Page 41 - Print21 Nov-Dec 2019

Digital
HP Indigo does work with third parties on its security systems, for functions such as invisible ink and track-and-trace. Bar-Shany says, “End solutions can be multi-layered. It makes sense for us to work with other specialist developers – then
we can offer our customers a range of options, with a combination of solutions on one product if required.”
PrintEx is one of numerous local shows going on around the globe, but the big mama is now on the horizon, with drupa only nine months away, where HP Indigo will again make
a strong showing. Bar-Shany says, “The show is important to us, as it is to printers. We will again have the biggest stand, and we will again show working solutions. We are proud of the act that every piece of technology that was on our drupa ‘16 stand – and there was a lot – is now out in the market, including the 8000HD, and the 50000. HP Indigo is about bringing innovative real solutions to the market. We will have commercial print solutions, and printers for labels, folding cartons, flexible packaging, and some surprises.”
The company will give an insight into its drupa stand at its traditional VIP event in Israel before the show, and will be launching new solutions at the global Dscoop user group event in Florida next year. Bar- Shany says, “We have a technology roadmap, we are in constant communication with our customers, and the solutions we are driving forward with are real world products for real world applications.”
One of the developments that came out of last drupa was HP OS, the
cloud based ecosystem for HP Indigo users that encouraged third parties to upload apps that can be used
to further optimise the HP Indigo experience. Bar-Shany says, “Today there are 1000 companies active on HP OS. It is a robust, global, secure platform, with new capabilities being added – for instance, to enable printers to reach colour even quicker, to optimise productivity, to easily enable variable data printing.”
HP Indigo has just acquired one of the early HP OS app developers, the UK-based One Flow Systems, which enables auto tracking of all jobs until they are fulfilled. Bar- Shany says, “There is an Amazon effect in all business now, where everything is wanted immediately. There are opportunities there, but printers need to have impeccable job management. The One Flow app is designed for just this job.”
Competition
HP Indigo technology remains on its own in the liquid toner space, but of course there is competition in applications from both toner and inkjet systems. HP Indigo had the B2 sheetfed digital market to itself for five years, by the time drupa rolls around there will be half a dozen competitors. For Bar-Shany. though, competition is a driver.
He says, “When we started we had the offset guys pooh-poohing us, then the toner guys making their claim, latterly the inkjet developers. However, the fact is that HP Indigo is market leader by a long way, in
Road to drupa: Pictured at PrintEx are Alon Bar-Shany (left) and
ANZ and around the world. There will be new entrants at drupa for sure, but we have the credibility. People trust our brand. And they trust Currie Group to deliver on training, service, spare parts.
“We are in a growth phase right now, and we have the track record. The B2 Indigo was launched six years ago and there are now 1000 units installed around the world. The new 12000 HD is an evolution that will offer more, in the rip, the variable data capability, the security printing. It is a big step forward. We are evolving, with a focus on end to end solutions. Our quality has never been in doubt – everyone knows HP Indigo print is at the highest level. Our aim is to enable print businesses to get
as much print through the system to produce as much product as possible in the shortest possible time.”
Israel
Anyone who keeps an eye on
things will know that Israel – the headquarters of HP Indigo – is emerging as a technology powerhouse, not just in print, which is quite a story given its small size, relatively new society, and the animosity it faces from many quarters.
Interestingly, Israel’s first high tech company was Scitex, the pre-press giant of the 70s and 80s founded by genius Efi Arazi, who had the foresight to sell it shortly after the first Apple Mac appeared, then founded EFI – now a $1bn business.
I ask Bar-Shany why the country has been able to become such a high tech powerhouse, way ahead of other countries of the same and larger sizes. He says, “First it is a mixed society: religious, non-religious,
Jew and Arab, and we like to debate and discuss. Second, we are an open society: we like to listen to new ideas. Third, we are not afraid to fail. We know that failure is part of the journey. We know that no-one succeeds without some failures first. And we work hard.”
With that Bar-Shany was off,
back to Israel, and next time I see him it is in Brussels a month later
at Labelexpo, where he tells the gathered crowd that HP Indigo sells more label hardware than any other manufacturer, digital or not, and where new deals are signed with both customers and partners. His energy is driving the business forward, and at drupa HP Indigo will no doubt have the most new releases. Watch this space. 21
Oran Sokal, director and general manager of HP Indigo Asia-Pacific and Japan
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