PALO ALTO, Calif. – HP today announced that the strategic advantages HP offers, including the high reliability, total cost of ownership value, end-to-end productivity and offset-quality imaging of HP Indigo press technology, led to a number of competitive replacement sales in the second half of 2009.

Print service providers (PSPs) from across the United States chose HP solutions such as the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press and the HP Indigo press 5500 instead of renewing leases on digital presses from other manufacturers. Joining the group of PSPs switching to HP entirely were firms that continue to have some competitive solutions but have added HP Indigo presses to produce their highest-quality digital print products.

"HP's commitment to customer success leads us to deliver not only superior production solutions, but also the reliability, service and consultative relationship PSPs need to achieve profitable growth," said Jan Riecher, vice president and general manager, Graphics Solutions Business – Americas, HP. "Industry professionals are opting to move essential digital print operations to HP to achieve a competitive advantage."

More uptime means more profit opportunities
Bennett Graphics in Tucker, Ga., switched to HP Indigo after encountering significant issues with uptime using a three-year-old digital press from another manufacturer. Since installing the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press last summer, Bennett Graphics has benefited from reliable, consistent productivity, as well as the true look and feel of offset that comes from HP Indigo's use of liquid inks instead of the dry toners used on competing electrophotographic presses.

"Digital printing is a vital part of what Bennett Graphics delivers to meet clients' communications needs; and high uptime, reliability, offset quality and support from our equipment partner are essential in today's market," said David Bennett, owner, Bennett Graphics. "HP came out on top in terms of equipment and in the way they work with us as a customer – not only does the Indigo 7000 give us outstanding quality printing, HP's attention and diligence gives us the confidence of knowing HP will be an integral part of the future success at Bennett Graphics."

The right solution to capitalize on digital growth opportunities
New Bedford, Mass.-based cross-media communications firm Reynolds DeWalt runs an HP Indigo Press 5000 installed several years ago, but the company also owns a digital color press from another vendor. The recent decision to install an HP Indigo 7000 and produce the majority of digital printing work on HP equipment came as company executives recognized that high-quality output – including HP Indigo's unique six-color-process offering – was essential to Reynolds DeWalt's growth. In addition, the company benefits from HP's background as an IT leader with solutions that meet Reynolds DeWalt's scalable raster image processing needs to process highly complex and personalized documents at top production speeds.

Reynolds DeWalt expanded its database management and analytics services through the October 2009 acquisition of RiverView Marketing Consultants, and has earned new business requiring fulfillment for large volumes of variable-data, high-impact direct marketing materials. Given this growth opportunity, the HP Indigo 7000's high quality and reliability made it the company's preferred choice.

"It is our belief that the HP Indigo 7000 offers the highest quality output and the most workflow flexibility of any product in the market today," said Scott Dubois, vice president, Cross-media Services and Marketing, Reynolds DeWalt. "The addition of the 7000 to our portfolio allows us to execute the type of high-value projects that are in demand from marketing departments."

Bennett Graphics and Reynolds DeWalt were among numerous PSPs replacing or augmenting digital press capacity from other vendors with HP Indigo solutions in the second half of the year. A partial list of these firms includes:
•    Darwill Press, a PSP based in Chicago that installed an HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press in November;
•    Haapanen Brothers Inc., a Gurnee, Ill.-based PSP that had used a competing solution for more than a decade, but installed an HP Indigo press 5500 based on its quality, consistency and wide range of compatible media; and
•    DS Graphics, a Lowell, Mass., PSP that made its HP purchases at the PRINT 09 trade show in September, buying an HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press and an HP SmartStream Production Pro Print Server to bring the advantages of HP production to its current digital and analog workflows.

In addition to gaining top-quality presses, these PSPs benefited from a range of business development solutions in the HP Graphic Arts Capture Business Success program, which offers pre- and post-sale business development tools and assistance. The program includes help with business plans for expansion, one-on-one consulting, PSP marketing campaign development and analog-to-digital print cost-savings analyses. In addition, the above firms all received flexible, vendor-direct financing from HP Financial Services, the company's leasing and life cycle asset management services subsidiary.

"HP helped us finance our new HP Indigo 7000 during a tough economic time," said Howard Van Dyke, president, Darwill Press. "They were very flexible and worked to provide us the financing we needed."