Video: Siva Prints: Maximise benefits from HyperRIP and other unique Fiery features

Digital beginnings with Fiery
The company which had humble beginnings kick started its journey in 1996 as a digital copier shop in Tamil Nadu, founded by Sivakumar and his brother. The venture then took digital roots after shifting base to Chennai in 2005.

“Our first digital press after our move to Chennai was the Xerox 5000 which came with the Fiery server and there was no looking back ever since,” says Sivakumar.

“I can emphatically tell you that my team and I are big fans of Fiery. Right from our early days in 1996, we have the need to handle a lot of variable data jobs and thus began our search to find the right solution for this problem. We eventually found Fiery digital front ends which could not only handle variable data very well but till date has solved all the challenges that we have thrown at it with ease,” he adds.

The company which has adopted a brand agnostic approach to its press investment with one press each from several leading manufacturers (Xerox, Canon, Ricoh and Konica Minolta) have on the contrary emphasised on Fiery being the digital front end server irrespective of the press brand.

The HyperRIP advantage
The company were also one of the first in the city to adopt Fiery’s HyperRIP technology and it has been critical in their success.

“HyperRIP has been of tremendous importance to our improving performance. I think since its launch in 2016, we are able to rip almost 75% faster than the older version,” says Sivakumar.

He explains, “There are multiple factors that work to our advantage after implementing HyperRIP. Firstly, our turnaround times between jobs have decreased by 50% and we are also able to ensure that the press utilisation is almost 100%.” The company which operates out of two locations in the heart of Chennai (Royapettah and Ashok Nagar) service on an average of 300 customers per day.

Ease of switching jobs between presses and colour correctness
The ability to switch jobs between his presses is something that Sivakumar feels is a boon to his kind of operations. “Fiery Command WorkStation® gives us this unique file transfer option between the presses in our facility which is crucial to our business in terms of press management and on-time delivery,” says Sivakumar.

“If a particular machine has broken down in the middle of a job, we don’t panic at all. Using the very easy to use transfer function we move the file to another machine. I can’t stress more on the importance of this option and no other brand offers this controller tool,” he adds.

He believes the benefits of Fiery ImageViewer and the role of Fiery tools in colour correctness has enhanced their reputation as quality service providers in the market. “It is a well-known fact that colour production is also a tricky proposition especially in jobs for brands. Fiery Color Profiler Suite and related tools have ensured us producing almost 100% accurate colours for our clients.

The imposition benefits
According to Sivakumar, Fiery Impose is another tool which has been of immense use in his business environment especially for book printing jobs.

“Suppose a customer walks in with basic knowledge of different kinds of bookmaking like section stitching, saddle or perfect binding, keeps his option open till the last minute. In such cases we let Fiery’s imposition software take over and it gets the job done with minimum fuss.” explains Sivakumar. Fiery Impose comes with the option of customising imposition to common layouts is said to also integrate with job submission automation tools like Hot Folders, Fiery JobFlow, etc.

The company currently has over 5000 clientele in their books from various backgrounds including print brokers, ad agencies, offset printers and walk-ins.

Growing with Fiery
The company currently has 30 staff members with almost all proficient in using Fiery. “Our staff swear by Fiery as much as we do. Moreover, over time they have gained good knowledge about Fiery and its possibilities apart from becoming experts in its operation. So we prefer to grow the Fiery way,” he explains.

Sharing his recipe for success and the plan for future, he says, “In spite of the cost of Fiery DFE which many see as prohibitive, I think the difference in cost pays for itself in a matter of mere months. Timely service, high quality results and efficient productivity is our mantra for success and Fiery is a perfect fit.”