Quark Customer Summit: New Attitude at a High Altitude

In an effort to breathe fresh air into its customer relations, Quark recently held the Quark Summit at Breckenridge, Colorado. Set high up in the Rockies, with snow still on the nearby peaks and even on the resort grounds, the conference was designed to update its customers on new products and services. Along the way, a couple of new announcements were made that should please many QuarkXPress users.
Quark said that it had exceeded its goals for signups for the event with more than 300 in attendance, and even had people showing up on site assuming they could get in (they did). Given that the altitude was 9,700 feet, more than a few of us had trouble going up and down the stairs to the various sessions in the event. Worse still, the only Starbucks in town was a short quarter-mile walk downhill in the center of Breckenridge, but few sallied forth due to the necessity of walking back up the hill to the resort afterward.
The event marked more than just an excuse for high-altitude hobnobbing. The last time Quark held such an event was four years ago. That ServicePlus event targeted high-volume customers who had purchased a special service contract. This year’s event was open to
any Quark customer with site licenses of 20 seats or more, regardless of membership in ServicePlus. QuarkAlliance partners and a bevy of publising executives also attended.
The theme of this year’s event was “Fresh Air, Fresh Ideas,” which seemed apt given the altitude and the expansive agenda for the program. The sessions covered topics such as Quark Enterprise Services Framework, Newspaper Issue and Page Planning, Quark Media Portal 3, QuarkVista — and QuarkXPress 7 Preview. Yes, QuarkXPress 7 was presented and demoed at the event — but I can’t tell you anything about it. The entire event was held under nondisclosure, but the only topic about which Quark is adamant about not releasing details is QuarkXPress 7. Suffice it to say it will offer some Really Cool Features. (Editor’s Note: Craig Cline attended the conference as a consultant to Quark, one of his current clients.).


More than 300 Quark customers saw a preview of QuarkXPress 7 at the summit.

Quark also ran an Executive Summit during the event in which top executives from publishing houses were brought together to attend “Seybold-style” sessions moderated by yours truly on topics such as Determining the Payback on Asset Management, Developing a Content Strategy, and the Future of Publishing. Over 45 top executives attended the three days of this Summit and were able to attend many of the technical sessions as well – if they so chose. Alternatively, they were treated to jeep rides to the top of the geographical summit (Peak 8, a ski run in the winter) and a round of golf at a nearby course.
Hewlett Packard was a major sponsor of the event, and is now a major partner for Quark. HP’s Bill McGlynn, VP & General Manager of Digital Publishing Solutions, gave one of the two event keynotes on the inevitable move toward digital printing across the board and the numbered days left to offset printers who don’t get with the program. Apple sponsored and provided a wireless network and e-mail workstations, and Pantone and Microsoft were stealth sponsors, listed but not overtly appearing anywhere on the program or in the demo hall. A bevy of third-party XTension developers also showed up, including Markzware, alap, Extensis, and Badia.
Product and PolicyAnnouncements
In the biggest non-QuarkXPress 7 announcement made at the event, Quark CEO Kamar Aulakh said that the company would henceforth allow XPress to be activated on two machines to address the office-home machine dilemma about which many of you have expressed your frustration to me in your emails.
I like to think that the e-mail campaign that Pamela Pfiffner and I called for a month ago has already started to have an impact. In particular, the change in activation policy addresses E. King’s e-mail, one of several we received on this topic:
“Hi… just adding my two cents as a one-person shop, buying all my own software, hardware, doing all my own installs, etc. The additional $75 charge that Quark is imposing to allow me the “right” to install Quark 6 on two machines (desktop & laptop) is petty in my view. I have no intention of using more than one machine at a time. My tools are an extension of my creativity and I’d like the ability to use the software I purchased in any location I choose. I feel I’m being penalized for the piracy of others… I’m honest. I paid the fee. Don’t hamper my ability to work with the software I purchased. It’s another strong case for moving to InDesign (I’m already using it, along with PageMaker & Quark, so I feel that it’s nuances that are determining my decisions at this point).”
In addition to the announcements about Quark Publishing System Classic 3 and Quark Content Manager 3, which we previously covered on creativepro.com (both which will ship this summer) Quark also announced the following:

  • Quark XPress 6 Japanese Edition will be launched in Tokyo on June 24.
  • Quark XPress 6.2, which includes bug fixes and some new-feature Xtensions (see next item), will ship later this summer .
  • QuarkXClusive and Quark Vista, announced at Drupa, will be made available at no cost as downloads for current QuarkXPress 6 users and will be bundled with QuarkXpress 6.2, QuarkXClusive puts variable data publishing tools into the hands of QuarkXPress 6 users for output on HP Indigo digital presses (and later will support PPML for output to any digital printer supporting the standard). QuarkVista, an XPress 6.2 Xtension, provides image manipulation features right in QuarkXPress.
  • Quark announced that it had joined CIP4 (JDF), PODI (PPML), and G-SAM (digital asset management standards) and is an active participant in the W3C, particularly in support of Mono, the Open Source port of Microsoft’s .NET Framework to various UNIX and Linux distributions. In particular, Quark is taking the lead developing the Mac OS X Mono port, and is lobbying Apple to get more involved. Quark uses Web standards such as XML, SOAP, and .NET to facilitate interoperability with legacy and third-party applications, as well as to communicate between various Quark enterprise modules.

Improved Service
Aside from the technology announcements, improvements in customer service and technical support were the buzz of the event. Indeed, that the event was held at all was testament to the new Quark that many customers are beginning to see. The company says it has tripled the number of people in the field, and has relaunched the QuarkAlliance program. Quark has opened offices in New York and Hamburg, and will open new outposts in Paris and London.


Quark’s Juergen Kurz explains the company’s enterprise solutions to summit attendees.

The company also announced that the once-popular online forums had been resurrected as of the first day of the conference — with over 197 messages posted in the first several hours. It was the cutting itself off from all the avenues of customer interaction and feedback that had hurt Quark so during the past 4 years — and bringing the Forums back online is perhaps the most welcomed sign that Quark is Real Serious about getting down with its customers worldwide. As [email protected] said in a recent email to this publication:
“I was just happily surprised that Quark has re-established its user forum. …. I contacted Quark soon after the original forum was taken offline and I was told that I was not the only one to report unhappiness with the decision, and that a re-worked forum would be brought back some day. I relied on the original forum for very useful discussions about problems or known issues. I recall that in the last days of the forum much of the discussion was very negative and it had to do with the ill-timed QX5 and the ‘ho-hum’ release of version 6. Regardless, it provided a legitimate sounding board for disgruntled users. Please note that the forum link is the first item under service (https://www.quark.com/service/forums/). I for one am very pleased that this very useful tool is available once again.”
Trying Harder
In conversation with a number of the attendees, I detected an almost grudging acknowledgment that Quark was taking the right steps. Several attendees told me they were on the verge of writing Quark out of their company’s technical roadmap until the Summit, and were now being forced to reconsider. Several found the number of different modules comprising the new QPS and QCM releases impressive but confusing, and expressed the desire to have Quark package these as Solutions rather than a technology kit of parts. Other attendees expressed concern that specific modules for applications such as textbook publishing were either missing or — worse — present but not sufficiently publicized.
I finally acclimated to the altitude on the last day of the conference, just in time for the closing session and the drive back to Denver to return home. The conversation in the shuttle van ranged from discussing Quark’s activation policies to wish lists about features needed for various publishing applications. Several folks still complained about irritations in QuarkXPress 6 or past service problems, but the vehemence was gone. A dialogue had been reestablished, which is a start.
As we approached the midway point of the drive (all downhill for about 50 miles) my fellow travelers and I voted to make a pit stop at the only Starbuck’s between Breckenridge and Denver, which had mountain goats grazing on the hillside above it. With a grande latte in hand and the atmosphere thickening mile by mile, we took time to catch our breath, agreeing that it had been a fine conference.
Read more by Craig Cline.

  • anonymous says:

    Thanks for pitching in Craig. You’re a trooper!

  • anonymous says:

    Gee, an article about a conference with NDAs preventing any real info being distributed. Let us know when Quark realizes that one conference in the mountains for 300 coffee starved high-end players, doesn’t get the rest of us high.

  • anonymous says:

    I left Quark for InDesign and am so glad I did. I would never look back. I don’t care what Quark does. They are second best in my book, slow to evolve, and it costs too much for what you get from the application.

  • anonymous says:

    Mr. Cline’s coverage of the event certainly seems biased in favor of Quark–not surprising given his relationship to that loathsome company. I wonder if Mr. Cline remembers that Quark has tried the sweetness & light thing a few other times before reverting to its true feral nature. I believed it the first time, but I won’t again. My company, all 18 seats, has moved to InDesign and we will not be changing back to QXP, Mr. Cline’s enthusiasm notwithstanding.

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