Our readers may remember that HP Indigo closed its largest deal ever with photo specialty printer Shutterfly. After an aggressive installation at three sites over the summer, Shutterfly concluded a successful peak season and has now come back for more.

I had the opportunity to speak with COO Dwayne Black, who told me that the company has now standardized on HP Indigo presses for production of its photo speciality items. With this deal, Shutterfly now has even more HP Indigo 12000s across its three plants, displacing competitive digital presses. “This was a relatively easy internal sell when I explained that these presses run twice as fast as the ones being replaced and give us better quality,” Black says. “This gives us more efficiency, labor savings, scrap reduction – all kinds of benefits.”

The decision last year to acquire the first phase of HP Indigo 12000s was based on Shutterfly’s long-term relationship with HP and an appreciation of the roadmap HP has laid out to carry the product line into the future. “The first units demonstrated that moving to a full fleet of 12000s was the next logical step,” Black explains. “We were on the receiving end of exceptional support as well. In a business like ours, you always worry about putting a lot of eggs in one basket with one supplier, but HP really proved itself over this last season when we installed the first phase of units. The service, the press dependability, the project team – everyone came through. It was one of the best executions I have ever seen.”