QUALITYLOGIC TESTS PRINTERS AND INKS

[Anonymous]

Moorpark company tests printers and their ink
QualityLogic evaluates claims of products, their competition
Ever
wonder if that ink jet refill is worth it? Or just how much that
printer ink costs per page?A Moorpark company does the legwork to
answer those kinds of questions for companies that want to verify their
claims and challenge those made by competitors.

QualityLogic,
formed in 1999 from the merger of two firms that were started in 1986
and 1994, offers software that companies use to test their products. It
also tests a company’s products to find out if they perform as promised
or to assess how they compare with competitors’ items.QualityLogic’s
customers include some big names in the digital imaging and
telecommunications industries, such as Microsoft, IBM, Xerox, Lexmark,
Cisco, Dell, Lucent, Nortel and Motorola.The company recently completed
a report for Hewlett-Packard where it tested original ink cartridges
against refilled cartridges, including those filled at ink refill
kiosks popping up in office supply stores. Company employees would
wander in, get their cartridges refilled, then head back to the lab to
run them through a series of tests.Another report was for Kodak, which
is trying a new approach to selling printers and ink. Many
manufacturers practically, or literally, give their printers away and
then make money on the cartridges.”Kodak announced an ink jet with very
low-cost cartridges. They’re trying to turn that razor blades business
model on its ear a little bit,” said Dave Jollota, QualityLogic’s chief
operating officer.Kodak called on QualityLogic to figure out the cost
of ink per page for its cheaper ink, compared with its
competitors.Kodak’s internal testing doesn’t carry the weight that a
third-party test does, said Roderick Eslinger, technical marketing
manager for Kodak.Eslinger said QualityLogic is “highly regarded across
the industry — not just in the U.S., but abroad as well.”

Kodak
decided to pursue cheaper ink cartridges after studies showed that
people would print more if it cost less. Eslinger said the analysis
done by QualityLogic reaches beyond simply looking at how many pages a
cartridge can print to really looking at the cost of each page.”We’re
setting a new standard in how we’re doing this competitive analysis,”
he said. “It’s a huge deal. I would predict these other companies are
probably going to follow suit.”There is a delicate balance that
QualityLogic maintains as it works with different clients. One week,
the company might be testing for HP. The next, it might be testing HP’s
cartridges against Kodak. Rather than posing a problem, however, it
gives the company’s test results added credibility, Jollota said.”We’ve
been in business a lot of years,” he said. “We have a stellar
reputation for our integrity and independence. It helps all of our
customers to know we are doing work for them as well as their
competitors.”It helps particularly when companies can point to results
from QualityLogic tests that support their claims, and also point to
tests that didn’t come out in their favor. It shows the third-party
objectivity, Jollota said.”If a customer has a competitive advantage in
an area, it will show that. If they’re trying to invent (that
competitive advantage), independent testing will not show that,” he
said.

The company also provides test software to industry
magazines for product reviews, and for large IT departments trying to
make a purchase decision.Jollota said there is a lot of potential to
boost QualityLogic’s business in the coming years.While research and
development, sales and marketing, and administration are based in
Moorpark, much of the testing is conducted at a location in Boise,
Idaho, Jollota said. But the Boise facility, with between 60 and 70
people, is “bursting at the seams,” he said.The company plans to add
some additional testing capability in Moorpark, as well as employees
during the coming quarters. About 35 to 40 people now work at the
Moorpark location.The company expects revenue this year to be about $8
million to $9 million, and is forecasting that to grow 20 percent to 25
percent next year, Jollota said.Several factors should help
QualityLogic grow its business, he said.First, printer companies are
vying for market position.”The printing war, when it comes to
consumables, is just beginning,” Jollota said.Refill kiosks are
springing up all over, and companies selling original ink cartridges
are trying to protect their turf.Then there are new approaches, such as
Kodak’s low-cost cartridges.All of that adds up to more companies that
are going to want comparative tests done, Jollota said.And new products
being developed, such as HP’s high-speed ink jet printers for the
office, will demand various studies and tests.Then there is the
anticipated roll out of products that will work with Microsoft’s new
XPS portable document technology, which will compete with Adobe’s PDF.
Jollota said the adoption of Vista has been slow, but is expected to
pick up in the coming year, which should drive use of XPS.

That
also will call for more testing.Even the weak dollar is working in
QualityLogic’s favor since about half of the company’s test software
business is with companies outside the United States, primarily in
Japan.A weaker dollar allows foreign firms to spend more on testing
software, giving a boost to QualityLogic.”We have the benefits of being
a small company that’s in the middle of some very large technology,”
Jollota said.

[Author]

November 28, 2007 at 12:05 PM