Describe your business
From a business card to a corporate makeover, Abbey Print specialises in creating new identities for businesses, including stationery, brochures, vehicle livery, display and frontage.

Why did you purchase the product?
We needed to make sure production bottlenecks were addressed with our new digital colour press – a Ricoh Pro C900. To overcome colour issues, we wanted to automate this and use something that did the hard work for us.

Why did you choose this particular product?
We needed a product that was easy to use. We didn’t want to re-train, so we looked for a solution that anyone could use.

Did you look at any other products?
I went to Northprint in 2009 to have a look, because I knew my existing machines weren’t giving me stable colour results and I wanted to get closer to a litho output. I found the Ricoh package to be the most consistent and predictable.

What features do you particularly like about the server?
I like the way the product creates and maintains DeviceLinks. Once these profiles are set up it’s easy to repeat them.

How fast is it?
It keeps up with our increasing workload. It was important the product had more in the tank to deal with the future. It simply deals with what’s thrown at it – speed is not an issue.

How reliable is it?
It does exactly what we were told it would do. To date, we have not had any reliability issues with it.

Would you say that it has saved you any time or money?
Digital colour was an area we were lacking consistency on, so we used to take more time to manage digital jobs from start to finish, which means the costs to the business increased. We also use it to produce colour proofs for our customers and this saves money on reducing inkjet proofs.

Would you say that it offers value for money?
Yes. It has not overpromised, it’s delivered everything we expected.

Did the installation of the server run to plan?
Yes. Ricoh came in for two days to install and train my pre-press and design studio staff to work with the product.

How was the pre- and after-sale service?
We have had great support from Ricoh’s pre- and after-sales teams on this. The onsite support we’ve had from them has been essential. It gave us time to understand the technology first-hand and learn from them how to make the best from it. We can call them any time and get a response.

Who do you think the product is right for?
From our experience Ready4Print Colour Server is suited to any digital printer who has one or multiple print engines. It’s good for us, but I can see if you grew to have more than one engine the benefits start to make even more sense because you control everything form a single point.

Would you recommend it to somebody else?
I would certainly suggest anyone who’s looking at making their first digital colour purchase to consider Ready4Print Colour Server. Firstly, it takes the complication and therefore the hidden costs out of getting the job right first time. Also, you don’t need to invest lots of time in training staff in how to deal with digital colour. Plus, it’s scalable in case you grow your machines in the future.

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CONCLUSION
User’s verdict    
Speed 4/5
Reliability 5/5
Ease of use 5/5
Value for money 4/5

Supplier’s response     
Gareth Parker, product manager of production print software solutions at Ricoh, says: "The main reason that Abbey Print opted for this product is its simplicity. The product makes life simple for busy companies like Abbey by taking out perceived complexities around hitting digital colour print standards. Ricoh’s Ready4Print Colour Server aims to improve processes by taking away the possible roadblocks in a business workflow."
Price from £8,800
Contact Ricoh UK 020 8261 4000