Business Continuity, Emergency Comms

Why large format printing has a future

17 November 2009

Even as disaster response teams begins to embrace smaller format devices that make operations more flexible and mobile, large format printing still plays an important role in how the public sector responds to emergency situations. So says Santiago Morera, the Vice President & General Manager of Hewlett Packard’s large format printing business.

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The earthquake that hit Sichuan, China in May of last year called for accurate geographical data to be printed on large specialized maps – and printed quickly, Morera explained in an interview with FutureGov at the recent Disaster Management Response & Recovery Forum.

“It was critical that we provided highly detailed satellite maps at short notice. The technology ensured that large maps could be printed 24-hours a day without the need for human intervention. This helped make the response to Sichuan faster and more efficient,” he said. However, Morera admitted that the rise of smaller format and visualisation technology could pose challenges for the sector.

“We have been spending a lot of time thinking about the future and the relevance of large format printing. But I am convinced from my conversations with our key customers in the public sector that large format will continue to play a crucial role for the military, town planners, utilities and, increasingly, other sectors too.” Morera said that while the global economic downturn has been “tough” for HP as it has been for other tech firms, demand for large format printing from the public sector has remained stable, driven by government economic stimulus packages.

“We have seen increased investment in infrastructure driven by the economic crisis. The rise in construction, particularly in Asia, as a result of economic stimulus programmes has led to greater demand for maps and charts needed to build bridges, roads and buildings,” he said.

The civil engineering sector in India and Australia’s mining industry have been two of HP’s key growth areas this year. However, despite 60 per cent of HP’s large format business coming from the public sector, Morera admitted that there was work to do to convince civil servants that large format printers are worth their perceived high price-tag.

“Even though new technology like ours is driving efficiencies and productivity, there is a perception that it is prohibitively expensive. People used to think one machine would cost upwards of US$20,000 when actually you can buy one for less than US$1000.”

The falling cost of printing technology has meant that it is becoming accessible to government departments with smaller budgets. “It used to be the case that only central government bodies used large format printing. But now the technology is accessible to smaller, local government agencies,” said Morera.

Morera also contended with the notion that large format printing was at odds with a public sector under pressure to go green. “The big advantage with digitising print workflows is that you can print only what you need, which saves you money, energy and trees,” he said.