Company sees big growth from growing online community
Thailand is about to get a new online printing-on-demand service.
By the end of this year, customers may be able to send photographs via an online network and order prints to be picked up from a nearby printing shop.
The general manager of Hewlett-Packard (Thailand)'s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG), Somchai Soongswang, said his company was looking for partners to provide printing services according to a new business model called Retail Publishing System (RPS), to provide printing services on demand.
The system will allow customers to send photo files online and order photo prints, signage, calendar printing, graphic prints and document printing based on laser printing and marketing material such newsletters, and point-of-purchase flyers.
HP plans to provide printing hardware and software to businesses that become its RPS partners, and expects the services to be launched by the end of this year.
The company already provides RPS services from supermarket "corners" in Singapore and IT supermarkets in Australia.
"We are looking for partners in Thailand who will be print service providers, offering total printing service solutions to individual customers or small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), enabling them to order photo prints, calendar printing, posters, T-shirt screen printing, catalogue printing and many other services over the counter, offline or online," Somchai said.
He said the company was trying to develop an ecosystem that would generate opportunities to use printing innovations and new technology. Clients would be offered tailor-made, customised services on demand.
Hewlett-Packard believed the potential existed in Thailand for the printing service to succeed, since Thailand was already the company's third biggest market in the region.
The company's Imaging and Printing Group is following a strategy called Print 2.0 this year, focusing on making it easier to print from websites, such as blogs and travel sites, and bringing new printing capabilities to online properties.
HP's digital content creation and publishing platforms, such as Snapfish and Logoworks, have been extended across all customer segments and its digital printing platforms have attained increased print speeds, but with lower costs for high-volume commercial markets.
Somchai said factors driving his group's growth included the expansion of online society and the transformation of printing technology from analog to digital, with its flexibility and ease of printing on demand.
He said the IPG's core business would involve individual home customers, SMEs and the wider enterprise market. It will also enter the graphic solution business with new HP Latex-Printing technology, planning to focus on restaurants, real-estate firms and hotels.
HP was leader of the laser-printer market in Thailand last year, with a market share of 29 per cent. It also held 27 per cent of the ink-jet printer market.
The company expects its IPG business to grow by about 15 per cent this year as demand for digital printing overtakes analog printing. Segments with potential for high growth include the graphic-solution business, which HP expects to expand at least 2.5 times, especially in rural markets.
It is also providing printers for the enterprise market that will offer managed-print services, helping organisations to reduce their printing costs by at least 30 per cent.
"We have managed-print services solutions, including hardware, software, supply and finance, to support our customers," Somchai said.
Hewlett-Packard will also focus on expanding its rural markets this year, expecting to generate about 35 per cent of its revenue from upcountry. In 2009, it made 25 per cent of its revenue from rural markets.
