OutputLinks Q&A:
Ap Stout
Marketing Director Document Printing 
Océ Technologies B.V.  

OutputLinks recently spoke with Ap Stout, marketing director at Océ Technologies B.V., about the company’s upcoming Ipex campaign and its latest products for the output industry. With over 20 years experience in marketing and sales in corporate and commercial printing markets, Stout is an expert in document workflow and production.

Question:
Tell us about you and your history at Océ.

Answer:
I have been involved in marketing and sales roles in the printing industry for my entire professional career. I had marketing and sales management positions in all Océ business units, in Océ’s international headquarters and in some national sales organizations abroad.

Question:
Tell us about Océ campaign at the upcoming Ipex.

Answer:
We will showcase three products at Ipex 2010:

• the VarioPrint 6320 Ultra;
• the Canon imagePRESS color series;
• a new release of PRISMAprepare, Océ workflow and prepress software, which optimizes print shop work flow across monochrome and color production devices.

Question:
A Canon product at the Océ booth?

Answer:

Yes, Océ will announce the Canon imagePRESS color series at IPEX 2010. This product is the first of many Canon products to follow.

We’ll show it at IPEX, not only to announce it to the market, but also to demonstrate the Océ workflow concept for production printing environments in operation. Prepress is driven by Océ PRISMA workflow software. PRISMAprepare will drive both the Océ VarioPrint 6000 Ultra and the Canon imagePRESS C7000VP. The configuration will produce a wide range of documents, from high quality color photo books and glossy magazine, to technical manuals with color inserts and books with color covers.

Question:
Tell us more about the Océ VarioPrint 6320 Ultra.

Answer:

The center piece of our Ipex booth is the VarioPrint 6320 Ultra. The VarioPrint 6320 Ultra is the fastest and most productive cutsheet production printer on the market today. The product has changed the corporate and commercial production printing market since its introduction in 2006. Developed as a new platform, it uses several new and ground breaking technologies.

Gemini Instant Duplex, the heart of the printer, makes the VarioPrint 6320 Ultra a true perfecting press. It prints both sides of sheets simultaneously. This increases media flexibility, duplex print speed, image registration accuracy, uptime, and therefore productivity to unprecedented levels.

The PRISMAsync controller, with the Scheduler, supports operators to keep the printer going under all circumstances. The system can print unattended for hours, allowing operators to manage more systems, or perform other tasks in the shop.

Océ ScreenPoint technology delivers the best print quality, automatically, for all document and image types.

Question:
Why was this product created?

Answer:
The product was created because we saw two opportunities.

The first one is the trend to shorter run lengths in the graphic arts market. We felt that digital printing technology provided some key requirements --- such as extreme productivity, high and consistent image quality, easy of use and workflow integration --- which could help graphic arts companies to be more flexible, provide better services, reduce their operational costs and thus be more competitive and profitable. The VarioPrint 6000 Ultra line meets these requirements.

The second was that, although market demands had progressed, the very high volume cutsheet printing market was dominated by one player with aging technology. The VarioPrint 6000 Ultra line provides a superior, state-of-the-art alternative.

Question:
What value does this product bring to the industry?

Answer:
The VarioPrint 6000 Ultra line is a magnet for print work, it allows our clients to attract more business and produce it more profitably.

The VarioPrint 6320 Ultra pushes the envelope of digital printing. It increases the breakeven point from digital to offset to higher run lengths. Consequently, commercial printers can benefit from the flexibility and productivity of digital technology for a larger portion of their work. This increases the flexibility they can offer to their clients and improves their competitiveness.

Question:
What niche of the market does this product fit?

Answer:
The VarioPrint 6000 Ultra family is not a niche product as it is used in various market segments. Examples include:

• Corporate printrooms reduce their costs and improve service levels to the organization. Océ workflow software provides a seamless integration of the print room in the office departments they support. Complex and mission critical documents can therefore be printed more easily and in house.
• Graphic arts printers increase their flexibility in terms of job sizes, and media usage in print jobs, and reduce their overall print costs by reduction of labor costs.
• Book printers can provide better service to publishers by offering flexibility and the possibility to print short runs at competitive price level. The VarioPrint 6000 Ultra’s support for a range of book printing media and offset look-and-feel means that digitally- or offset printed books look identical.

Question:
How do these product fit into Océ’s “Back to Growth” theme?

Answer:
The commercial printing market was affected considerably by the recent economic down turn. Commercial printer clients saved on out-of-pocket costs, by printing less and doing more of the remaining work in house.

Now the crisis is coming to an end, the most important issue for commercial printers is to grow their business back to or, better, beyond the level of 2007. We believe that this does not necessarily mean to go back to doing the same things as before. Market dynamics have changed; we believe that in order to be successful, commercial printers may have to revisit their strategy.

We are convinced that the unique characteristics of the Océ VarioPrint 6000 Ultra line, and Canon imagePRESS color series supported by the Océ PRISMA workflow software, meet the current market requirements such as tight integration with customer requirements, print flexibility, combined color and black & white work flow, and shorter run lengths.

Question:
Thanks for your time. Any final thoughts?

Answer:
We at Océ are committed to turning the potential of our production cutsheet portfolio into a great success for our customers. We are passionate in doing so by listening to our customers and working with them to increase their profitability as they “Get Back to Growth.”

To learn more about Océ: www.oce.com

To learn more about Océ VarioPrint 6000 Ultra: www.experienceultra.com