HP will be showcasing a complete portfolio of indoor and outdoor large format printers during SGI. Ernest Azzam HP’s LFP business manager for MEMA region says,” within our indoor LFP portfolio we will showcase HP Designjet Z6200 and the newly launched HP Designjet Z5400. The new HP Designjet Z5400 was launched for the first time during Fespa. It’s a multi-roll, large-format ePrinter that has been designed with copy shops in mind. Quick printing establishments have lot of walk in customers who want to print their file straight from USB.
HP Designjet Z 5400 is targeting these customers. At the same time it offers a superb quality. Copy shops often fulfil urgent and diverse print requests, so they depend on solutions that can produce a large variety of applications quickly and efficiently without compromising quality. The HP Designjet Z5400 PostScript ePrinter helps copy shops respond to these demands.” He adds,” We will also display our workstations for high end image processing along with many applications.”
Azzam believes SGI has been evolved in a positive way during past decade or so.” We have been associated with SGI since almost 8 years ago. Back then our portfolio of products was not as extensive but today we have a wide range of indoor and outdoor equipment which attracts lots of visitors. That’s why SGI has grown in importance for us.”
Abdallah Aoude which recently has been promoted to HP’s Regional Business Manager for Large Format Production products in MEMA region says as far as HP’s range of outdoor/indoor products is concerned during the SGI company will focus on newly Launched HP Latex 3000 wide format printer. “This printer which was launched during Fespa is gaining in popularity. Already there are 8 units ordered in the Middle East with some already installed. However so far I really didn’t push this particular product because it was not available in a large scale. But during SGI we will promote this state-of-the-art piece of equipment big time.
The new machine is using third generation of latex inks technology which consumes less energy meanwhile offers faster productivity. All the HP Latex products are equipped with embedded EyeOne spectrophotometer which is an essential tool for colour management. The Latex equipment is also compatible with a wide range of 3rd party media which covers more than 500 substrates including low cost options. We will showcase our flatbed range of products including HP Scitex FB700 and HP Scitex FB500 as well as HP Latex 260 and HP Latex 280 printers and a host of other printers. But our priority during the show is not to highlight products alone. We will focus on new and emerging applications such as textile and interior decorations,” explains Aoude.
Although HP’s name has always been synonymous with printers but one of major revenue stream for HP during recent years has been Managed Print Services, which cannot be showcased during SGI. MPS is mainly used within office environment but the question is can it be extended to LFP including super wide formats as well. According to Aoude the rationale is not there.
MPS doesn’t make sense for a digital printing center with multiple large format printers. “However if they ask for it we are able to offer the service. But LFP users prefer to buy media and consumable themselves. For them it’s more flexible and gives them more freedom of choice. This is not the case for office equipment.” comments Aoude.
What about a unified workflow that can run office equipment and LFP’s as well as offset equipment? Again according to Aoude HP has the technology and the workflow to run multiple platforms but it’s not available in the Middle East. The demand for such a hybrid workflow that can run offset as well as digital large format printers could be very limited with a typical commercial printing center in the region.
On a different note HP recently announced its decision to use selective distributors for some of its products including HP Designjet Z6200 and HP Designjet Z5400has in the region, which seems a sensible thing to do considering the wide and divers range of products the company offers to the market.Products such as HP Designjet Z6200 and HP Designjet Z5400 are sophisticated piece of kits. Installing and maintaining them requires a certain set of knowledge and skills that only qualified and experienced companies can offer. So we decided to diversify our resellers,” concludes Azzam.