PrintIT Reseller - issue 49

01732 759725 18 Q&A PrintIT Reseller (PITR) : 2017 saw some big developments in Epson’s inkjet portfolio, please could you give us a quick overview of the story so far? Dan Wogan (DW) : We’ve taken a big step forward in 2017. We introduced our biggest, our best ever inkjet product into the office space – the WorkForce Enterprise product offering two versions, a hundred page a minute device and a 75 ppm device. Two new products into a completely new category for us. This was the first time we’ve taken a big step into big workgroup and departmental size devices. We also introduced a new version of our 24 ppm multifunction device with even larger RIPS (replacement ink cartridges), the idea behind that being that it requires far less intervention, there’s less opportunities for an end-user to be annoyed because the lights are flashing on it. We also extended our solutions partnership, added Nuance to the fold with their Equitrac and e-Copy products. So, as we’ve developed into the larger departmental space, we’ve onboarded some solutions to really make us tick in that kind of environment. There’s also our Print 365 print-as-a-service proposition for the channel. This has taken a really strong foothold and generated a lot of activity. From a UK perspective, we’re actually leading our European partners with their own business, so we’re leading France and Germany which have historically been stronger than the UK, so we’ve taken great joy in being the strongest player within our own business with that proposition as well. PITR : The introduction of the WorkForce Enterprise line of A3 MFPs was a big story in 2017, why are they such a significant development? DW : It’s a big investment from Epson. A fuser, a laser based product is effectively PrintIT Reseller met up with Dan Wogan, Epson UK Product Manager – Managed Print Services and Business Solutions, to talk about developments in Epson’s inkjet technology. Here are some edited highlights from the video interview One to one with Dan Wogan an oven in a printer and inkjet devices are far more efficient than that. So far, we’ve invested 400 million euro in the development of our inkjet technology so that WorkForce Enterprise is based on a new type of printhead for Epson and there’s a further hundred and eighty-five million euro to be invested in this process. So, it’s a significant investment, it’s one of our core technologies. It’s effectively taking a technology that in our business we’ve been using in the industrial and the commercial workspaces and then shrinking it down into a smaller package. A smaller package that works within the office in the departmental space, but still prints at a very rapid rate with massive efficiencies, massive productivity benefits and a huge reduction in energy consumption. We talk about very large numbers, we talk about 90 per cent reduction in waste and energy consumption. The WorkForce Enterprise will use a maximum energy consumption of 320 watts; that’s a third of that of a desktop 30 page a minute laser device and well over 90 per cent less than a comparative speed device. It’s a magnificent reduction in energy, and energy production actually generates 75 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases, so it's a significant benefit from a sustainability perspective as well. PITR : How have your channel partners responded to the new A3 devices? DW : I’m always careful with using words like excitement when talking about printers, usually it’s just me in the room! But actually we’ve spoken to a lot of dealers who have been in the game for 30 years with a lot of experience and they've used words like excitement. They’ve said change is a good thing and it is a different technology, so there has been some, maybe preconceptions about inkjet we’ve had to overcome in the journey but actually the research community that we are working with have really embraced the idea of something different. Different is good, it gives them something new to talk about because it can help them increase their margins, it can take them into new markets and it gives them new things to say. The arguments about cost reduction we can bring that about and actually we can bring that about because of energy reduction, so there’s another place that the cost can be dragged out of the equation for their customers. But equally there’s lots of other additional benefits – reduction in waste, reduction in intervention, it means that a dealer can actually look after more devices using the same engineering resource that they had previously, so it puts less strain on their service business. So it is a more efficient product for them to take forward and that's why we are seeing a lot of dealers It’s effectively taking a technology that we’ve been using in the industrial and the commercial workspaces and then shrinking it down Continued...

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