Sophie Matthews-Paul reports on her recent attendance at the latest Connect event in Las Vegas
For EFI, Connect is now a regular annual event which gives its customers and channel partners the golden opportunity to congregate under one roof, and discover everything there is to know about all the products and services that come under the company’s unified umbrella which covers all sectors of the printing industry. This year’s gathering was held, once again, at The Wynn in Las Vegas with this behemoth hotel site providing all the facilities needed for a successful conference environment, with a few added bonuses for those fancied a spot of gambling or some luxury dining facilities.
Key at this year’s EFI Connect was the continued exponential growth of the company’s business and its product developments during the past twelve months. While the event wasn’t designed specifically to provide a platform for brand new launches and significant upgrades, there were cogent shifts of emphasis throughout the software portfolio. These were driven by the acknowledged need for greater cohesion led by tighter integration – a facet endorsed by Gaby Matsliach who has joined EFI as general manager and senior vice-president of EFI Productivity Software, and who has a wealth of experience in the software sector.
The desire for this increased level of integration has now been addressed by a change of nomenclature to bring together all software into the EFI Productivity Suite which encompasses labelling and packaging, as well as all other areas of digital print in wide- and narrow-format terms. This now incorporates a set of out-of-the-box components that accommodates the company’s far-reaching portfolio of software products, commencing with web-to-print, cross media and multi-channel functionality through pre-press and workflow requirements to a comprehensive set of business management and accountability options.
This unification into a single suite now makes it far easier for companies of all sizes to work to a truly integrated standard so that, using their elements of choice that suit their particular business structures, a highly efficient end-to-end production and administrative environment can be created and easily maintained. EFI’s intention is that print service providers and converters should be able to grow their overall efficiency in a lean, greener and more profitable manner. Although these criteria have helped many end-users already, fine-tuning sophisticated integration capabilities now simplifies the route to greater productivity, including JDF compliance and better accountability overall.
Connect also saw emphasis on its digital front-end (DFE) philosophy with the latest iterations of Fiery now bringing greater processing speeds for EFI’s own and partnered third-party devices. The latest version of this software is already proving its intrinsic value within the label sector when driving the Jetrion narrow-web series of UV-curable printers. With LED cool curing also being used increasingly in EFI’s wide-format and VUTEk portfolios of printers, these are now benefiting the labelling sector as thin and traditionally difficult materials can now be used without likelihood of damage through the application of excessive heat. As a result, converters are now able to add an efficient print-to-cut workflow to their production lines for greater efficiency and throughput speeds.
EFI executives concentrated on bringing attendees at Connect up to speed on all aspects of the company’s activities and these extended beyond productivity software through to its series of digital devices that include the Cretaprint ceramics printer as well as the Jetrion, wide-format and VUTEk portfolios. The inextricable link between all of these machines and the EFI ethos is an overall awareness of industry trends and future needs that complement present-day requirements. As such, it is this planning ahead that is so crucial in a fast-changing world where printing environments are affected by communications’ methodologies and need to adapt their technologies to sit neatly in-line with cross media and multi-channel activities, driven increasingly by cloud-based parameters and principles, plus the desire for greater all-round integrated processes.
EFI’s CEO, Guy Gecht, is always the perfect host of Connect and every year he injects an element of humour into the proceedings in the form of a surprise. Gecht’s fireside chat guest two years ago was Benny Landa, and this preceded the announcement twelve months on at the same event that the company’s DFE would be used to drive the Landa nanographic presses. This year, the link with Landa exceeded all expectations with a carefully crafted Skype call which involved Gecht waking up Landa at 4am to ask him the latest news regarding his printing technology.
EFI Connect is always an event that stands out for its community feel that encourages networking opportunities across the board. Users from different parts of the world befriend one another through the common interest of print, and relationships develop that connect businesses internationally that, hitherto, might never have met. For those who wondering whether or not Connect was for them, it would be a good idea to sign up for the event in 2016 to confirm that it is the perfect environment for all those involved in digital print production.
