Kodak is expanding its target market for digital output and imaging products to midsize and small-office customers.
The AIIM/OnDemand Conference & Exhibition events have traditionally
featured digital printing and workflow solutions for print service providers,
reflecting the product offerings.
"Last year we launched and showed the new NEXPRESS M700 Digital Color
Pressbig iron," said Dave Wigfield, managing director, United States and
Canada Region, Kodaks Graphic Communications Group.
However, for the AIIM/OnDemand show
held in
Boston, March 3-6, vendors such
as Kodak have been expanding their target market to include hardware and
applications appropriate for midsize and even small-office customers.
"This year our main focus has been on applications surrounding our
output devices, demonstrating workflow, to build momentum for the Drupa [printing and media] show in
Dusseldorf,
Germany," said
Wigfield. "We're focusing on the applications, and use of software, to
drive change in the industry.
We'll use our products to show how an integrated marketing campaign can be
done using Kodak offerings. In document imaging, we'll feature new and
established desktop, networked and production scanners, software and solutions
that help businesses more effectively capture, archive, extract and manage
critical business information," said Wigfield.
Kodak did bring out some "big iron" for this year's AIIM show,
including its new Versamark VL2000 Printing System, a high-speed,
high-resolution ink-jet printer intended for data centers doing over 1 million
transactional or promotional images per month, along with the Kodak i780
Scanner, a 133-page-per-minute color scanner announced in January.
Check out here some of the cool products displayed at CeBIT, including new enterprise printers.
"This is the first show the i780 has been seen at," said Wigfield.
"The i780 is optimized for color and for more complex scanning. Most
scanners slow down as you do color, or turn on features like auto-rotate. The
i780 is designed to run at full speed. That's very exciting for service bureaus
looking for performance."
Kodak also announced a new version of its Capture Pro Software, which can be
used to automate and control content management workflow at the point of image
capture, adding time-saving features for users.
"We've done a complete rewrite, so it's more robust and has more
functionality and a new, simplified graphic user interfacea whole new look and
feel," commented Wigfield. Other new features include single-click
capture, continuous flatbed scanning, intelligent selective image display and
post-scan image processing.
This software will be one of the big things for uswe're getting
aggressive, building out the channel," he said.
One distinctive aspect of the Capture Pro software is that "We don't
follow a 'click-charge' per-usage cost model unlike many other packages, which
is good for people who want to capture a lot of documents," said Wigfield.
"Kodak has never really put marketing emphasis on their Capture
Software before," commented Ron Glaz, Director, Digital Imaging Service,
IDC.
"Now they're making it known they can sell it."
Capture Pro is compatible with nearly all Kodak document scanners. The new
version is available now, with pricing based on class of product, starting at
$500 for desktop use and up to $15,000 in volume production mode.
Kodak also announced enhancements to its Kodak i1840 and i1860
Series scanners for greater ease of use, flexibility and
productivity.
