The Hindu Business Line : An experience in print!

Revolutionising the printing industry is a Bangalore-based start-up, Printo Document Services, a chain of retail stores that offers you an experience out of the mundane task of taking a print-out.

We are still a long way from becoming a paperless society. Meanwhile, the print industry is waiting to blossom in India with the increasing dependence on the Internet in our daily lives. Bank account statements, airline and bus tickets, maps — now all one needs is a print-out.

The Indian digital printing industry is projected to grow to $17 billion by 2010 from an estimated $11 billion in 2005, according to print and packaging research organisation Pira International. Yet, most of us still associate printing with the corner shop with a boy standing next to a nondescript, cream-coloured machine and an outdated PC, or a cyber cafe. Printo is attempting to break this perception with an ‘experience’ store.

According to industry estimates, one-third of digital work will be personalised by the end of 2007. Custom printing, where you can print your relatives’ names onto the invitations, and order thousands of such cards printed like this, is becoming a popular request at Printo.

Printo specialises in printing, with varied choices of paper and end-products such as photo calendars and wedding albums. It offers an online service too, for convenience. Now, people can order a print right from their homes, and collect the print-out from Printo, or even request for door-delivery. Printo has kept abreast of the mobile revolution too and sees many camera phone owners requesting a print-out.

It all started when Manish Sharma was struck with the idea of setting up the first organised retail chain for printing in India. Still in the US, he visualised shops that would draw customers to printing their digital data — be it photos or presentations.

The ‘experience’

Manish Sharma.

Around 50 people walk in everyday to get their visiting cards or wedding invites printed. They are greeted by the customer service personnel, who take note of the requirements and feed the ‘job specification’ into Printo’s proprietary software — PrintoQ. This software runs hand-in-hand with the billing and estimation software. Together, the software helps the customer get consistent pricing and discounts, as compared to ad hoc pricing given by the unorganise d competition, says Sharma.

Next, the customer service representatives use pre-press techniques that allow them to use the appropriate software and leverage the technical features of the digital printer (e.g. using RIP software for imposition).

Here’s a look at the digital printers. The DocuColor 5000 is the central engine of the store. It is designed to print between 30,000 and 150,000 impressions per month. The DocuColor 250 is Xerox’s latest production printer. Its touch-screen and keypad make it easy to use. It delivers a 2,400 x 2,400 dpi print resolution. The versatile DocuColor 6060 can make customised brochures and one-to-one documents. It prints at up to 60 pages per minute.

After the print is done, finishing touches are given to the products using imported equipment (most of it from Germany and the UK), which helps deliver a consistent and well-finished product.

Why Xerox was the choice

On most days, business would continue without a hitch. However, sudden paper jams and human errors would stop the workflow. “The paper would jam due to uneven media — sometimes due to the paper being wrongly cut by the manufacturer. We would then call Xerox’s customer care,” says Sharma.

The quick response time and guarantee of technical support six days a week was one of the primary reasons for choosing Xerox printers. Like a true businessman, Sharma knows that minimal downtime means maximum customer satisfaction. While power cuts cannot be avoided, other technical issues should be dealt with immediately. “Low downtime is necessary, but guaranteed by few printer makers,” he says.

When printer makers were consulted, Sharma found that there were either no local dealers, or technical support provided was poor. Xerox’s Production Systems Group of 11 (of which seven are on the field and four in the corporate office) offers tech support six days a week. “Unofficially this is even seven days,” approves Sharma.

The service level agreement signed with Xerox sets a two-to-four-hour turnaround time and a 24-hour problem solving timeline. Printo makes an average of 1.5 calls per month from each location and hopes to tune it down to less than one over the next six months. The average response time for the call was less than three hours.

“An analysis of our operations found that Xerox gave us an average uptime higher than 98.5 per cent across the last year,” he says. According to industry experts, 20 per cent of all print jobs will have faster turnaround by the year 2010.

“We also needed professional feedback. Being in the business, we know about our printers and do not need basic tech support. What we need is high-level, professional advice on how to fix things when we experiment and this is where the printer maker can help,” says Sharma. However, he learnt that dealers do not offer a guarantee of immediate technical support. They are not very aggressive with the small and medium business market. Most target the enterprise or SOHO (small office/home office) users. Cross-country tech support was also not offered by all. “We are growing rapidly and plan to set up 250 stores in three years. We need to ensure that support for our printers will be available at all stores,” he says. “Most OEMs don’t have service support levels and commitment to India,” he rues.

Tech investment by maker

While choosing the printers, Sharma weighed another factor in: technology investment by the maker. “We invest a fair amount in our machines and expect a similar investment by OEMs on printing technology too,” he maintains. Nobody wants to fall prey to tech obsolescence. And so while he searched for an one-for-all machine, he tried Hewlett-Packard’s Indigo range of printers, a French company Ose’s printers, Canon’s, etc, at a Printing expo.

That’s when he realised that most printers were not interoperable. “Nobody talks to each other. Some printers are not compatible with other printers and can’t be networked. Xerox’s open standards, and simple interfaces have helped us standardise. It is easy to automate and is compliant with JDF (job definition format). Innovation is needed in this domain and other vendors could try to make it easier for customers,” he says. The DC 5000 is compatible with three different servers, including Xerox FreeFlow DocuSP, EFI’s Fiery and Creo’s Spire. The DC 250 can store scanned files in a variety of popular file formats such as TIFF, JPG & PDF. “The Xerox Docucolour machines deliver high-quality prints on varying media, without compromising speed,” says Sharma.

He made the decision to buy the printers eight months before he started operations. Of the total hardware investment of $1 million (Rs 4.06 crore), 65-70 per cent was in Xerox printers. The machines behind the shop are seven of Xerox’s DocuColor range of printers — four of the DC 250 model, two DC 5000 and one DC 6060. Printo also invested in smaller printers by Toshiba and Konika Minolta.

Up against logistics

After the service level agreement was signed and money exchanged hands, Sharma was eager to start his printing business. But was then hit by another issue — logistics. Digital printers, especially production ones, are huge. The Docucolor 250 measures 65.1 inches x 36.2 inches x 54 inches and weighs approximately 200 kg. How would he transport it to the new facility, which was on the first floor of a building?

Xerox ensured the machine was delivered — using a crane, the printer was lifted up; the glass on the first floor was removed; the printer was placed in the facility; and the glass was replaced, recollects Sharma. It was more than a door-delivery. “A printer is just a commodity. We have spent a lot on them and need service that acknowledges this investment,” he avers.

Friendly and urbane

As you walk into his store, you spy a giant printer. It gives a professional touch to the ambience of Printo’s store. Sharma picks up a wedding album, while nodding a Hi to the customer service representatives. The atmosphere is friendly and urbane.

The shelves are lined with framed photos, photo-calendars, colourful visiting cards and various other options where digital printing comes of use. A self-service printer stands discreetly, allowing customers to take print-outs of private and critical documents.

“We follow copyright protection policies to customers,” he explains. And it is for this ‘experience’ that customers are choosing to walk by the neighbourhood ‘Xeroxwallah’ (irony intended) and into Printo’s snazzy centres.

preethij@thehindu.co.in