The Connect event, now in its fifth year, is the largest event of its type in the industry with more than 1,100 attendees, and was being held under the EFI banner for the first time since it acquired Printcafe last October.
In his opening address EFI chairman and chief executive Guy Gecht posed the question: "is print every industry's worst nightmare?". He said: "We need to face the truth - life is difficult but there are things we can do about it... it's actually a great time to be a printer because tools are becoming available to thrive in this environment."
EFI aims to capitalise on its huge installed based of Fiery controllers, and showed two-way integration between the Fiery and its Hagen, Logic, PSI and Printsmith MIS offerings. As of next month [July] it will also ship a major upgrade to its Hagen MIS.
New JDF Connectors for interoperability between EFI's Logic and PSI systems were also shown for the first time, and further connections to Hagen are planned for the Graph Expo show in the autumn.
The firm has partnered with salesforce.com to integrate its CRM solution into EFI's MIS, and is working with Documentum on archiving and retrieval. It has also formed a strategic partnership with "an industry leader" for a warehouse management, finished goods and distribution module.
Other new modules included Printer Site Internal (captures request for quote in the MIS and "keeps sales people on the streets"), Printer Site Fulfilment (a state-of-the-art online shopping site that allows branded websites to be created for clients) and Printer Site Exchange (printer branded customer facing website for job submission).
Low-cost automated workflow OneFlow, which was initially targeted at the 2pp market, now has extra capabilities and support for 8pp, 16pp and higher. Post-rip stitching will be added later this year. "Once we've added these capabilities we're in Apogee, Prinergy and Brisque territory but at a third or quarter of the price, so it should provide some interesting dynamics," said Marc Olins, vice president and general manager of EFI Commercial Print Systems.
European managing director Paul Cripps said he expected to see the fruits of EFI's investment here pay off in the early part of next year. "We have a long-term opportunity to invest. There are so many competitors in Europe, it truly is a cottage industry," Cripps said. "There are some large players and others that are killing themselves over price. It's a good time for EFI because there has to be some fallout from that."
Bob Spiers, the former managing director of Optichrome Computer Systems, joined as director of print MIS sales at the beginning of June. Restrictive covenants mean Spiers cannot be involved in the UK market until November, but he has been familiarising himself with the product range in America and is working with Cripps on the continent.
Gecht remains on the lookout for suitable acquisitions, and said EFI was "still in a growing mode". He emphasised EFI's technological and financial strength: "There are way too many technology providers and the reality is some are going to go out of business - the industry cannot sustain them," he said.
