Thanks to EFI Fiery, It’s a No-Brainer!

In 2000, Photoweb became the first French company to offer photo products that could be ordered online and delivered to your door. Located near Grenoble, France, the company designs and creates all of its products and software.

Photoweb took off in 2003 due to the generalization of digital cameras and the development of ADSL. “In 2005, we made the decision to offer personalized products such as photo books or calendars,” notes Laurent Boidi, Photoweb’s Deputy CEO. “Our strategy is centered around high quality know-how, and a pre-sales customer focus on advice, support, and after-sales care based on the principle of full reimbursement for whatever reason, regardless of whether a problem was caused by an error on our part or on that of the customer. This required the implementation of a fully optimized production process with zero faults.”

Photoweb now offers a range of various products: announcements and cards, mugs, magnets, mix-and-match displays, vintage prints, limited editions for Christmas presents, Mother’s day, and reusable stickers. The company also sells specific graphical themes created according to customer demands.

The e-commerce capabilities Photoweb developed have been key to the company’s growth. But growth in that manner also creates its own production workflow challenges. “The Internet has created a desire for immediacy that we all share,” Boidi adds. “We expect the product through our mailbox as soon as we have ordered it. This demand has been imposed by major e-commerce players, and has been challenging. The difference is that we have to make the product before sending it. We don’t just have to look for it in a warehouse! We had to completely rethink our production workflow to be more effective and meet deadlines.”

That is where EFI (Booth 2302) and its Fiery production workflow software and digital front end (DFE) technologies come in.

Photoweb’s printshop is equipped with six HP (Booth 613) Indigo (5000 and 7000) and two Xerox (Booth 1302) iGen presses. Because of this seasonality, Photoweb generates almost 30% of its turnover in two months.

Bruno Marrou, the Director of Production notes, “In 2015, when we acquired a new Xerox press, RIP times proved to be too time-consuming for our files.” Thanks to their collaboration with EFI, Xerox suggested testing the Fiery DFE.

“Both manufacturers’ teams have been very active, and accompanied us throughout the test and validation phases,” says Marrou. “It became clear that Fiery DFE was perfectly tailored to our needs. The processing time for certain jobs is now twice as quick—and sometimes even five times as fast!”

The installation and training were carried out in 2016 and went smoothly. The Fiery system also provides color management with numerous fine-tuning solutions to ensure accuracy. With the EFI Fiery Hot Folder PDF workflow for example, the Photoweb team is able to automatically submit jobs by skipping the prepress step.

“Our demand for high-quality printing can only be met thanks to tools in Fiery software, by playing with the curves and saturation levels, and by sharpening the profiles,” Marrou says. “It ensures consistency in our of color rendering. Plus, this Fiery production workflow has allowed Photoweb to diversify its equipment, expanding what we can offer, which is essential to succeed in a hypercompetitive industry.”

Today, Photoweb delivers prints in 24 to 48 hours, and books in three to five days. With the EFI Fiery software, it is on course to reduce these times even further.