Quark gets new lease of life

With a new CEO and vice president to blow out the cobwebs, Quark is back to a flying start.

One-time Adobe employee Graham Freeman (pictured) may have headed off to the US to take on the role of senior vice president for the Asia Pacific region, but he still calls Australia home and relishes the chance to return and touch base with clients and family alike.

"I want to come back as part of a series of regular visits to spend time with customers," he said. "It's time to get much more face-to-face time with key customers and try to maintain our base under the continuing push from Adobe."

The good news for Quark is that after some rough sailing, the business is back on its feet. "This means that whatever impact you get from a new release from Adobe or Microsoft or the like there is stability in our business in the desktop level," Freeman says.

After unveiling plans for dynamic enterprise publishing earlier this year, Freeman expects that this new product will be available by 2008. "We've taken the conceptual idea and defined the product," he said.

"We expect to be running a couple of pilot sites late this year for some very large accounts in the US. With that proof of concept we will be very aggressively taking that publishing model to market in the new year."

Australia gets connected
In the wake of the Adobe/Fed Ex Kinko's disaster, Quark has gained confidence and the trust of printers. The controversy could not have happened at a better time for Quark, which recently launched a new concept called QuarkConnects at Graph Expo.

"It's an extension for QuarkXPress users that allows printers to have a really highly-powered marketing vehicle and allows them access to printing jobs from a whole bunch of consumers," Freeman explained.

Through a Quark alliance, QuarkConnects will give printers the chance to enter their business details into a database for customers to choose from when they search for a printer. Freeman believes this will be a much more open process rather than generating business to one specific printer.

"It is a way for Quark to create stronger linkage with printers, especially smaller printers without a lot of marketing sophistication," he said.

"Needless to say, the reaction from the printing community has been overwhelmingly positive. People are looking for alternatives and there's a feeling of not wanting to have one particular company dominate."

Before QuarkConnects is launched, beta tests will be launched in both Australia and the US, with a possibility of also included New Zealand. "We have talked with the PIAA and think we can do a very good beta test to see how well it will work here so that when we're ready to launch we will have a good feeling of how we can optimise our results," Freeman said.

School's not out for Quark
Compared to its competitors, Quark is not taught at tertiary institutions and colleges to the same level. Joe Bizinger, country manager, says that roughly 37 per cent of institutions in Australia still teach Quark, with plans to increase this figure.

"In Europe, Quark has a larger presence than InDesign and many Australian students may end up working overseas," Bizinger said.

"I know one person who worked at Saatchi and Saatchi in Australia which mostly uses InDesign. When this person went off to work at Saatchi and Saatchi in London, the company used QuarkXPress and they had to learn a whole new program. We're trying to get XPress more widely used."

In a few weeks, Quark kicks off a promotion with institutions to encourage bringing, or keeping, Quark in the classroom. Freeman believes that this is one example of the company's commitment to customer service, which he feels will keep Quark at the frontline.

"Customers love the fact that we're going out to see them," he said. "It's not the Quark of old."

Pictured below: Graham Freeman (left) with Joe Bizinger (right).