Photo: HP unveiled its new so-called “3-in-1” device, the HP Elite X3, late last year in Bogotá. (Credit: Jared Wade)

To find out a bit more about the company’s operations in the country, particularly surrounding mobility, Finance Colombia Executive Editor Loren Moss caught up with Luis Rico, who works in HP’s Latin American mobility and education division.

Luis Rico of HP’s Latin American mobility and education division.

Finance Colombia: To start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at HP?

Luis Rico: I’m in charge of the mobility business and the vertical of education for Latin America. Basically, when we talk about mobility for HP we’re talking about the entire ecosystem.

When I go to a vertical industry — whether it’s education, health, retail, or banking — I have an ecosystem that allows me to offer a solution. We talk about equipment, connectivity, security, content, applications, and integration. This is so that we can always go in with a more solution-based model and more device service.

Finance Colombia: What has the Colombian market been like? Especially talking about competencies in the business sector and the financial sector, what has that market been like? And how do you see its challenges as far as growth and competitiveness?

Luis Rico: I think that Colombia follows, and often even imposes, tendencies in the technological offerings. The concepts of mobility and teleworking are super valid.

In fact, a law was passed. A few years ago a law was drawn up to encourage teleworking. In that sense, options in mobility technologies are on the rise. We’re also seeing the development of very solid integral solutions, applications, and workflows. And this is not coming from only big robust companies like we always used to see on a worldwide level. But, rather, we’re seeing very solid, very consistent, and competitive local solutions from this country.

We have here a country in constant evolution, with ups and downs, which are obviously derived from macroeconomic questions, the oil price crisis, and so on. But Colombia is always advancing in the use of technology. So we see an important opportunity to adjust our models, to sell products at a good price, and to move into device service, solutions, and connectivity in a pay-for-service model.

It’s a very interesting environment. I compare it to economies like Mexico and Chile in terms of using technology.

Finance Colombia: Colombia is a country that understands the challenge to improve the quality of education. Colombia is also evolving from a traditional economy — agriculture and a bit of industry — into one that is trying to compete in areas like IT, BPO, and technology. Can you tell me how HP is taking part in initiatives here inside the country? Are you doing things to support the government and society in achieving the goals they have to improve in those areas?

Luis Rico: We are really one of the leading actors — not only in Colombia but also in the whole region — in the process of educational transformation. We’ve been involved with the whole process.

If we go back some 10 or 15 years, most of the governments adopted “digital gap” technologies to reduce the gap between children and computers. That’s when initiatives were born to give hardware to children.

The governments adopted a lot of those processes, and so did we, as suppliers of much of that equipment. But with time the process showed that the pedagogical part was neglected and teaching staff was neglected, as well as contents, connectivity, and security.

So we asked: How should we really put technology into the classroom to improve the quality of education? That’s where HP came in. We started to analyze the whole ecosystem to ensure that whatever I place at the service of the government is really targeted towards improving the quality of a country’s education.

Finance Colombia: I know HP has made some other recent innovations. What are some of your other positions in mobility?

Luis Rico: Mobility obviously isn’t a tendency anymore. It’s a reality. It’s something that has been adapting itself and evolving for many years. In that challenge, we need to ensure that our portfolio of products responds to today’s needs. You need the computation power of a laptop and the mobility of a smartphone. We’re trying to bring those worlds together: what you need in your normal day-to-day life and also for work.

“Colombia is always advancing in the use of technology. So we see an important opportunity. I compare it to economies like Mexico and Chile in terms of using technology.” – Luis Rico of HP

So the gadget that we announced last year at Andicom in Colombia was the Elite X3. It’s a six-inch device. We don’t call it a smartphone, but rather we call it a computer with which you can speak. That’s how we’re positioning it, and it’s a new category that we created called the “3-in-1.” It’s a smartphone, it’s a tablet, and it’s a computer.

This is a device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, which has a processing capability very similar, if not equal, to a laptop of medium characteristics. It has all the design, soundness, and construction of a commercial device that stands up to the normal daily use of an employee. The telephone runs on Windows Mobile 10, and HP Workspace is a virtualization window to a whole world of applications that a company may have in its IT environment or workflow. This allows you to have a full PC experience and the applications of your environment.

So that is the concept that we launched here last year. And we’re going to continue following up for the next few years, trying to position this category that we think is the convergence model that today’s user is looking.

Finance Colombia: HP is now two companies: one company more dedicated to services and then the HP that has, for example, printers, PCs, and devices. How has HP’s focus changed, and what freedom do you now have to explore fields and markets that before were perhaps not the company’s priority?

Luis Rico: Yes. It was a very good decision, right? If you had seen us when we were only one company, under the name of Hewlett Packard, we were a company with 300,000 employees worldwide, invoicing close to $120 billion USD — half of which came from computing and printing and cash flow. If we separate the two areas of computing and printing, the cash flow profitability that we generated was almost four or five times what was generated in other places.

So what was happening? Let’s say that a lot of that cash flow, a lot of that operating profit that was generated, went mostly to other parts of the company. It wasn’t being very well invested in the hardware part. Let’s say in development of innovation and going about developing and using our platforms.

After the separation, we became a company with more or less 50,000 employees out of the 300,000 that had been here before. And we had revenues of $60 billion USD or $70 billion USD per year and an operating profit of 12% or 13%, which gives us quite an interesting cash flow to be reinvested into technology.

So here you see an HP that is launching products like the Elite X3. And we’re launching 3D printing that is three times faster than what is on the market — and five times cheaper — with a focus on prototyping. You see us now offering the lightest and thinnest laptop in the world. You see us once again at the forefront of innovation and development, thanks to our being a lighter company with enough financial capacity to confront the dynamics of this business.

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.

The Epson Ecotank L220 & L365 models integrate Epson’s Ecotank system, which uses ink tanks instead of cartridges, drastically reducing the printer’s Lifetime TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

“Economy and tranquility; those are our promises with EcoTank, because users of the L220 and L365, for example, can print all they want without worrying about the cost,” said Epson Latin America’s Vice President for Video Projectors, José Luis Rodriguez. “Thanks to this technology, printers are equipped with high-capacity ink tanks that the user can replenish whenever needed, with Epson ink. If we consider that each bottle of ink equals 30 conventional cartridges, the economy is incomparable.”

The multifunction and the wireless

The EcoTank L220 prints, copies and scans documents, web pages, and photos. It comes equipped with four 70 milliliter ink bottles able to print an estimated 4,000 black & white pages or 6,500 color pages.

“Our L220 is recommended for homes, but also small offices. It prints quickly…and has a 48 bit scanner with 600x1200dpi resolution for enlarging photos and documents,” said Rodriguez.

The accompanying L365 (pictured above) has similar features, with the addition of Wi-Fi and Epson’s iPrint app, which enables printing from a smartphone or tablet. “Even faster than the L220, and with a 48 bit 1200×2400 dpi scanner, the L365 adds flexibility and mobility to the multifunction platform,” clarified Rodriguez.

The 4 ink tanks on the side of the printer hold the equivalent of 20 cartridges of ink.

Finance Colombia got its hands on an Epson L455 printer, provided courtesy of the manufacturer, to test for suitability as a printer for a small, workgroup, or home office. Already released in Colombia, and several other global markets, the Ecotank Printers are scheduled for a September, 2015 release in the North American market. We will report back after putting the printer through a thousand or so pages.

Setting up the printer was a straightforward affair, though for some odd reason, the printer, if connecting through the Wi-Fi connection, temporarily disrupts the computer’s connection to the router. A CD is provided that has software for both PCs and Macs. The printer also comes with a 3-foot USB cable for direct computer connections.

The printer is packaged with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black ink bottles that the user must carefully fill the tanks with.

There are four ink bottles in the package. According to Epson, these should provide up to 20 times the capacity as a set of ink cartridges; up to 4000 black pages, and up to 6,500 color pages. Printing this much purchasing standard cartridges could cost up to $800, so the new Ecotank system offers significant savings on TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).  According to an advertising circular for Office Depot in Medellin for August, 2015, the refill bottles are on sale for $28,800 COP, or under $10 USD each, thanks to Colombia’s weak peso. The same flyer lists the Epson Ecotank Inkjet Printer at a sale price of $524,250 COP ($170.49 USD as of 30 August) reflecting a 25% discount off the normal price of $699,000 COP ($227.32 USD).

A word of caution: be very careful, and prepared in advance to fill the four ink tanks. Be very careful, and be sure to get each bottle of ink in the correct tank. Who knows what fate befalls the user who messes this procedure up. Getting the wrong ink in the wrong tank may very well be an irreversible error. We were unable to fill the tanks without getting a few stray drops of ink on the desktop, and without soiling our hands with ink, which took a day to fade away. Do not wear important clothes when filling the tanks, and if you are clumsy, just get someone more dexterous to perform this task.

In this example from a Minneapolis (USA) based Office Depot, a cartridge-based printer is priced less than a few replacement ink cartridges.

Once the tanks are full and the printer has been fully connected, the printer must initialize, and prime the print heads with ink. This automated process will take approximately 20 minutes, and until this process is complete, you will not be able to print anything.

Print quality and print speed is good. For some reason, the first few pages were tricky, and seemed to jam. This problem went away after a couple of days of printing. There is a setting to limit the speed on the fastest settings to prevent feed errors. Epson does not call this a photo printer and does not claim that it prints photo quality. The standard print dialogue box does not include photo quality settings. However, there is a photo printing application packaged with the installed software. We tested these settings printing several photos on Covers Design brand calcium coated matte 8×10” 4800 dpi 110 gram-weight and high gloss 4×6” 180 gram-weight photo paper. The photo quality was better than expected! This printer will be no match for dedicated graphic arts printers purpose built to print photographs with higher quality colorfast inks, but using inkjet photo paper, and the provided software, that apparently optimizes settings for this line of printer, the Ecoprint line will have no trouble serving as office or home printers that are called upon to print occasional photographs for framing, presentations, or projects. Just remember, this is an office/home printer that can print acceptable photographs, it is not a dedicated graphic arts/photography printer.

Intermittent staining on bottom corner of printed photographs and graphics.

One annoyance: There is another intermittent problem of ink staining on photographs that takes place outside the margins, on the bottom of the printed page. This does not happen every time, and we could not figure out what the cause was.

The scanner worked well using either the Windows dialogue, or the Epson scanning software. The document scanning shows notable improvements in the contrast and resolution over previous versions. The scan quality is more than adequate for office or home purposes, but again, this is an all-in-one device and it would be unreasonable to expect this to perform at the level of purpose built photography scanners.

Scanning and copying can be done from the control panel, and don’t necessarily need computer inputs. The computer also has an integrated SD memory card slot, and can print directly from an SD card without requiring the use of a computer. The Wi-Fi connectivity is stable and can connect the printer to one or more computers simultaneously. The printer can be set up and operated without ever using the included USB cable.

We will report back in a month with a progress report and judgment on the L455’s ongoing use, reliability, and any glitches that appear (or don’t).

Bogotá Demo Locations:

Epson claims that with full tanks, a printer can print up to 4,000 black & white pages, or up to 6,500 in color. Epson will be showing off its Ecotank L800, which prints up to 1,800 color photographs of 10x15cm, and the Ecotank L555, which cites a capacity of 12,000 black & white, or 6,500 color before refills.

Finance Colombia will be testing and reviewing an Epson Ecotank Printer in the coming weeks.