Q&A: HP Has Brought Its PageWide Printers and Anti-Piracy Campaign to Colombia

HP Inc. has been ramping up its presence in Colombia throughout the year. It introduced its premium line of laptops, tablets, and other computing devices to the country this summer. In the following months, the Palo Alto, California-based technology company rolled out its newest smartphone and its three-in-one printer in Bogotá.

It has also brought its PageWide printers to Colombia. The technology is inkjet in nature but with better quality than many laser printers — and built for speed.

To learn more about this, and HP’s anti-piracy campaign to combat counterfeiting in Colombia, Finance Colombia Executive Editor Loren Moss recently sat down to speak with Marcela Fonseca of HP Inc.

Finance Colombia: So HP now has it PageWide printer — which they say makes it cheaper to print per page than with lasers in color — available in Colombia?

Marcela Fonseca: Yes. We have that technology available in Colombia. In effect, it’s a technology that companies said they wanted to use depending on their necessities. We have laser and we have PageWide.

PageWide is a technology that we are bringing out based on big digital presses, which is the advantage of that technology. By just passing once over the page, absolutely all of the content is printed. It has 24,000 nozzles that apply ink smoothly and evenly and print the page immediately — with no running when the page is wet.

They are super-fast machines. They print 75 pages per minute, so they are really fast. And in fact, color printing for the office is extremely cheap per page. So companies decide whether to use laser or to use PageWide — or a mixture of both — depending on the needs that they have.

Finance Colombia: If PageWide is cheaper per page than color laser, and if it has high-quality color, what advantage does a traditional laser machine over a PageWide?

Marcela Fonseca: The thing is that PageWide has “office color.” Not the color that a publicity or communications area may require that needs high color fidelity. PageWide has office color, which may be a standard, normal color, but not what is required by this type of communications presentation that has to go out to a final client or that has to go outside.

PageWide technology is ink. The special thing about PageWide is that it is a different technology that is generating greater economy in office color and at greater speed.

Finance Colombia: So PageWide has been the great debut of 2016 in Colombia?

Marcela Fonseca: That’s right. And we’re also making clients aware about an anti-piracy program that we have. It is designed to let clients know that they can turn to this program when they suspect that the product is not original toner and it might be one of the alternative products — like the remanufactured, refilled, or fake ones. They can use these telephone numbers and e-mail addresses to request that the interdisciplinary team go and check the product that they have been given and carry out an investigation.

That means that later on, smuggled or false lots of products can be confiscated so as to attack that kind of product. Because, unfortunately, according to the statistics many customers are buying a fake product without realizing it. So we’re also taking advantage of the chance to tell clients that we have that tool that they can use.

Depending on the quantity of clients, they are visited so as to check the products. Or it can be done by means of a hologram that we have on the toner boxes. A code can determine if the hologram is in fact original or not. That’s the procedure that we use to determine if the product is original or fake, and in that way we can begin the investigation process.

Finance Colombia: So that’s applicable when the product says that it’s HP brand, but it’s not really HP.

Marcela Fonseca: But it’s not HP. Exactly. Customers receive the product and they think that it’s original — but then they begin to detect some flaws in how it works. Or the box doesn’t look like the usual one. Or it was bought at a very low price.

Finance Colombia: Has that been a big problem here in Colombia?

Marcela Fonseca: Yes, in Colombia and everywhere. Fortunately, within the region, we have this team that investigates and confiscates. It has allowed us to detect gangs dedicated to falsifying products, whether they are remanufactured, falsified, or smuggled into the country.

Finance Colombia: Wow. The laser ones or the ink-jet cartridges too?

Marcela Fonseca: Both. Laser and ink. All kinds. So the message for our clients today is that we have several tools to help them in defending the investment that they are making.