FOSTER CITY, Calif. – Feb. 29, 2008 – EFI (Nasdaq: EFII), the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced that its Advanced Professional Print Software (APPS) business delivered record growth for the fourth year in a row, with approximately 8 percent topline growth in 2007, compared to 2006, from $56 million to $60 million in full-year revenues. EFI’s APPS business unit comprises the company’s industry-leading MIS, web-to-print, and inkjet proofing and production workflow solutions.“APPS achieved a record year of revenue in 2007, and this EFI business unit’s topline growth exceeds that reported by many of the leading companies in our industry,” said Guy Gecht, CEO, EFI. “Our APPS success helped EFI achieve strong continued growth and profitability in 2007, combined with our VUTEk business unit contributing more than 20 percent revenue growth and our Fiery business unit continuing to generate strong profits for our company. This success validates EFI’s strategy to add high-value offerings that help print service providers improve business productivity, make it easier for their customers to do business with them, and allow them to add high-potential services and capabilities that drive customer loyalty and business growth.”EFI’s APPS business delivers print management solutions that connect business and production processes with powerful specification, estimating, planning, purchasing and costing tools. EFI’s print management products offer real-time, shared access to baseline and high-level information for managers and executives – collecting, organizing and presenting business intelligence to facilitate critical business decisions. Based on the Theory of Global Optimization, EFI’s print management solutions identify and eliminate weak links in manufacturing operations and management processes, while improving workflow, reducing costs and growing profits. With installations of print management solutions in more than 10,000 locations worldwide, EFI is the largest global provider.
“2007 was a record year for our Print MIS business” said Marc Olin, senior vice president and general manager, APPS, EFI. “We saw very strong demand from our existing clients looking to add further value to their EFI Print MIS solutions as well as new clients who are now recognizing the value of EFI MIS Solutions. Everyone from a small printer with $500,000 in annual revenue to the largest printers in the world now depends on EFI to help run their business.”
EFI’s web-to-print solutions include Digital StoreFront™, PrintSmith Site® and the PrinterSite® family of products that streamline customer interaction with the print service provider. Their intuitive user interfaces and seamless workflow increase customer satisfaction and collaboration while reducing operator error, streamlining complex job cycles, and decreasing job completion time – leading to maximum productivity and profitability. These solutions are installed in more than 2,500 facilities worldwide, making EFI also one of the largest providers of internet-based commerce solutions for print service providers.
EFI’s Workflow Solutions - inkjet proofing and production software products - also enjoyed a record year for sales as part of the APPS group. Including products such as Colorproof™ XF and Fiery® XF, which are based on Bestcolor® technology, the group grew sales by over 20 percent in 2007. These solutions have more than 60,000 installations worldwide. “This rapid growth reflected the market’s strong acceptance of the technology in our newest version of Colorproof XF, the industry standard for proofing and now rapidly becoming the industry’s choice for production on inkjet devices as well,” said Stefan Spiegel, general manager of graphic arts solutions, EFI.
EFI’s APPS group has the industry’s largest and most talented development team working on MIS, web-to-print and workflow software, with nearly 200 people in R&D for the division. “EFI makes significant investments in R&D in order to maintain our leading edge, with 25 percent of our corporate revenues dedicated to building world-class products and solutions that meet the needs of today and tomorrow,” added Gecht. “Our APPS group is a great example of the results that dedication to innovation delivers to the market.”
“Print service providers face an increasingly competitive environment,” continued Olin. “They can no longer depend on faster, more automated presses to improve productivity and make their operations more cost-effective. They must streamline their workflow, from the inception of the customer interaction to delivery and invoicing. This year we will continue to respond to our customers’ needs with a number of exciting new developments in CRM (customer relationship management) capabilities, enhanced web-to-print offerings, streamlined user interface designs, expanded VDP (variable data print)-enabled solutions and some stunning new JDF-based solutions that change our customers’ understanding of what is possible using JDF. These solutions, combined with our continued innovations in key vertical markets like superwide, production, publishing, direct mail, flexo and more, are a key element of our ‘Print to Win’ strategy, a win/win proposition for both EFI and its customers.”
More information about EFI’s broad product portfolio can be found at www.efi.com.
About EFI
EFI (www.efi.com) is the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation. EFI's award-winning solutions, integrated from creation to print, deliver increased performance, cost savings and productivity. The company's robust product portfolio includes Fiery® digital color print servers; VUTEk® superwide digital inkjet printers, UV and solvent inks; Jetrion® industrial inkjet printing systems; print production workflow and management information software; and corporate printing solutions. EFI maintains 26 offices worldwide.
