By: John Henze 

Abstract:

Fiery Digital Front Ends (DFEs) significantly augment Copiers Northwest’s service capabilities. These DFEs support diverse digital printers, offering Copiers Northwest vast flexibility in meeting varied client needs. Fiery’s uniform interface across all machines simplifies training and operations, ensuring efficient adaptation. Crucially, Fiery guarantees precise brand color replication, vital for maintaining client trust. Moreover, Fiery’s innovative solutions optimize task efficiency, presenting a tangible ROI for Copiers Northwest’s clients. Regular training, such as the annual Fiery Expert certification, ensures the team remains updated, fortifying the steadfast partnership between Fiery and Copiers Northwest and underscoring Copiers Northwest’s excellence in technology.

Article:

Today’s digital printing technology provides many labor-saving and productivity-enhancing features. However, the complexities of certain products require that customers have access to a knowledgeable salesperson prior to acquiring print solutions and, more importantly, a vendor that’s committed to providing experienced and proactive service after the sale. Copiers Northwest, founded in 1986 with a culture of service and customer support, has been able to hire and retain some of the most talented people in the industry, specialists in their field.

One such individual is Judd Meyers. Copiers Northwest Production Support Manager/Color Specialist. Meyers has nearly 40 years of print technology experience and has worked with Fiery almost since its founding more than 30 years ago. He is a certified Fiery Expert and certified G7 expert, as well as a Color Management Professional, and supports Copiers Northwest customers throughout the company’s 12 Pacific Northwest locations.

Although his experience, multiple certifications, and technical knowledge are impressive, it’s his philosophy that makes him a valuable resource for Copiers Northwest customers. He explains, “We don’t just sell a piece of equipment and move on. In order for our customers to receive maximum benefit from their investments, we train the operators and provide a level of support that ensures they’re happy with the hardware, software, and professional services. It’s why we enjoy so many repeat customers.”

Among the many benefits of Fiery Digital Front Ends (DFEs) is the fact they support digital printers from most of the major manufacturers and a variety of industry segments, including production printers, graphic color, office, commercial print, packaging, signs, display graphics, and more. Equally important is the Fiery interface is basically the same across all equipment manufacturers. That means that with Fiery, print providers can unify their print rooms, transcending printer brands and models. The unparalleled integration offered by Fiery gives businesses the liberty to choose and switch between the best printers available in the industry now, or even five years down the line, without being tethered to any specific brand.

“That is a significant benefit since operators already familiar with Fiery can get up to speed quickly when working with a new engine or different brand,” says Meyers. “Gone ar Being able to manage an entire printer fleet across different locations with one interface is a game changere the days when a printing operation is limited to one brand. A number of Copiers Northwest customers have multiple brands and have both sheetfed and wide format printers..”Meyers describes the need for a Fiery DFE as having four pillars: Job management, color management, ease of use, and horsepower, adding, “If those items are important to you, you need a Fiery. This can be true even if the shop only has monochrome printers; for example, if they need more sophisticated job management or ease of use, they can benefit from features like Fiery presets.”

Before making any recommendations in an office or production type of environment, Meyers determines whether the customer is currently sending work out, doing variable data or advanced color management, or printing large files. This determines if a Fiery is needed and whether it needs to be an external or embedded Fiery. He also wants the customer to understand their return on investment (ROI). “Any investment requires an ROI,” says Meyers. “Keeping in mind that time is money, if their investment means increased efficiency, more vivid color, or the ability to process more jobs in a day, month, or year, the ROI becomes an easy discussion.” “I point out to them that with a Fiery and Command Workstation, they can reduce the job time from 10 minutes to seconds. When multiplying the 10 minutes times, say, 7,000 jobs per year, that expense can equate to a full-time employee.”

In addition to discussions with purchasing, Meyers also goes on site to better understand the perspective of the end-users. Many times, he discovers end-users don’t understand what’s available and the value certain options can deliver. “I’ll have an end-user tell me it only takes them 10 minutes to perform a particular task,” laments Meyers.

Another common need that Fiery addresses is the need to consistently deliver accurate brand colors or spot colors across operators, shifts, machines, and locations on multiple media types. He adds, “We teach the end-users how to operate so it works best for them, instead of them having to work hard generating productivity on the equipment. We don’t want them saying, ‘Okay, you are trying to sell me a Ferrari, but I don’t know how to drive this thing.’ That’s the beauty of the depth of the customer support we provide. We teach them how to drive and get maximum performance.”

Copiers Northwest makes a range of tools available, including making sure the customers understand all the educational resources available from Fiery, and professional services through a program called Print Guru. A facilities management relationship with Copiers Northwest is also appropriate for many customers. Under this program, Copiers Northwest supplies the operators, all service and preventive maintenance, and any additional support required.

Meyers enjoys the terrific added-value support from the Fiery team during regular calls to stay up to date on the latest developments and report what’s going on in the field with Copiers Northwest customers. “In addition to Fiery’s incredible level of support, I have to renew my Fiery Expert certification annually, so I take a lot of courses to keep my skill set sharp.” says Meyers. “Fiery truly cares about Copiers Northwest and our customers beyond just selling a product. That’s very important in maintaining an effective partnership.”

When you add the outstanding capabilities a Fiery DFE provides for customers and their workflow with the level of support Copiers Northwest receives from the Fiery team, it makes representing them an easy decision.

About the Author’s bio

John has over 35 years of high tech sales and marketing experience spanning across multiple industries. He joined EFI in 2008 as Vice President of Marketing, responsible for product and channel marketing, product management and educational services for the Fiery business. In 2018 he took on the additional responsibility of sales for Fiery, responsible for worldwide sales across all Fiery partners and channels.

Prior to EFI, John was with Cisco systems in various marketing leadership roles. Prior to this role, John held numerous senior marketing and business development roles in the networking and storage industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in science from UCLA and MBA from Santa Clara University.

Quotes

If you can save 10 minutes per job on 7,000 jobs per year with Fiery workflow automation, that can often equate to the salary of a full-time employee.

Once a month, I do a call with my Fiery rep at the engineering level. That’s a level of support that is incredible!

I also get terrific value-added support from the Fiery sales team. They truly care about us and our customers beyond simply selling the box, and that’s very important in maintaining an effective partnership.

Fiery truly cares about Copiers Northwest and our customers beyond just selling a product.

Being able to manage an entire printer fleet across different locations with one interface is a game changer

Job management, color management, ease of use, and horsepower, adding, “If those items are important to you, you need a Fiery

Click Here to Learn More about Fiery

SOURCE Fiery