Robert Stabler (left) makes a point at the Xerox Premier Partners Congress. Alongside him is Paul Morgavi, founder of Impika

Xerox held its latest Premier Partners congress in Madrid in October. Digital Printer was invited along to take part in discussions and listen to printers talking about the value of the network.

Xerox has been noteworthy of late in its manoeuvres in inkjet. First it brought out its own press, the CiPress Production Inkjet System. Then it acquired French manufacturer Impika to get it into the aqueous market. It says it has brought the road maps together for these two technologies, and is working on a number of new products that will be unveiled toward drupa 2016, only some of which will use Xerox print heads. Its focus is on applications and broadening the number of these that inkjet can do.

All of this information is divulged at a roundtable discussion attended by Digital Printer at Xerox’s October Premier Partners Congress in Madrid. The roundtable was presided over by Andrew Copley, president of the company’s Global Graphic Communications Operations, Eric Bouet, senior vice president in Europe for Graphic Communications, and Robert Stabler, another senior VP, this time of the Global Graphic Communications Business Group.

Mr Stabler added: ‘There are some exciting opportunities for production inkjet, moving into the ‘zone of disruption’, bringing inkjet down to the high end of xerography and even the offset space.’

Since he mentions it, it seems a natural extension, especially given the number of users of the technology amongst Digital Printer’s readership, to ask about the future of xerography.

‘Last year was our best ever year for the iGen, 14 years after it was introduced,’ replied Mr Copley, ‘so we are still investing heavily in cut sheet xerography, improving the combination of quality and productivity. That’s very important to us, as well as inkjet.’

Mr Stabler pointed out that gold and silver have recently been introduced for the technology. ‘We were very surprised by the resonance that had with certain brands and markets; it’s niche but it has started a whole conversation for our customers. Digital print has been a cluster of niche applications and I think there’s many, many we can mine through things like productivity and special colours.

‘Is the cadence of inkjet much faster? Yes, but we still see substantial growth for xerography for the next five years for the sheet fed, high quality application. It is flexible, high quality and capable of running faster. We can’t treble the speeds on xerography, but there will be substantial and incremental improvements.’

 

Global network

Xerox has been holding its Premier Partner events for about a decade now, building a community of its customers based around the business of print. There are almost 500 printers involved globally, and they are all encouraged to share knowledge and to share business, allowing them to potentially offer a wider range of services and increase their geographic reach.

One of the British Premier Partners – Irongate – played a full part in the event, with Adam Noble from the firm being the Premier Partners Advisory Council member for the UK. ‘Premier Partners is a business development opportunity,’ he said in his address to the floor of delegates, several hundred strong and from all over the world. ‘I cannot stress how important it is to engage with other partners, because those relationships continue and develop. We are all in this together, let’s open up and talk to people, give people ideas.’

Mr Noble was called back to the stage a few times to comment on presentations that had been given. Following a decidedly high octane presentation on the April-announced Versant 2100 press, he was called upon again, and opined: ‘We know it’s an awesome press but how do we get work for it? If I was trying to sell the technology, I would be talking about the features of the technology up front, like XMPie software. Customers are not interested in the press, they want an end result.’

The spirit of partnership was embodied by a printer from The Netherlands (Jeroen van Druenen from Jubels) and one from the US (Mike Peterson of Gabriel) that have been working together. The relationship began because Gabriel wanted to better connect the marketing activity of one of its larger customers which did 40% of its business in Europe. The customer wanted a European printer that it could contact and make last minute changes with. Gabriel found Jubels on the Premier Partners portal and got in touch. Some testing was carried out and then a meeting arranged to introduce Jubels to the customer. All has gone smoothly since.

Mike Peterson said: ‘It makes us look bigger than we are, and allows us to compete in the market place with some giants. We expect this relationship with Jubels will be long term.’

Jeroen van Druenen added: ‘And it will be two-way.’