Fuji Photo Film Gets A Little Help On Services Launch

Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. is sharpening its image as a service provider to printing professionals. The company last week launched Myfujifilm.com, a set of hosted Internet applications and services to help publishers, advertising agencies, and designers migrate their work to the Internet and manage digital assets. The North American subsidiary of $12 billion Tokyo Fuji Photo Film Co. tapped Engage Inc. to develop and integrate Myfujifilm.com's applications, including Web-based file proofing and E-mail notification components, and application service provider Breakaway Solutions Inc. to monitor and manage the Myfujifilm.com site.

Even large companies such as Fuji need help with such an undertaking, says Kirk Brauch, director of technology for Myfujifilm.com, a new division in Fuji Graphics Systems. "When your business isn't developing, hosting, and managing applications, it doesn't matter how big you are," he says.

Myfujifilm.com is built on Media Sphere asset-management software from Engage, as well as GroupLogic Inc.'s MassTransit file-transfer and Imagexpo collaborative file-proofing applications. They're integrated with Markzware Inc.'s MarkzNet preflighting tool, which is used to verify document formatting online. As part of its management duties, Breakaway will perform ongoing capacity testing and offer online storage for Fuji clients.

For Brauch, having the right development and service-provider partners means the difference between success and failure as the industry moves away from using private networks to distribute digital images. Vio Worldwide Ltd., an online file-transport and workflow vendor that didn't adopt an open, Internet-based model, will cease operations in the third quarter despite backing from BT and Scitex Corp., Brauch says.

Breakaway's ability to offer managed hosting services with around-the-clock help-desk support won Fuji's business. Breakaway was delisted from the Nasdaq national market last week, but the ASP says it will have no effect on daily operations. Myfujifilm.com's four customers are North American publishing or printing companies migrating from a testing to a production environment.