PRINT
IT
RESELLER.UK
39
INTERVIEW
Interest in
the ecological
benefits of
business
inkjet does
vary from
country to
country.
“Germany is
very sensitive
to ecological
messages, the
UK less so”
EcoTank’s
appeal is
as much
about the
convenience
of low
intervention
as it is about
running costs
it’s probably not going to make that much
difference, but if you’re running a fleet
of printers, which a lot of our customers
are, then it starts to make a significant
difference,” he argued.
New products
Epson showed a number of new business
inkjet products at the IFA 2017 exhibition
in Berlin, including a new generation of
EcoTank printers. “The main differences
are, firstly, that the ink tanks are now on
the front, so you can see the ink level from
the front of the printer – a little bit more
convenient than having them on the side
– and, secondly, they are easier to refill,”
Clark said.
“Before, replacement ink came in
bottles with a pointed nozzle: you had
to remove the seal, put on the pointed
nozzle and then squeeze the bottle to
get the ink into the tank. If I’m honest,
it’s a little messy. With our new printers,
there is a keying system, so you definitely
can’t put the wrong colour into the wrong
tank, and a valve mechanism, which
opens automatically. The ink automatically
flows into the tank, so you don’t need to
squeeze the bottle, and when the tank
is full it stops, which makes refilling a lot
easier. We always listen to feedback from
customers and, out of all the feedback
we got, refilling was the one thing people
really wanted us to change,” he continued.
Clark said that when Epson launched
the EcoTank product, its expectation was
that this would be purchased by high print
volume customers. “Because turning the
business model on its head means that
initially you do pay more for the hardware,
which you then recoup because the cost
per page is so much lower,” he said.
“But, in reality, we’re seeing a broad
spectrum of user, because EcoTank’s appeal
is as much about the convenience of low
intervention as it is about running costs.
You still get more customers at the higher
end, but take-up is across the market.”
He added: “We do a similar concept for
the business marketplace that we call RIPs.
These devices have replaceable ink packs
with enough ink for up to 86,000 pages in
each bag, so for a year or so the only thing
the customer has to replenish is the paper.
RIPS brings the same experience you get
with EcoTank to the office market. It really
is a low intervention product.”
Epson also launched a new service
called ReadyInk at IFA 2017. Clark
explained that what Epson is trying to do
in the consumer and SOHO markets is to
provide a number of different ways for
customers to acquire its inkjet printers.
“You can buy low cost hardware and go to
a store to buy replacement cartridges; you
can buy an EcoTank device, with a higher
upfront cost and low cost per page; or you
can buy the low cost hardware and use it
with monitoring software that automatically
sends a replacement cartridge when ink
levels get low so you don’t have to go to a
shop to buy supplies,” he explained.
“The ReadyInk pay-as-you-go print
service is another way to eliminate the
inconvenience of running out of ink. You
can buy into the EcoTank concept or
you can go for a convenient, automatic
cartridge replacement service,” he added.
Recycling and paper-making machine
Clark said that in the 25 years he has been
working for Epson, the Paperlab recycling
and paper-making machine has generated
more interest than any other product the
company has announced.
“People are really interested in the
whole idea of closing the loop. Currently,
we’ve got beta test sites in Japan and
the plan is to bring it into Europe next
year,” he said, adding: “At the moment,
the device is still very large, so if all you’re
interested in is recycled paper it’s probably
not the unit for you – you can go to the
market and buy recycled paper cheaper
than you can make it on this device.”
He continued: “But there are two
instances where we’re seeing real interest:
the first is where an organisation wants to
demonstrate its environmental credentials
and the second is around security.
“Because Paperlab shreds used
paper down to fibre level, anything that’s
printed on it is completely eradicated.
You can imagine the value of that for
public authorities, hospitals, banks, legal
companies, anybody that needs securely to
dispose of customer information.
“There’s a lot of discussion about the
management of personal data online; this,
if you like, is the offline version of that. The
plan is eventually for Paperlab to be the
same size as a WorkForce Enterprise, or
even smaller. In the future, Paperlab will sit
next to a WorkForce Enterprise, closing the
ecosystem within a department and not
just the building,” he said in conclusion.
Epson EcoTank
ET3750
Epson ET7700
