Speaking on the opening day of Drupa in Dusseldorf, PrintCity managing director Rainer Kuhn said joining the worldwide operating standards body was a "natural progression" for the alliance.
"CIP4 is exactly the right organisation for the ongoing development of standards such as JDF, so it's important that the industry understands that our efforts are aligned very much in conjunction with the aims of CIP4," Kuhn said.
He added that it had always been the alliance's intention to join CIP4 and that a number of PrintCity's members were also long-term members of CIP4.
A worldwide survey of 2,000 printers has also been completed. It revealed that 75% of printers believed that suppliers did not initiate enough constructive dialogue with them, and that 34% felt that suppliers were either "inefficient" or "very inefficient" at dealing with problems.
"Suppliers need to improve communication and need to offer more technical support and specialist knowledge," said PrintCity president John Dangelmaier, who is attending his 10th Drupa.
PrintCity first appeared as a collaborative exhibit at Drupa 2000 and now has 46 members, such as Agfa, MAN Roland, MBO, UPM, and Oce, and 12 associate members. Its newest signing is software developer Adobe.
Its Drupa 2004 exhibit takes up around 10% of the total floor space of the show. Based in 16,000m2 in Hall 6 the exhibit is producing around 50 different print jobs in a live environment covering four sectors: publishing, commercial, packaging and value added. Workflows are demonstrated on large airport style screens in a central Integration Centre.
The alliance has also developed a new Print Media MBA programme in conjuction with the Manchester Business School and the Fachhochschule in Stuttgart. The distance learning programme, which lasts up to three years for the full qualification, will take its first intake of students (around 150 have already signed up) in July. Manchester has provided the mangement content while Stuttgart has devised the technical modules.
Story by Lauretta Roberts at Drupa
