Maya Shukla
EFI, Inc. (A)
Founded in 1989, by Efraim Arazi an MIT graduate, created EFI to ‘Facilitate color printing in
an office setting.’ In 1991 EFI launched one of its most well-known products known as the Fiery
server. The Fiery software worked to link company desktops and ‘Notebook computers to digital
color copiers, using local area networks.’ This high-quality color output product, allowed EFI to
reach greater heights of success, and ‘In the mid-1990’s was essential’ to offset printing. Despite
the revolutionary product and the expansion that it allowed EFI to reach, it ultimately did have
technical difficulties and did cause a handful of problems for the company.
One of the larger problems was actually discovered by the company's creative team, surrounding
the accuracy of the product.
It was stated that ‘The agency’s creative team would sketch out
many different ideas for client campaign, and at some point, the team would narrow down their
ideas.’ This was to create a smaller set of ideas which they would then transfer to their PCs with
the help of the Fiery. Their goal was to later ‘Print them out as a series of comps on the agency’s
laser printer or copies,’ however, this is where the first problem was discovered.
The agency
found that the ‘Color laser printing did not allow for accurate or precise representation of color.
This posed as a large problem, as EFI was one of the most well-known companies for color in
printers, and if their formula was not creating accurate, and the best visual representations of the
color palette, then it would cause a large negative response from consumers. Additionally, for
the creative team, they found it difficult to evaluate the design elements for their campaign.
Another issue within the environment of the business was due to the couple ‘Hundred people in
the field, which was unusual for an OEM model.’ In addition, the company stated that they felt
as though they were ‘Disconnected from the end users of their technology, which was a problem
in the changing business environment.’ I believe this is a large problem because their business
environment, including the way employees work, and the way EFI connects with clients, and
consumers is very crucial for the later success of the company.
When it comes to solving the issue of accuracy in color printing, I would recommend that EFI
implement some sort of quality assurance protocol for their product manufacturing. With this,
they may be able to check the way that their products are being made is completely correct, and
this could avoid any further problems. Additionally, they could also hire different, or additional
technitions, and engineers to check over how they are making their current Fiery products. This
was because they could change and alter any faults and mistakes in their designs, to hopefully
fix, and diminish the problem with the color printing. Secondly, to solve issues of disconnect, I
believe that EFI would benefit greatly from interacting more with the people within the company
along with their consumers. When interacting with people in different sectors of the company, I
would recommend that higher-ups in the company organize socials, and group discussions on
how everyone can work more productively together for the benefit of the company, and also to
work together in a happier environment and more smoothly.
Lastly, to connect better with
customers, I believe that EFI should implement more customer feedback, or even a section of
their website, where they can live chat and check in with customers if they have any questions.
Overall, I believe that EFI is a very strong business, with very innovative and creative ideas.
With concepts and products such as the Fiery, the business stands as a pillar in their sector.
Nonetheless, I believe that with the recommendations above, they will be able to fix current
problems they have within the business and grow to even higher places of success.
