WhatTheyThink recently spoke with Tom Saggiomo, President of Agfa Graphic Systems and the newly elected Chairman of NPES to get an update on the latest news from Agfa, his plans for NPES, and his thoughts about the Print Council. Saggiomo also talked about the implications of Agfa’s recently announced deal with The New York Times.

WTT: Agfa announced that it had exceeded its sales expectations at Print 05. Can you talk to us a bit about your show success, and your thoughts about what the show reflected for the industry at large?

TS: We had a wonderful show, and we exceeded our expectations by a lot. For us, the show was all about being with customers, talking to customers, and understanding their needs. Our message to our customers was that Agfa continues to be in their corner, trying to put them on the fast track. It is very clear that the marketplace is changing, and our customers are changing. Our mission is to help them change to meet their customer and business requirements.. I know that others are saying similar things, but for us, the underpinning is our technology. If you look at what Agfa is putting on the table, our offerings will, in fact, enable customers to change. We have never been a company that dabbles in one piece of a technology. We offer full solutions. In the traditional business, this approach has worked, to the point that our two key competitors are emulating us. And that validates our solutions approach—everyone is rushing to be like Agfa and that is a nice position to be in. It provides more competition, but we are energized by it.