Page 34 - Print21 July-Aug 2018 Magazine

Printing business
EFI’s direct to market plus
Going to market is a key element in the success of any brand. How you reach
out to customers, present your value proposition, your points of differentiation while protecting the brand’s reputation is a make or break course of action. For EFI, go-to-market strategy in Australia & New Zealand has become more important.
Frank Mallozzi is the epitome of the highflying, high- powered global business executive. Always on the move he visits continents
and countries the same way most of us visit our local shopping centres. He came through Melbourne last month on a typical flying visit to see for himself how the EFI Nozomi C18000 was settling in at the Victorian
plant of packaging giant Orora. It’s
a significant installation for EFI, one of two of the high-end corrugated inkjet Nozomi presses bought by the Australian packaging company, the second one installed in the United States, where Orora also uses EFI Vutek super wide-format printers.
For Mallozzi the Orora investment is a vindication of the company’s
vision and belief in the power of its inkjet products across the packaging sector. So far nine Nozomi C18000s have been installed in packaging printers around the world, “with more to come,” he said.
One of the reasons he travels
to new sites is that customers are often driving the uses for the new technology. “It’s important for me to understand what they’re doing, how they’re using the technology. Our customers are coming up with new applications all the time,” he said.
Go to market
There was more to Mallozzi’s visit than seeing the Nozomi. Australia is becoming an increasingly important part of EFI’s focus in Asia Pacific
and a new direct-to-market strategy for EFI in the region is gaining momentum. As Mallozzi said,
“we have a direct presence for sales and service in many markets similar to Australia throughout the world and operate in tandem with partners there as well. However, there are important customers in this market who have drifted away from us
and towards the competition in recent years because we could not provide the ‘factory support’ that they need. Well, we’re absolutely focused on changing that now. The people who will benefit from this
are the customers”.
Now EFI has a two-stream customer engagement strategy
for Australia, selling both direct and through a partnership with Starleaton. “My main concern is to make sure we’re serving customers here,” said Mallozzi.
Software is key
Mallozzi was also keen to stress the importance of the EFI Ecosystem, and the linkage between job- acquisition, workflow, scheduling and the Fiery front-end that
drives these high-speed printers. “Our strategy in Australia is not
just about selling printers, we are focused on bringing the bigger EFI message to the country too. Our overall approach is not just about the press, we are able to offer so much more with our Productivity Software solutions, and we believe that this is what really differentiates EFI from the competition,” he said.
The hybrid ‘go to market’ model
is designed to ensure that no matter where a customer is or in what sector of the printing and signage industry in Australia, he or she will be able to receive the exact digital print, digital front end of workflow software solutions they need, along with first- class support. 21
Above: Frank Mallozzi, EFI and Ben Eaton, Starleaton, were ‘go to market’ partners as far back as PacPrint.
Starleaton is EFI’s channel partner
Ben Eaton, CEO, is keen to extend and deepen Starleaton’s strategic channel partner engagement with EFI in Australia. It makes sense to him. The expanding graphic arts and signage supplier has a significant presence throughout Australia. It’s well versed in EFI technology as result of many years selling Fiery digital front ends as well as flatbed inkjets to the broader signage industry. Operating out of eight locations when it comes Starleaton is well positioned to deliver high quality technical expertise, logistics, sales and service to EFI product buyers in the country.
“I was more than keen to work with EFI on this new go to market strategy and am a supporter of having the direct EFI presence. I spoke with Frank and outlined to him the continued investment we have been making
in our sales and service team through the region. We have been expanding our team in almost every location. It’s a win-win situation for both company’s and for our customers. He could see it made sense,” he said.
34 Print21 JULY/AUGUST 2018