Openfirst Installs Three HP Indigo Press 5000s

PALO ALTO, CA—August 23, 2006—HP today announced that Openfirst, a Quad/Graphics company that specializes in targeted one-to-one marketing communications and information management, has installed three HP Indigo press 5000s to create new targeted business communications for a national client base.

The HP Indigo press 5000s support the Milwaukee-based company’s ongoing mission to boost customer value and retention through strategic print and electronic programs. The firm, which sent out more than 500 million pieces of mail in 2005, specializes in leveraging integrated databases and transactional marketing opportunities. The liquid ink offset quality and up to 7- color capability of the HP Indigo press 5000 enables Openfirst to accurately capture and respond to essential corporate branding requirements.

“The HP Indigo press 5000 is designed to execute high-impact promotional messaging applications that enhance revenues for printers and their enterprise clients,” said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. “For print providers serious about leveraging future opportunities for growth, HP Indigo is the high-volume digital color technology of choice.”

Serving clients including national automotive dealership networks, major financial institutions, telecommunications companies, national retail chains and non-profit organizations through its production and distribution facilities in Wisconsin and Virginia, Openfirst holds a substantial share in the direct mail, localized marketing and statement processing markets. It is also on the leading edge of development for solutions that show how statements, direct mail and marketing are merging. Companies that mail monthly statements to customers, for instance, know that these documents will be opened and read by everyone who receives them. As a result, statements have become a delivery vehicle of choice for high-quality one-to-one marketing communications.

To develop marketing materials for statement mailings, Openfirst helps clients link their marketing and financial databases to pair statement recipients with the most effective marketing offers. These significant new “unified marketing” opportunities are then fulfilled with offset-quality variable-data printing from the HP Indigo press 5000.

In its Milwaukee facility, the new presses are fully integrated with a proprietary workflow management system. Openfirst lowers traditional statement cost centers by adding third-party advertisers, such as service recommendations from local dealerships appearing on a major luxury car manufacturer’s finance statements. Other unified marketing solutions in development at Openfirst include highly personalized sales collateral for one of the country’s largest insurance firms, and data-driven trigger marketing for a prominent national bankcard.

“HP digital technology is central to our set of solutions and allows us to provide graphics and text customized literally one to one,” said Richard Zagorski, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Openfirst. “The ability for clients to stream data to us in an open-architecture environment, and our ability to execute this relevant messaging in a highly accurate manner, within a very short cycle time, is the core of our value proposition.”

When Openfirst was shopping for a digital press that could make its marketing services plans a reality, the expertise offered by HP’s technical and marketing support staff helped clinch the deal.

“What we like about HP – and we did our due diligence – is that the support network is phenomenal,” Zagorski said. “HP’s marketing department has been tremendous in helping us strategize how to present the benefits of data-driven personalization to our customers. That’s important to us, because you can’t sell this on a cost per piece basis; you have to talk about the cost savings per order. If you do it right, if you design it the right way and communicate the relevant messaging to the right person, you’ve created the opportunity for much higher response rates.”

About HP
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2006, HP revenue totaled $90.0 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.