FOSTER CITY, CALIF. - Oct. 11, 2007 - EFI, the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced that Centiv Services, Inc., a value-added marketing services company based in Chicago, Ill., purchased the milestone 1.5 millionth Fiery produced since EFI shipped the world's first color digital print server in 1991. Leveraging the benefits of digital print, Centiv Services offers innovative marketing services to such Fortune 500 companies as Motorola, Honda, Frito-Lay, Bacardi, and Kawasaki.  Centiv Services has chosen two Canon imagePRESS A3000 servers, new Fiery color digital print servers that drive optimal speed, quality, and reliability for their new Canon imagePRESS C7000VP (up to 70 pages per minute) digital presses. The powerful EFI-Canon combination is at the core of Centiv's Marketing Resource Management service, Instant Impact, which brings together state-of-the-art technologies to help companies drive marketing effectiveness by making the materials more timely and relevant. Centiv Services is using the 1.5 millionth Fiery to help their clients speak differently to consumers market by market, store by store, where they are making a decision about which brand to buy or consume - the Point of Decision.
"Since 2001, we've produced double and triple digit growth each year delivering quality product and customer service for some of America's best brands - and we leverage the industry-leading technology from EFI and Canon to execute the creative marketing programs that drive consumer impact and purchase, and our clients' success," said John Larkin, president, Centiv Services. "The Fiery servers are maximizing the investment we've made in the breakthrough Canon imagePRESS C7000VP digital presses, bringing the overall quality and consistency of output, and tremendous workflow efficiencies that propel our customer service to an entirely new level of excellence. The Fiery servers seamlessly integrated into our existing workflow and allow us to dramatically increase the size and complexity of the print component of our marketing services. And of course it's exciting to be a part of EFI's legacy as the recipient of this milestone Fiery."
"EFI is in business to help customers print to win, and it's gratifying to see Centiv Services do exactly that with our 1.5 millionth Fiery, representing our best, most advanced color digital print server technology - and to have our long-standing, successful EFI-Canon collaboration be a part of this milestone achievement," said Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president of marketing and sales, EFI. "Centiv Services is leveraging EFI technology to put the power and flexibility of digital print to work for their clients. Particularly with the industry-leading Fiery variable data printing, Centiv Services is able to create timely, relevant, and impactful materials and deliver marketing effectiveness for their clients - driving success and business growth for EFI's customer and their customers."
Each Centiv Services client has a secure, branded website accessible from any Web browser anytime, anywhere. Each user within the client company has personal site settings that they use for customized ordering, such as point of purchase materials, menus, sell sheets, hand-outs, direct mail pieces and more. Centiv's Fiery-driven Canon imagePRESS C7000VP presses automatically, cost-effectively produce each design, and the high-impact orders are immediately shipped to the client's specification - making Centiv a one-stop-shop for all materials produced for the Point of Decision.
Powered by the new Fiery servers, Centiv Services offers marketing services that help their clients make meaningful and sustainable connections with their customers. The value-added personalized marketing campaigns Centiv Services propose for their clients are made reality by the Fiery-Canon imagePRESS C7000VP digital press combination. The Fiery offers the industry's most open, powerful variable data printing (VDP) workflow capability, including support of VDP languages Fiery FreeForm, industry standard PPML, and a host of legacy proprietary languages, and collaborations with the leading VDP software vendors.
Specifically designed to drive the Canon imagePRESS C7000VP digital press, the Canon imagePRESS A3000 server is based on the newest, most advanced Fiery platform from EFI, lauded for consistently precise color, advanced connectivity, high quality, sophisticated workflow, and ease of use. Featuring a sleek new look, the next-generation Fiery platform delivers for Centiv Services leading-edge WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) job composition and imposition tools, workflow automation, professional quality color, advanced production tools, and VDP capabilities.
The Fiery server also features full compliance with PDF-X3, a specification for reliable prepress data interchange that enables designers to provide digital content files that can be printed predictably and correctly by Centiv Services, and the recently added support of the new color specification, Pantone Goe System to EFI's already impressive list of Pantone color libraries.
Availability
EFI solutions designed for Canon U.S.A. are available through authorized Canon U.S.A. dealers, select distributors, and Canon imaging resellers at 1-800-OK-CANON and http://www.usa.canon.com.