Q&A: How Acquisition of BLUE Software Helps Esko's Connection Throughout the Packaging Supply Chain

Esko’s acquisition of BLUE Software, which was announced on July 18, signaled a strategic investment by Esko to expand on its packaging management software solutions and improve the packaging management process throughout the supply chain.

Heidi Larsen, VP, brand integration leader, Esko

Heidi Larsen, VP, brand integration leader, for Esko, spoke with Cory Francer, editor-in-chief of packagePRINTING, about the acquisition and the impact it will have on Esko, BLUE Software, and the overall packaging supply chain.

Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Cory Francer: What were the key drivers of this acquisition?

Heidi Larsen: One is obviously [BLUE Software’s] product. Their software solution is good and they’ve made a name for themselves in the industry. They have a complementary customer base.

Their team is also important. They have a great team of people — not only the leadership team — but their whole organization: sales, service, support and thought leadership.

Both companies have been growing. The Esko brand business is growing at a very rapid rate, and so is BLUE. Each team has experts in the field and putting them together just makes perfect sense.

CF: What are the ways BLUE’s product complements Esko’s product line?

HL: BLUE is fundamentally about artwork approval and driving reduced time and fewer reworks through the artwork process. It ties the suppliers and the value chain with the brand as they’re bringing a product to market and executing the steps along the way. BLUE software helps manage that process and brings those players together.

As you’re going through and preparing new artwork, you can actually look at the digital artwork, make annotations, comments and changes. You can view it and share it with others. It’s a great collaboration tool.

Esko also has a solution called WebCenter that has similar capabilities, and combining the two creates great synergy.

CF: What was the importance for Esko to extend its reach further in the brand owner side of the value chain?

HL: We see that brands want to take more control of their assets — their packaging, their product information — that’s really their livelihood.

Being a technology player, we have been referred to as an objective partner for the brands and the supply chain to work together, no matter what packaging value chain model they have today or decide to adopt tomorrow.

Bringing the supply chain together is important because we see that many brands want to own their process. A great way for us to empower them to do so is through our tools, and at the same time, supporting our customer base on the supplier side (printers, converters, premedia), which is our heritage. When we provide software to the brands, that then ties the two sides even tighter together. That creates value for all our customers.

CF: What have been the challenges on the brand side in artwork management, and what are the ways in which Esko and BLUE coming together will help improve that process?

HL: If you talk to the brands, one of their key challenges is they need to increase speed to market and it’s been that way for several years. The fundamental need to be faster and meet customer and consumer demand is critical for them.

Bringing the Esko portfolio together with BLUE and its customer base adds more value all the way through the value chain. Drawing from BLUE’s insight into ecommerce and retail helps Esko serve its brand customers better.

We are bringing our expertise and thought leadership in packaging together, which I think is going to be quite interesting.

As we start to pull the teams closer together and evaluate all of the software and look at the best of the best, that’s where we can provide some innovative and new functionality for all our customers.