfolio with their own unique skills to tap into new revenue streams. And that’s what progressive, profitable printing is all about.