Daniel Martinez told Printweek that the division’s main focus over the past year has been on trying to understand more from the users of its printers about what the major trends in the industry are, and what they want and need from HP.

“We spent the better half of last year on a very intense investigation with PSPs [print service providers] – we call it our Advanced Design Team – to really understand where the industry is headed, and primarily speaking with PSPs from across the globe.

“One of the things that is really starting to resonate – and we’ve anticipated this for the past few years but it’s becoming more and more evident – is that it’s all about the productivity.

“When PSPs are looking for new solutions, perhaps in the past it was very much about the printing technology, the speed and the feeds etc, but more and more we’re getting questions about the end-to-end solution and about how we can help with that entire process, from the moment of having to intake a file to basically the mounting of those files.

“This really goes back to points we talked about last year relative to the digital transformation, the automation of the workflow, and sustainability that continues to be top of mind for us.”

Martinez said the company had seen “great success” with its Professional Print Service Plans, launched in 2022 and described by the manufacturer as “a new breed of professional grade production management service” that offers service support to deliver maximum uptime, optimal digital workflow, and training.

“That’s really the combination of break/fix and support, with software solutions that we provide through our PrintOS platform. And on PrintOS we’ve continued to see significant growth there with PSPs connecting – it’s really about the value that we can bring to them through our cloud enabled tools.

“We think of it in two big areas – one is around workflow efficiency, and when it comes to that we launched a service called Live Production last year, and that enables PSPs to visualise queues across products and across locations.

“This year it’s going to be about empowering them to basically do a lot more remotely. We see that printing overnight, for example, is a big deal, especially for smaller PSPs, in order to remain competitive.

“And therefore, having information at their fingertips, and being able to change queues remotely, really empowers them when we talk about that productivity. So we’re putting a lot of focus around making that more intuitive and simple for PSPs, and that’s resonating very much.

“The other big area is around growing demand. In November we launched our PrintOS Design & eCommerce suite – that’s part of our Professional Print Service Plans.

“That enables PSPs to manage their business through PrintOS and ultimately connect into all the major e-commerce platforms for their own custom-built websites to accelerate the intake process to help to enable their customers to prepare files before they are submitted, and take care of the billing and intake process – we do it in a very secure way. And then basically get that submitted directly into PrintOS so it can be submitted to the RIP and then printed.”

On AI, Martinez said HP Large Format is using the technology “to ensure that the products are at their highest level of quality”.

“We also see it from the perspective that we think this is actually going to drive a boom in content, when you think of generative AI. Many times, the limitation has been that you couldn’t find the right content or appropriate content to print in large-format at a high enough resolution, but we’re now investigating the use of generative AI for generating content for large-format, be it for canvass applications, signage, or wallpaper.

“And I think that’s another very important element in that process of making large-format available for everybody. Content is an area that was either very expensive, difficult to get, or you just couldn’t find the exact thing you were looking for. Imagine now you can generate [your desired personalised image] using generative AI. We think that if that’s done in an intuitive way, it could drive a lot of interest.”

Regarding the supply chain issues of the last few months, Martinez said the business had had to re-route some ships for “some turbulent weeks” due to the Red Sea crisis, particularly in December, but that the logistics team had worked through Christmas to ensure there was no disruption to its supply chain. He said HP had not seen any impact to availability on either its hardware or software sides.

On the upcoming trade shows of the coming months, Martinez said HP was “very, very focused on Drupa”. It won’t have its own booth at the Fespa Global Print Expo in Amsterdam next month, although HP will have people on the ground at the show via reseller/partner stands. And the company will be attending Fespa’s WrapFest event in Silverstone in October.

HP’s Drupa hall – Hall 17 – will cover both its Industrial and Large Format print divisions.

Martinez commented: “We’ll have a very important presence at Drupa where we will have very exciting announcements both on the solutions side as well as on the hardware side, and we also expect to have announcements later on in the year.”

The manufacturer’s 2023 launches included the HP Latex 630 entry-level printer, as well as the aforementioned PrintOS Design & eCommerce suite, and the DesignJet XL 3800 and DesignJet T850/T950 printers. The T850/T950 are aimed directly at AEC professionals, while the XL 3800 is targeted a little more at copy shops that serve AEC firms.

“2023 was a big year in terms of announcements, some would say the biggest year in the history of Large Format for HP,” Martinez added.

“We’ve definitely had a lot of innovation last year, but we’re following up with a lot more innovation this year.”