Allowing small companies to look, think big through printing

HP showed off its expanded portfolio of solutions and services for the office printing market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), at the 'Office Printing '08: A Changing Landscape' event for the trade in Budapest, the centre of EMEA, earlier this month. HP launches between 80 to 100 products in this region every year.

The 12 new products offer intelligent solutions to help small and medium-sized businesses produce personalised business documents with more ease and greater efficiency.

HP's latest generation devices include features like smart template printing which allows storage of multiple, ready-made templates in the printers' memory. Smart web printing, downloadable for free at www.hp.com/go/smartwebprinting, selects and isolates only the parts of the web that users want, leaving out unnecessary adverts, text, and images and saving information for later use. Considering that web content doubles every 18 months, the advantages benefit a whole spectrum of users, including universities.

To manage, secure and simplify printing, HP has designed a four-step approach to help customers improve efficiency. The HP industry benchmark assessment allows comparisons between a company's estimated imaging and printing against a series of specific industry benchmarks, for example. The 'Workflow Discovery' is a customised analysis designed to streamline and improve business processes.

Sensitive business environments demand controlled access and increased security to prevent fraud and protect data. HP's latest solutions offer improved print security with features for authentification, authorisation and auditing. A 'pull printing' solution helps reduce security and compliance risks, reduces waste, and prevents documents from being misplaced. Print jobs may be encrypted, stored and retrieved only when ready to print.

A job accounting solution allows users to track detailed print, scan, copy and e-mail usage by device, user, department or cost centre.

In a video message to delegates gathered in the magnificent ballroom of the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal, Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, executive vice-president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group, explained the concept behind HP's Print 2.0's philosophy. "Print 2.0 gives people and businesses the tools to communicate with more choice and more efficiency," he said. "HP now boasts its most comprehensive portfolio to date. It will help SMEs look like big companies - without the cost. By taking the cost factor out of the equation, SMEs are able to optimise their printing and imaging infrastructure."

Bill DeLacy, senior vice-president and general manager of the Imaging and Printing Group for the region, said HP was committed to enable small and medium companies to think big where printing was concerned - especially by making the transition from analogue to digital easier. By 2010, 13.7 trillion pages worth $53 billion will be printed by digital devices.

"Between 65 to 80 per cent of sales of multi-function devices involve small and medium-sized organisations. The all-in-ones encourage colour printing so documents or flyers engage the customer more."

HP has completed the acquisition of Exstream Software, whose solutions streamline the creation and delivery of personalised documents and other materials, and Arteis, the company that operates Logoworks, a web-based graphic design service provider. With these and other acquisitions, HP is now able to help businesses design, manage and publish content - anything from a logo to a mortgage application form - in a personalised way, through print and online.

Jan Reicher, vice-president and general manger of the commercial enterprise unit of the EMEA IPG, explained how HP was looking to achieve better printing for the future by building on its strategy announced at a Paris event last year. It was all about saving costs, creating value and being more efficient.

The IT company was aiming for double digit growth in the stagnant market by taking pages (HP thinks in terms of printed pages) from copier vendors. He was especially pleased to announce that pages contracted to HP have increased by 50 per cent. Without going into the specifics, he also announced that HP has won its largest imaging and printing contract in the last 12 months.

According to Alberto Bozzo, vice-president and general manager of the EMEA's IPG's commercial core, HP sells a printer in the region every 29 seconds. This achievement, he said, was thanks to HP's strategy of designing the right products and solutions for customers' needs and by establishing personal, literally face-to-face, relations with small companies to understand their requirements.

To this end, HP has designed a portfolio of products to 'accompany' small enterprises as they grow, and offers advice on which to acquire under a three-step programme to help them 'start simple, run leaner and grow smarter'.

"Small and medium-sized organisations want simple, reliable, cost-effective solutions," Mr Bozzo pointed out. "They often outsource to agencies but prefer to do things themselves to cut costs. HP has witnessed a growth in in-house marketing as small companies grow and their business expands. Like bigger outfits, they too are concerned about their environmental obligations and are keen to go green. Last year, HP recycled the equivalent of 600 jumbo jets full of hardware, under its green initiatives. Just think: every 12 PCs recycled reduces the small pollution generated by a car."

HP invited 150 'partners' to the Budapest event, the first of two meetings it will hold with them this year. One of the challenges, Mr Bozzo pointed out, was finding ways to get closer to the end consumer to identify more specifically what they wanted from printing and imaging products. HP has its own Global Customer Council through which it aims to capture 80 per cent of customer needs.

"Customers are asked for their views on prototypes, company practice, PCs and servers," Mr Bozzo explained. "There is a dedicated portal for them to which they may log in and give feedback interactively. There is the human factor we always take into account. We have engineers constantly researching ergonomics, design, the 'look and feel' of our products.

"With our current portfolio, the largest ever in HP's history, there are products to meet every requirement. There is no need for a 'low-cost' printer - our printers sell from €49. We are able to meet the requirements of customers who buy their printers from Carrefour and customers who represent SMEs. We are particularly pleased with the efficiency and durability of our products. In eastern European countries, our low-end products are used like high-end products and they work very well."