As Agfa Graphics continues to broaden its portfolio of wide format and industrial inkjet printers, it has introduced C3, a new customer support strategy for the industrial inkjet market. Drawing on the approach it used to become a leader in prepress.
Agfa says its new C³ Concept of complete integration, services, and benefits, highlights the company's commitment to the growing inkjet market and its ambitions to provide customers with total solutions in digital printing applications.
"Agfa has introduced C³ systems to offer 'completeness' to our customers - on all
possible levels," explains Steve Taylor, Agfa's inkjet products business manager.
"C³ refers to complete integration, such as the perfect tuning of UV-curable inks,
sophisticated printing heads and the inkjet printer or press. It represents 'complete
services, including installation and maintenance by Agfa's worldwide services team,
spare parts, training, and financing tools. And, C³ delivers a complete set of
benefits to our clients - vibrant colour, prints with resistant and durable images, and
printing equipment with increased productivity.
"Agfa has a dedicated services team that is highly trained and motivated and they are
working with all of our dealer partners to bring C³ benefits directly to our end users."
Taylor points out that the new approach is quite different to how it previously dealt
with its customers. "In the past, a pure dealer mode' was used - and in some cases is still being used by our competitors. This type of model places all of the customer responsibility on the dealer and this can lead to poor support, particularly in cases where the
manufacturer is not represented directly in the region. The C³ model is somewhat of
a hybrid approach, with dealers being able to build on synergistic relationships with
the confidence of having Agfa provide first line support directly to end -users."
"Our intention is to form close relationships with our customers and provide them with
end-to-end industrial inkjet solutions that help them achieve the highest possible
return on their investment."
The C³ Systems are based around Agfa's leading-edge, UV-curable technology
printers - the :Anapurna family of wide format printers, and the :M-Press and :Dotrix
industrial presses. Each printer delivers high-quality prints because of the 'perfect
match' between the UV inks, the print heads, the printer (or press) and the workflow
software - perfect system integration.
Beyond providing the customer with printing equipment, the new system allows them
to choose from different levels of service and support, and printer operators can also
receive intensive training for various related activities.
In addition to the standard customer-operator training for all inkjet printers, covering
basics such as set-up, profiling and maintenance procedures, Agfa also offers more
in-depth courses on the :Anapurna system (eg key-operator and application
training). In terms of 'break and fix' service and support, Silver or Bronze service
contracts are available, depending on the required support level.
An integral element of the C³ strategy is the Agfa-developed complete cost of
ownership (COO) calculation tool. It enables customers to determine the system
that best matches their needs and calculate the greatest return on their investment.
Using the software, the complete cost structure can be laid out (including media,
labour and service costs, and amortisation). With this precise breakdown, the
financial impact of the purchase can be assessed, and the cost of ownership
determined - based on the customer's specific needs. Both Agfa and the dealer can
also help work out an optimal financing solution for the installation.
