Page 34 - Widthwise Magazine

Widthwise 2020
Ask the manufacturers
Bobby Grauf,
sales manager inkjet, Agfa UK and Ireland
Rob Goleniowski, head of sales UK and Ireland, Roland DG
Q1
Where is your
(large-format
inkjet) R&D budget
primarily focussed,
and why?
We continue to invest heavily in our total solution approach, which means printers
and presses, Web-to-print, cloud and workflow software, and of course inks. We are continuing to release updates, upgrades and model variations for the Anapurna, Jeti and Asanti product families. At the same time, we are developing our new Oberon platform - which had its first showing as a 3.3m RTR at C-Print! Lyon at the beginning of 2020.
In parallel to the sign and display sector we are growing our Industrial Inkjet solutions, where we just announced expansion of our water-based ink manufacturing capacity. Both divisions work closely together and it’s no secret that there is a lot of crossover.
The world of large-format inkjet encompasses individual businesses that straddle the borders between industries and a sizeable proportion of our budget is focused on addressing these diverse needs and developing more flexible, more versatile devices that overachieve in whichever market they operate. We have teams dedicated to the key areas of hardware, ink and software.
Q2
With increasing print device/system connectivity comes
cybersecurity
concerns for PSPs. How are you responding to that?
Agfa has been servicing various high-security sectors for many decades. Take our Cloud hosting and SaaS solutions for instance, which run, amongst others, public and private hospitals, and international newspaper groups. To serve these customers we have implemented the most stringent IT security protocols and processes.
Wide-format PSP’s running Agfa systems directly benefit from this, as their systems interact securely with our central servers for updates, upgrades and remote support. Of course, individuals will always be the main gatekeepers in terms of IT security, so we ensure that every operator is trained to keep their systems safe.
A printer should be no more susceptible to security concerns than any other connected or smart device. It’s important to find a balance between convenience and security but, generally speaking, installing a good firewall is key to protecting your network. Your in-house approach to cybersecurity is vital and you should implement a policy restricting access to authorised staff only.
At Roland DG we mitigate many concerns by ensuring that our printers don’t hold sensitive data on-board - processing only what is sent from the PC. This means that our users only need to ensure that their PC and network are as secure as possible to minimise any risks.
Q3
terms of their whole life-cycle not just their operation?
What are you doing
to meet the demand
for ‘greener’ print
devices/products - in
Our aim is to develop, make and supply long-lasting systems in view of multiple ownerships. We service and support pre-owned systems.
Of course, technology leaps, such as UV LED curing for instance, help us to reduce a system’s carbon footprint by reducing the number of consumables parts. At the core is Agfa’s patented Thin Ink Layer technology which significantly lowers ink usage and ink waste, hence reduces the amount of journeys required to deliver and dispose of ink.
Another major step for us was the introduction of PrintTune to monitor colour quality across multiple devices and multiple sites. By charting a printer’s quality against
an agreed standard on a regular basis we reduce the number of reprints for colour quality reasons.
For many years, environmentally neutral production has been a mainstay of our manufacturing and distribution cycle. Notably, we produce devices from recyclable components, we have reduced plastic waste by switching to ink pouches from cartridges and 99% of our packaging is made from recyclable cardboard - but like every conscious business, we recognise that more needs to be done. Once more, demands for greener devices feature highly in the want lists of our customers and potential customers and as such this becomes an ever more important pillar in our ongoing R&D plans.
Q4
involved does your company get in helping companies develop new offerings for new markets?
Of the PSPs responding
to our summer 2020
Widthwise poll, nearly
half said the biggest
opportunity was entering
new markets. How
Every customer we meet is different - with different ideas, needs and solutions.
We listen and capture them all and distribute them to our regional Agfa Inkjet Competence Centres (ICC) in each country. Should we not have an immediate answer, we will develop the solution with our customers at one of our ICC’s.
During the Covid-19p andemic, as part of our #CountOnUs initiative, we hosted over 30 focused webinar sessions to continue this knowledge transfer. The feedback on those sessions is overwhelmingly positive, so we will continue with #CountOnUs for the foreseeable future.
As part of our aftersales care, we regularly advise our customers on their
individual challenges and in the past years these have centred more and more around creating new products and uncovering new capabilities with their existing equipment. Meanwhile, an active community of Roland users has grown up organically around social platforms like Facebook and there we see a constant exchange of ideas.
To fuel the appetite for application knowledge we have made significant investment in a new Roland Academy online learning platform. Between now and early 2021, we aim to develop an organic social learning environment in collaboration with a diverse range of Roland users and product experts.
Q5
print sector now - and how are you addressing that?
What is the biggest
challenge you face
as a supplier to the
large-format
I hope that everyone in the industry is in good health and safe, and that we can all come back stronger very soon.
One of our biggest challenges is keeping up with Roland users. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us just how vital this connection is - it’s only by adapting
to the seismic shifts in our customers’ businesses that we can rapidly adjust our own priorities. In particular, we have placed an even greater focus on developing ecommerce solutions (PersBiz) allowing our customers to swiftly and easily create their own online Web stores.
From a service perspective, we have transitioned most of our RolandCare technical support infrastructure to more remote and accessible platforms, purely to address the need for social distancing. In so doing, we have seized the opportunity to streamline our processes and provide even more convenient access for our customers.
34 | Widthwise 2020 | www.imagereports.co.uk