When Kodak's Judi Hess visited Australia last month, Wayne Robinson asked her how digital workflow developments will help Australian printers move ahead
ONE of the most influential women in the global print industry is Judi Hess, a vice president at Kodak, specifically responsible for workflow solutions, and before that CEO at Creo, which of course was one of the pioneer digital solutions vendors, and one of the companies Kodak acquired as part of its re-invention of itself five years ago.
Hess was in Australia to motivate the Kodak sales force, meet the Kodak GCG dealer network, and most importantly to visit customers, to get a feel of life on the ground in this far off country. Creo is now of course a fully integrated part of the Kodak business, and a key part, with the role Hess performs crucial to the company, and to the print community, as workflow will be the key to success in print.
According to Hess Australia is actually well advanced in digitalisation of print and workflow, certainly on a par with those in North America. She says, "Some businesses for instance have well established web portals for their customers, with a few even venturing into soft proofing. And soft proofing will become a bigger factor in point production, not only for its phenomenal time advantages, but due to increased awareness of the environment and sustainability issues."
Key to success in digital workflow as far as Hess is concerned is an understanding and implementation of advanced colour management, automation and efficiency. She says, "Every business is under margin pressure, and that will continue to be the case. Those businesses that can really use advanced technologies will not only be able to produce for lower costs, but quicker and more efficiently.”
And it seems this message is not lost on Australian printers, in fact I was at a Kodak workflow seminar earlier in the year, which was standing room only, testimony to the interest in digital workflow, for everyone knows it is far from easy to get printers to leave their workplaces.
In fact Hess says printers are often these days on the same level as Kodak's sales staff when it comes to their digital understanding, such is their acquisition of knowledge from the internet, trade shows and seminars, a situation which is changing the way sales people are used by the likes of Kodak.
The printers that are currently implementing advanced digital workflow tend to be the larger and to a certain extent medium sized operations, which is no great surprise, as smaller operators will not have the time yet to think about it.
Hess says, “The message that Kodak wants to communicate is one of super efficiency in our customers through digital integration." Hess claims that Kodak is an open solutions supplier, in other words integration extends way beyond its own products to embrace solutions from other developers and manufacturers.
She says, "We are all about a value added service, providing the products and tools to enable printers to add value. For instance through our web portal InSite we can offer a fully functioning internet storefront to printers. This enables their customers, and potential customers, to view and order print online, with a fully automated process. It is a great route to internet trading, and Kodak provides the full solution."
InSite also provides for variable data printing, capable of having lists uploaded to it and automatically inserted into existing templates. Hess says, "Web portals mean that printers can establish closer and stronger relationships with their customers. They are delivering a tech savvy message that says, 'we are going to make your life easy' and in today's busy world easy is what people want."
Transactional and transpromo printing, in which Kodak is the world leader with its Versamark range, are not yet ready for VDP through web portals, as the data is too large, but says Hess "this is the direction it is going in."
Kodak itself has been through a simply enormous transformation in the last decade, moving away from its century old film business and becoming a global giant in digital print solutions, and as part of that process buying half a dozen disparate companies, trying to create one harmonious unit, no easy job. Hess, who has been heavily involved in that whole process since Creo came on board says, "We've met our goals, no doubt at all about that. We are where we aimed to be at this point in time, This year's drupa in fact will show that most clearly, that Kodak is fulfilling its promise. From my own perspective of coming in with Creo Kodak has done a stellar job in integration and in leveraging the synergies."
In pure numbers Hess says that Kodak's workflow sales are up every single quarter. Kodak of course not only sells its own solutions, but works with many other vendors to provide workflow through its Creo rip, including Xerox, HP, Konica Minolta and the like.
Hess says new developments will see the front end speed of digital printers increase massively, ten times where they now stand, enabling the printers to fire off thousands of pages of variable data print, and becoming ever easier to use. Variable data colour print is of course one of the hotspots of print, with all and sundry predicting a huge boom in this form of print. Kodak, already in the driving seat with Versamark for high volume print, and is set to present a new inkjet printer at drupa, currently known as Stream although it will be concept only, and not available, but at 500 feet a minute variable data print it will take some data feeding, and that is where the synergies with Creo come into play. Stream will also use pigmented inks, print on coated and uncoated stocks, and be used not only for transactional and transpromo printing, but catalogues and brochures as well.
Hess says Kodak "Wants to participate at the core of the print industry, to grow its position as a leader". No-one can deny it does not have the drive to do that, with the amount of cash it has invested since the turn of the century.
Kodak has also made major investment in its online service operation, and with 90 per cent of issues solved online it is clearly proving a winner for the company and its customers. Its R+D spend remains massive, and it is competing well with other tech companies in various industry segments for the brightest young talent. As far as Hess' portfolio goes this means Vancouver and Israel, with the nature of the projects proving a major drawcard for developers.
Bringing solutions to market is an exacting and rigorous process for Kodak, it has to be with some 11,000 patents currently registered the decisions as to what format needs the most serious consideration.
Hess says, "Kodak is dedicated to delivering market leading solutions that will enable our customers to grow their businesses. I think we have shown that over the last few years, and we will certainly be building on that in the next few."
