Xerox Corporation has become the industry's leader in the number of pages produced on digital production colour presses, with its flagship Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press and DocuColor Digital Presses producing more than 13 billion A4 impressions in 2006.
According to estimates by InfoTrends, an independent research firm, Xerox's installed base of DocuColor and iGen3 presses accounts for 50% of the total worldwide page volume printed by high-speed production colour printers.
"This puts Xerox well ahead of other competitors in this space," says Jim Hamilton, InfoTrends' director of On Demand Printing and Publishing Consulting Services.
In the study, InfoTrends included all colour printers with a speed greater than 41 pages per minute, as well as toner and inkjet-based products. Following this guideline, Xerox digital production colour presses produced the highest volume of pages in the industry. On a worldwide average, each Xerox iGen3 press produces around 400 000 8.5-inch x 11-inch (or A4) equivalent impressions per month, which is almost twice the volume of any other digital press on the market, according to estimates from several industry consultants.
As of the end of 2006, more than 70 iGen3 presses were averaging 1 million pages in a single month, and about 180 customers have multiple Xerox iGen3 presses. The highest print volume produced in a single month on a single iGen3 press to date is 2.5 million pages.
PK Graphics, a graphic communications company, has experience with various production products. "We are getting three times more productivity from the iGen3 press," says Phil Katz, president of PK Graphics.
"This translates into lower iGen3 running costs compared to other leading printer brands. I only need one operator to drive multiple iGen3s, where on other printer brands it would require one operator per machine."
According to Katz, the iGen3 press has taken the lead in productivity, total cost of ownership, substrate latitude, and maintenance and service. Print providers using Xerox systems are experiencing growth in pages as they offer their customers new services and leverage marketing tools, such as Xerox's ProfitAccelerator Digital Business Resources Collection, a comprehensive collection of resources to help customers build their digital printing business.
BERTL, an independent analyst firm covering office and production printing, recently gave the iGen3 press a five-star rating - its highest possible score.
"In South Africa, the iGen3 is performing very well," says Paul Haglich, Xerox marketing manager, production systems group at Bytes Document Solutions. "We are pleased with the steady increase in print volumes produced by our iGen3 customers since acquiring their presses, with one customer topping the 500 000 A3 impressions-per-month mark recently.
"More commercial printers are investing in Xerox technology and know-how to grow their businesses by expanding the printing services they offer to their clients; producing short-run, on-demand high-quality print work, as well as variable data promotional applications that can only be produced on a digital press. The iGen3 offers benefits and cost savings beyond any other digital production press on the market," says Haglich.
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As the authorised Xerox distributor to 24 sub-Saharan countries, Bytes Document Solutions, previously known as Xerox South Africa, is engaged in the marketing and servicing of the complete range of Xerox document equipment, software, solutions and services, and operating through an extensive network of distributors, dealers, concessionaires and channel partners. With black economic empowerment partner Kagiso Trust owning a 27% stake of the business, it is a wholly-owned member of the JSE Securities Exchange-listed Bytes Technology Group. For more information on Bytes Document Solutions and Xerox, visit www.xerox.com/news.
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