myfujifilm.com is an ASP providing production tools and communication services that customers and clients will use to improve their productivity and profitability. The site concept was born at Drupa in 2000 and has been in development since. The original plan for somewhat of an informational portal wrapped around tools was shifted to simply focus on the workflow tools. With much anticipation and a promise to have the public side up this summer, myfujifilm is finally ready to go. Several companies have been in the beta testing phase for quite some time and executives have told us that it would not put out a product that did not work. The site features services like job management tools including: uploads, downloads, job tickets, preflighting and collaborative proofing for up to 15 people. David Murray is the Director of Marketing of myfujifilm.com. This is Part One of a Two Part Interview. David, all who have watched the developments out of myfujifilm.com have one of two opinions - Either you have experienced a development nightmare because of the delay or you have been wise making sure everything is set. I think it is important for the market to understand that we are not out to make venture capitalists satisfied, we are out to satisfy customers. In order to do this we believe that we need to start up customers at a pace where we can somewhat control the process and see that they are set up right, that their clients are set up right and that they are being serviced properly. What we don't want to have happen is that we have too much to handle, customers sign up, use the program without any attention, are not trained on the site, experience problems, get frustrated and shut it down. There is a lot to learn about soft proofing, preflighting, digital asset management etc. and how it applies to their business. We are in the business of providing value to our customers, defining their needs and making sure our product or service fits their needs. Again, numbers are great but to sustain those numbers the customer must be satisfied. "The purpose of a business is to create a customer and keep them." Controlled does not mean that our doors are shut. We will be very careful as to how we manage the process. This is not a "let the buyer beware business". We will work to make it successful in each installation and we have a process to see that that happens. So the problems were not related to external market conditions, but careful planning by your team. At Fuji Film, we are so focused on making the product right at the price that brings value to the customer that sometimes we miss the marketing opportunities. The marketing opportunity here was to advertise on our site the features and benefits of the ASP, provide news about the company, provide press releases and provide a PDF of our brochure well in advance of the introduction of the product. You could say we were careful not to sell a product "before it's time". We go through very stringent approval processes here at Fuji with any product or service that we introduce to the market so we are very careful not to leap ahead. I found at the American Companies where I worked at there was a constant struggle between keeping shareholders happy, the customers expectations met and at the same time have the business keep up with their promises. Those types of pressures aren't as great at Fuji. What features would a prospect find now at the site to learn more? We decided that our site should not only be an entry way into the ASP but it should also tell people what we are about and that is precisely what it does. It provides information on myfujifilm.com. We have a site tour, a pdf file of our brochure, information on our company, the people that support our company and how to contact us for information. We also have frequently asked questions. Again, we are an Application Service Provider (ASP). For those in the Printing and Publishing Industry that are looking to improve their profitability and productivity and extend and enrich their relationships with their customers by utilizing a file transfer system, soft proofing, hard proofing, preflighting and Digital Asset Management without having to develop it on their own, buy additional hardware and software, pay upgrade and service fees and hire and maintain IT people then myfujifilm.com is a service that they should look at. Does the customer of myfujifilm.com have complete control of the administrative features? We provide all of the above services on one easy to use site. A subscriber (one who signs up for the service) can put their look on the site and we will establish a url for them. And they have administrative functions available to them that allow them to sign up clients and establish what functionalities their clients have access to. All this comes with a full reporting system that allows them to print out reports by client and job number giving them a full record of events that have taken place. It also, allows them to check the accuracy of their invoices. David, you told us in February that you were focusing on the user of the service and did not want to get involved in the relationships with the printer’s customers. We assume that has not changed? We are involved after the job is awarded to the subscriber. We are not interested in getting involved in the relationship between a subscriber and their client. We will do so only at the request of the subscriber.