EFI, the dominant player in the color server market, has had a busy 2002. In addition to adding new capabilities to its portfolio of servers and boosting the number of supported devices, the company also received the Specifications for Web Offset Publications (SWOP®) seal of approval for its Fiery® Z5 color server with Fiery System 5 software, signifying that the system is capable of predicting final printed color in a Web offset environment. Another addition was support for printing from IBM AS-400s and mainframes.

EFI also moved squarely into the virtual world with PrintMe Networks going live, its acquisition of Unimobile, and its Device Relationship Management (DRM) offerings for bi-directional, Web-enabled remote diagnostics and management of output devices.

Most recently, EFI announced the acquisition of Best GbmH, a leader in inkjet proofing systems, significantly boosting EFI’s proofing product line. WhatTheyThink spoke with EFI’s CEO, Guy Gecht, to get the latest on the Best acquisition and preview what we might expect from EFI in 2003. In Part One, Mr. Gecht explains why EFI acquired Best Color.

WTT: Guy, thanks for taking the time to speak with us at the very start of the New Year. You’ve definitely had a busy year at EFI during 2002. EFI is certainly not alone in terms of revenues being down this year, but it appears that you have a significantly enhanced product portfolio moving into 2003. What feedback are you getting from the financial community?

GG: While we can’t predict what 2003 will bring to the economy as a whole, with regard to EFI specifically, the financial community, I believe, looks at us as a strong company over the long haul. We have a lot of potential, we have very strong customer relationships, and we have great technology. To be honest with you, our focus is not really so much on what will happen in 2003, but more on our long-term success and building a growing product portfolio that is going to meet the needs of the market into the future.


WTT: The new news from EFI is the Best acquisition, and I’m sure it is top of mind with our readers, so let’s get right to that subject. What do you view as the key benefits to EFI of the Best acquisition?

GG: If you take a step back and look at what we are trying to accomplish, we view our primary customer base as the professional printing community -- the people who are focusing on delivering printing services -- print for pay, commercial print, in-plant print shops, and the manufacturers of printing devices. Our objective is to provide a suite of offerings that makes them more competitive and able to provide better service to their customers.

In my opinion, the game has changed from getting as many customers as possible to focusing on maintaining our customer base and increasing our value to those customers. Proofing is an important element to our customer base, and we felt that we needed to enhance our offerings in this arena. Best has the largest market share in inkjet proofing. It made sense for us to join forces with them and make their proofing application part of our overall application suite for professional printing.


WTT: Obviously, EFI brings financial strength to Best. What other drivers were in play from Best’s perspective?

GG: Clearly, EFI’s scale, our relationships with engine manufacturers, and our reach into the end user community were all attractive to Best. The combination of the Best solutions, our Velocity™ Suite and Fiery technology will make their technology even more appealing to a lot more customers. Geographically, Best was focused mainly in Europe, and we can help them grow into the Far East and the U.S. where EFI has a strong presence. Meanwhile, we will, of course, maintain the growth in Europe, which is a strong market for both of us.


WTT: Best made a pretty big splash at Seybold San Francisco with its support of the Canon W2200, 7200 and 7250, as well as the Epson 2208 with its proofing and calibration routines. Were you considering the acquisition prior to that time?

GG: We had been having discussions with Best in the past, had done some collaboration and cross licensing. Over time, both companies arrived at the conclusion that the best way of maximizing our combined powers would be an acquisition versus a partnership.


WTT: What types of product enhancements might EFI customers expect to see in the short-term as a result of this acquisition? Can you provide a vision of what the long-term impact might be?

GG: Let’s start with the long-term for a view of the entire picture, and then drop back to what we plan short term. Long-term, as I have indicated, our objective is to provide the print professional – the in-plant, commercial printers, etc. -- the ability to obtain a full suite of applications from EFI that will make their work faster and more efficient, ultimately helping them to make their customers happier. Every component within the suite will be standalone, so the print professional only acquires the components they need, but each component will interact seamlessly with the others. This also simplifies the process for print professionals to expand their capabilities over time.

Obviously, proofing is an important component in this picture. Our combined solutions will provide existing customers of both companies with the ability to design, proof, reprint and collaborate with end users -- in other words, end-to-end capability throughout the shop workflow. Velocity OneFlow, which we launched early this year, is a critical element of this modular approach. Merging a proofing application into shop workflow is a natural extension of Velocity OneFlow, whether your target print device is CTP or a digital print device.

You should expect to see us making Best proofing solutions seamlessly available through Velocity OneFlow in the short term Over time, there will be increasing integration and added functionality across the entire Velocity suite.


WTT: EFI made a couple of interesting additions to its senior staff this year: Richard Brock, formerly of IKON, is now EFI’s General Manager of Solutions Development; and Mike Stramaglio, formerly of Imaging Portals, holds the post of GM, Advanced Enterprise Systems. These two appointments seem to signal a shift in focus for EFI, with even more emphasis on total solutions. Can you provide some insight here?

GG: Your assessment is absolutely right. Whether we are talking about acquisitions, technology or individual people, we continue to actively demonstrate that we are fully committed to the printing profession. Both of these gentlemen have tremendous experience in the industry, and each is helping to add more solutions, technology and reach to our portfolio, and to support our people in the field. Both Richard and Mike bring to the table the ability to productize the output of our R&D as well as integrate third party applications, bringing innovation to our customers within the context of a clearly articulated long-term strategy.

I really want to emphasize that what we are focused on today in all of our actions is the pursuit of our long-term strategy – and we plan to continue to be a strong force in the professional, corporate and mobile printing arenas over the next 10 to 20 years and beyond.


See Part Two