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. Is myfujifilm.com getting into "web based collaboration" at a bad time with so many being skeptical about the process? Well, if "web based collaboration" means utilizing Application Service Providers, I certainly don’t think we are getting in at the wrong time. The ASP model or "web service business" will grow substantially over the next year in all businesses, including printing and publishing. And while I somewhat understand the industry’s skepticism in reaction to the failure of so many dot com companies, I definitely understand that myfujifilm.com and our competitor’s have to do a better job in educating our customers and our prospects about the value that our services provide their businesses. How can you educate prospects about a cost that is never really quantified - informational expenses? The Printing and Publishing business is no different than any other business in that they need to separate the physical costs of doing business and the informational costs of doing business and work at reducing both. Printers have been and are regularly looking at more efficient ways to put ink on paper and they certainly have come a long wait in eliminating film but there is a long way to go for all of us in understanding the flow of information between the printer and print buyer, understanding how to better manage this information and of course reducing the costs around the flow and management of this information. Improvements in this area not only improve the printer’s bottom line but it allows them to extend their reach into geographic markets and physical markets that they haven’t been able to approach in the past. Web based service providers, like ourselves, need to show their prospects how the applications they provide can assist a printing business in reducing costs and increasing market opportunities with the applications we provide. Are you finding that there are printers who already understand this? Absolutely and then the discussion turns to whether there is value in them developing and managing the software and hardware and customizing it to their tastes or utilizing an Application Service Provider that has developed a similar service and manages the software and hardware 24/7 for a monthly fee. We aren’t any different than any other Application Service Provider in that we feel that our customers are better served in spending more time focusing on their business and less time on the problems of the hardware and software business. But I will conclude by saying what I said up front, we need to better educate our customers on the value we bring to their business and that begins first by understanding the needs of their business. If there is value to both of us then, yes we are in business at the right time. Now, how about some easier questions? What expectations do you have this year for the site? I expect myfujifilm.com to be a productive and profitable service to our customer base with the tools that we are offering today and that our technology team, headed by Kirk Brauch (Director of Technology) will continue to make improvements to the site based on the feedback we receive from our customers. I believe that the Fuji Film management team has set realistic expectations for myfujifilm.com in terms of numbers and again, clearly understands that the focus is on providing a service that provides value to our customers. Your target customer – who are they, what characteristics do they have? On a grand scale, anyone in the Printing and Publishing Industry who has a need to reduce the transactional costs of doing business with their customers and who wants to strengthen their relationships with their customers by providing a more efficient way to communicate. But somehow I think you want me to be a bit more specific so, I will add that there are a large number of Fuji Film customers in North America that have experienced the quality of the Fuji Film product line, have a loyalty to Fuji Film and are very receptive to new products and services from Fuji Film and I think we will focus on them first. How much does it cost to join? We do have a number of Subscription Levels that we offer. Of course, these are based on the services that we configure for the individual customer. Our administrative functions allow us to be flexible enough to design our application so that the customers can utilize the services that suit their needs. On top of the subscription fees we have event charges i.e. file transfers, soft proofing, preflighting. This information is available upon request. We have numerous print buyers who subscribe to our site, can they work with you directly? We are more than happy to talk to print buyers but I think they will find that we will want to include their printing company in the discussion. While the print buyer is certainly involved in the value proposition, our model is constructed so that our services are better controlled from the printer’s side of the business. Who are your primary competitors and what separates you from them? Now you are back to the difficult questions. Hmm, well, I work for Fuji Film so I would be including the traditional graphic arts suppliers as well as the "new" graphic arts suppliers and the list too long to mention here. My main message in regards to a differentiation strategy is clearly that we are a financially sound company that has had a strong history of providing quality products and services to our customers in the Printing and Publishing Industry. myfujifilm.com is another valued service from Fuji Film that we believe will make our customers more productive and profitable.