Digital printing is here to stay. The digitalization of printing is a major step toward reshaping the whole converting industry. The main print-press vendors are quite advanced on their digital roadmaps even as new players enter the scene. Though lively, the digital printing industry is fragmented. A phase of business and market consolidation can be expected in the coming years, driven by the need to adapt to new technology needs or uses. We are also witnessing a strong surge in print-in-production, with history seemingly repeating itself, as ‘printing’ comes back to ‘production’.

Each print output is potentially unique with its own variable data that can be managed flexibly by creating an agile printing process.

As our printing journey advances, technologies mature and prices fall, we will always find new opportunities to leverage the benefits of digital printing. However, we will also be confronted by new regulatory requirements and different kinds of barriers. Currently, two factors are critical for the efficient adoption of digital printing.

Sustainability

The first aspect relates to eco-friendly print production. Nestlé has committed to using only recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025. To help meet this commitment, the company established the Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences to explore alternative packaging materials along with suppliers and other external partners. We can already anticipate that these materials, such as paper-based laminates, have lighter barrier properties compared with materials in use today. This presents a challenge to the related printing processes that will constrain their use. Of course, digital printing inks have made huge progress in food-compliance and are still improving. However, on new packaging materials with lighter barrier properties, some printing systems (the combination of a printing process, an ink and its finishing process) must be adapted to meet strict food packaging requirements. Additional goals, such as reusability and recyclability, should also be considered. Are today’s ink formulations, developments and finishing processes ready for this transition?

Data management

PHOTO: © DMYTO / ADOBE STOCK

The second aspect underlying the promise of digital printing has to do with variability in the printout (output) as well as flexibility in the printing (process). Print jobs are increasingly related to data management, as each output is potentially unique with its own variable data that is managed flexibly within an agile printing process.

Late-stage customization is the ability to customize the output at the latest stage, which itself refers to moving printed packaging from a conventional rigid supply-chain to a networked supply-chain where multiple players can print different static and variable layers of an artwork in one or several locations. It means moving away from a monolithic approach where the full printing and converting processes are entirely outsourced to a situation where many supply-chain options are available to cover the high variety of products, business models and routes to market (from fully outsourced supply to fully internalized printing and converting, with mixed approaches in-between). This is our definition of variability and flexibility, derived from data-driven print production and late-stage customization.

To achieve all this, the dots need to be connected, meaning the print-job data as well as the printing and converting process must connect seamlessly into an integrated end-to-end supply-chain workflow. This integration and connectivity happen in two dimensions, namely horizontally and vertically. Horizontal integration involves the progressive digitalization of the complete converting machinery and processes, streamlining the repro while ensuring colour matching and consistency. This digitalization has already occurred for the artwork and prepress; is happening for the printing step; and will progressively include the decorating, cutting and folding-gluing steps as well as other converting steps. Vertical integration relates to the print and converting-data. It ensures the right output is achieved from the correct data in a make-to-order or print-to-order model. Both static as well as variable artwork data must be aggregated dynamically together with production-specific data coming from a production order, which, in the end, can make every pack literally unique, if required.

At first glance, this degree of integration and connectivity to achieve a batch-of-one might sound futuristic, and is definitely ambitious, but the reality is that all the necessary technology-related building-blocks already exist. Digital front-ends rip dynamic artwork for the printer. Manufacturing execution systems dispatch production order information to the various assets of a production line. Dedicated servers ensure additional functionality, such as serialization or aggregation. For each and every type of data, a dedicated and well-optimized channel exists. Additionally, connectivity standards are maturing and being adopted to ensure both horizontal and vertical communication between all the modules of a production environment. All these channels, which are mainly independent today, can start to be interconnected to combine, as and when needed, the relative data, rip it accordingly, and finally print it to produce unique packaging items.

Data is the fuel of today’s economies. The ability to create, collect, handle, combine, extract, analyze, process and convey data will drive the most efficient businesses. Printing is no longer about accurate colour-matching and process-efficiency. It is rather about conveying to buyers and consumers digital information that has been applied physically on the pack. Some call it the blended reality. Nonetheless, it is a paradigm shift enabled by combining digital printing with connectivity. Such a shift is a prerequisite for achieving personalization and customization, the “holy grail” of the digital transformation in consumer package goods (CPG). This paradigm shift can help one envision the connected production-floors and factories of the future.

Alvise Cavallari heads Nestlé’s corporate digital printing programme as well as other related activities.

This article was originally published as part of the Drupa Essentials of Print series and reproduced in the April 2021 issue of PrintAction. 

“One of the challenges that arose during the pandemic was the struggle to communicate with customers with the unexpected speed and efficiency the situation demanded,” said Ernie Crawford, president and CEO of Crawford Technologies. “Crawford Technologies is committed to helping organizations manage a post-COVID environment with solutions that generate customer communications quickly, while keeping costs to a minimum. DTE 5.0 meets this mission with multiple performance and productivity enhancements that make it possible to further reduce the time and effort necessary to produce communications.”

To introduce the key upgrades and business benefits of DTE 5.0, Crawford Technologies will hold a webinar on Thursday, May 13 at 1:00 p.m. ET for customers and partners. Click here to register.

With advanced printhead technology and a robust design, DPV is a suitable variable data solution for a broad range of industrial and commercial printing applications, such as labels, forms, direct mail, tickets, gaming, promotions, tags, and pharmaceutical packaging.

“Digital Plus Variable is flexible, durable, and operator-friendly. The system utilizes the latest 30 & 40 kHz print module for high-speed data transfer and high-quality inkjet printheads that deliver 600 dpi cross-web print resolution and 300 to 600 dpi in process direction, with speeds up to 500 fpm,” says Scott Warhover, vice-president engineering, Mark Andy.

“BoardingPass is a game changer for job onboarding, cutting waste time between production flow agents. It’s easy to use, intuitive, and allows to quickly check your file and get back to the customer or pass it forward to prepress,” said Joana Silva, product manager, Enfocus.

BoardingPass uses simple drag and drop from an email attachment or downloaded PDF. It checks print job files for issues that would make the job unprintable. BoardingPass points out issues with missing fonts, image resolution and bleed. As a stand-alone PDF viewer, it displays files as they will appear on press. When issues are found, a draft email reply is automatically created so customer service representatives can respond to customers quickly. The integration with WeTransfer allows users to drag and drop WeTransfer emails to BoardingPass, which will download, open and check the PDF automatically.

“IIoT makes every bit of data actionable,” says Matthew C. Miller, director of technology, Helios.  “So many corrugated plants rely on human intuition and experience to drive their decisions. With Helios, anomalies that are imperceptible to even the most well-trained operators can be detected in real time and acted upon. And the machine learning capabilities will mean the platform only gets smarter the more data and user reactions that it is able to process.”

Some of the most beneficial insights Helios can provide are preventative/proactive parts ordering, knowledge about the exact time and cost of parts replacements, the ability for operators to pinpoint the source of slowdowns and other issues, and operator-efficiency training to help machine operators learn and adapt to best practices.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

CRT has been a reseller of CrawfordTech software since 2004. CRT will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Crawford Technologies.

Located in Southwestern Virginia, CRT develops products designed to meet the challenges of government and defense-related document production and distribution as well as the high-volume document needs of financial institutions. The full CRT portfolio includes electronic records management, data manipulation and migration among all types of print streams. It will be added to the Crawford Technologies portfolio of workflow solutions and Crawford Technologies will be taking over the support and maintenance of CRT’s product line.

“CRT has grown by specializing in serving government agencies and contractors. By their nature, these organizations face data scalability problems of all kinds with the need to support millions of documents and complex databases,” said CRT CEO Philip Trzcinski. “With the strength of Crawford Technologies’ expertise and its advanced workflow solutions and support, this acquisition makes it possible to provide our customers with additional opportunities to be more efficient and reduce costs.”

“Digitization is becoming increasingly important at a great many print shops, and our customers appreciate the digital service portfolio we offer them 24/7 with the Heidelberg Assistant,” says Professor Ulrich Hermann, Member of the Management Board and Chief Digital Officer at Heidelberg. “Designed as an open digital platform, it is used by customers of all sizes and from all segments with their own personal Heidelberg ID.”

Jeff Taylor, Senior Vice President Manufacturing at Hemlock Printers Ltd. in Burnaby, B.C, sums it up: “This is exactly the data and information we need to manage production efficiently.”

Read more: Hemlock celebrates 50th anniversary

“The Heidelberg Assistant represents a major step into the digital world, enabling far better analyses of press performance than simple service reports. The option of logging into the Heidelberg Assistant to arrange service callouts will also without doubt improve our customer satisfaction,” adds Jürgen Herr, Head of Printing at August Faller GmbH & Co. KG in Waldkirch, Germany.

Described as a new era of digital customer communication, the Heidelberg Assistant aims to pave the way for creating and ensuring the smooth operation of a printing company’s new digital business models. Heidelberg explains that customers using the digital solution benefit from a transparent process workflow together with smart and efficient print shop operation. Each user has personal access to the customer portal and is able to see an overview of the print shop’s service and maintenance status, including data-driven failure prediction. In addition, they can access big data performance analyses, which can help create further potential for boosting productivity.

Once enabling tools have been installed by Xeikon personnel, data from presses and peripheral equipment are collected automatically, augmented by additional print room data collected by the operator from an touchscreen. Xeikon XPS employs well-established continuous improvement best practices from the manufacturing industry in the print production environment to help operations improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).

Xeikon explains its aXelerate program is a key element of its customer service approach, is application-driven and designed to help customers develop new applications and grow their volumes on Xeikon presses.

“When we established the aXelerate Program, our goal was to assemble a set of tools and services that would make our customers more efficient and profitable, and ensure they are able to get more out of their digital investments,” said Filip Weymans, Vice President of Marketing for Xeikon. “The initial offering has been very positively received, but we also wanted to continue to develop the program to add even more value based on customer feedback. The latest addition, Xeikon Performance Services, brings manufacturing best practices to the rapidly evolving and often challenging print production environment and is a direct result of what customers told us they needed.”

Shown for the first time at Labelexpo Americas, Xeikon Performance Services offer a range of benefits for a print production operation, including:

• An on-site manufacturing audit.
• Intelligent monitoring of any Xeikon presses to capture operational trends.
• Monitoring operator tasks to identify opportunities for improving press uptime, reducing waste, etc.
• Improving productivity and reducing cost by collecting and analyzing real print-room data.
• Providing actionable information with root-cause analytics.
• Tracking Overall Equipment Effectiveness in real-time.
• Supporting Lean, Six Sigma and other Continuous Improvement methodologies.

SOLitrack, according to the company, provides greater visibility and reporting for jobs as users move through processing steps from receipt to delivery. As a result, SOLitrack users can better manage operational performance and grow their business while reducing the risk of missing deadlines, explains the company.

The latest version of SOLitrack includes:

 • A mobile interface – a customizable  web interface dashboard to run reports and monitor activity for devices and production jobs of priority or interest; compatible with mobile, tablet and computer screens.
• New reporting functionality – updated and streamlined support for configuring, generating and accessing activity reports.
• EQUIOS printer support – allows SOLitrack to receive real-time feedback from EQUIOS class printers.
• SLA monitoring – associate specific deadlines with individual jobs.
• Job batching – provides manual and automated modes for associating jobs to be combined and processed together to help optimize production or maximize postal discounts.
• Job Definition Format (JDF)/Job Messaging Format (JMF) support – provides real-time job and printer feedback with flexible status updates and reporting.

Running on the latest EFI Fiery FS300 Pro software platform, the new EFI Fiery MIC-4160 external DFE is the first Fiery server for black-and-white print engines to launch on the new NX One server platform with Fiery QuickTouch. The new DFE is described as being almost 50 percent faster than previous generations and is compatible with the new Konica Minolta IQ-501 Intelligent Quality Optimizer for automated density control and front-to-back registration. The latest Fiery Command WorkStation used with the DFE is designed to deliver a unified job management interface for all Fiery Driven printers including cut-sheet, wide-format, superwide-format and high-speed inkjet devices.
 
“In-plants and commercial printing businesses need greater efficiencies to streamline their monochrome high-volume production operations and this new EFI Fiery DFE helps users get the most from their advanced AccurioPress 6136 investment,” said Kevin Kern, senior vice president, business intelligence services and product planning, Konica Minolta. “The DFE’s features help make users monochrome digital print workflows just as advanced as those found in high-end digital colour print production.”

New, bi-directional communication provides synchronized, real-time paper catalogue updates that can be entered from either the press or the Fiery Command WorkStation interface, along with new paper tray assignment tools. Plus, the DFE’s Fiery QuickTouch display provides automated backup and restore features. Optional EFI Fiery JobMaster software available with the DFE is designed to simplify the process for creating manuals and other long documents with visual tools for tab insertion, scanning, image editing and media assignment.

The new Fiery DFE also integrates into existing print production workflows through JDF implementation, which connects with automated estimating, scheduling, job ticketing, accounting and other processes managed by EFI’s suite of MIS and web-to-print products, including EFI PrintSmith, Premium Pace and Enterprise Pace bundles for Konica Minolta.

The new Fiery DFEs run on Windows 10 and are available from Konica Minolta and authorized Konica Minolta resellers.

Suitable for companies operating fleets of printers and multifunction devices, Xerox says the new offerings enable the customers’ print devices to be as connected as their employees without sacrificing convenience, security or affordability. The solutions provide two security offerings designed to guard data and device accessibility: Content Security, designed to enhance security procedures and protects intellectual property by monitoring all content that is printed, copied or scanned, and Mobile Phone Unlock which enables a mobile phone to unlock and authenticate Xerox AltaLink and VersaLink devices, eliminating the need for card readers and their proximity cards. Additional features in the Xerox Workplace Solutions portfolio include: a reporting dashboard that aggregates network-printing statistics in one place, restricted access to devices or features at the user or group level, and a lower cost printing option for converting mobile documents to a print-ready format.

Two newly released connectors between the Messagepoint platform and Salesforce enhance Messagepoint’s existing email integration with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
 
“Increasingly, our customers are using Salesforce as the primary means of delivering highly-personalized communications,” Chris Miller, EVP, Research and Development, Messagepoint, said. “They’re also trying to communicate with greater consistency and a common voice—whether their communications are delivered in batch or in real time, via email or by print. With this in mind, the opportunity to integrate with Salesforce was something we were extremely keen to explore further.”
 
In Messagepoint’s latest product release, the company is introducing two on-demand connectors into the Salesforce Sales and Service Cloud and Salesforce Marketing Cloud applications.
 
These connectors — Messagepoint Connected for Salesforce and Messagepoint Journey Builder Connector — are designed to complement the platform’s existing email delivery connector to Marketing Cloud.

The company says Messagepoint Connected for Salesforce allows business users to order and interactively customize a Messagepoint Connected email or other communication directly from the relevant location or record in the Salesforce Sales and Service clouds without having to sign in or out of Messagepoint.
 
Meanwhile, Messagepoint’s Journey Builder connector allows a pre-configured email, letter, or other communication to be triggered automatically at exactly the right time in a customer’s journey. With Messagepoint as an object that can be included in a journey, communications can be composed and delivered via the customer’s preferred channel of communication without user intervention, it explains.
 
“When bundled together, these pieces provide an automated, integrated, leading-edge solution for one-to-one omni-channel customer communications,” Miller added. “Messagepoint acts as the system of record for content management, authoring and assembly; and once authored in Messagepoint, these communications can be triggered within Salesforce. This results in a more seamless journey for business users and customers alike.”

The company explains arifiQ Entry relieves the bottleneck – from several hours to many days – between the time a customer approves a job, and when he or she gets an estimate/quote back from a printer.

arifiQ Entry exports to, or integrates with, any MIS, ERP, prepress, or other order management system. It also offers 12 of the 14 major benefits available in arifiQ’s high-end solution, arifiQ PRO. The salesperson or other professional uses arifiQ Entry to access the printer’s estimating server from anywhere, at anytime, using any internet connection. In seconds, the company explains arifiQ’s proprietary algorithms generate up to one septillion 1024 (or more) combinations based on the printer’s resources and cost variables, to arrive at a quote. Resources include printing presses, paper stock, and post-press machinery; while cost variables include hourly rates, discounts, and profit margins.
 
arifiQ Entry also include Campaign functionality. Using this feature, reps can obtain estimates on many print jobs at one time, and get not only pricing, but also optimized imposition and media (substrate) decisions. Campaign functionality is one of the features available in both arifiQ PRO and arifiQ Entry.

In addition to arifiQ PRO and the new arifiQ Entry, arifiQ Development offers a plugin for Adobe InDesign, as well as an in-plant solution, arifiQ deQuote, which provides quotes via the “print” function on any conventional computer.

Heidelberg continues to explain, that by creating a communication infrastructure geared to digital business models, it is making further progress in its development from simply selling equipment to becoming a customer-based service company. The digitization strategy, continues Heidelberg, is associated with completely new IT requirements for the implementation of new Industry 4.0 applications and services.

“We see ourselves as a true partner for our customers in a digital future,” said Heidelberg CFO Dirk Kaliebe, who is also responsible for IT. “With a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, we’re laying the foundation for gearing our product and service portfolio to digital business models while also providing them faster and more reliably.”

Heidelberg, based on its network of more than 10,000 connected presses, plans to leverage this cutting-edge big data analysis to predict potential failures and to also analyze performance trends.

“Our aim with Heidelberger Druckmaschinen is to significantly improve the company’s innovative strength, especially with regard to customer communication,” said Peter Busch, Director of Enterprise Services at Dimension Data in Germany, who is responsible for outsourcing projects.  “We’re using reliable, highly integrated collaboration solutions combined with new, dynamic LAN infrastructures and corresponding WAN services for this purpose. Together with sister companies in our NTT Group – such as NTT Communications – we can offer wide-ranging know-how from a single source.”

Dimension Data supports customers during all phases of the technological transition, with the focus on digital infrastructures, the hybrid cloud, workspaces for tomorrow, cybersecurity, and network-as-the-platform solutions. With sales of US$7.5 billion and offices in 58 countries, Dimension Data has been part of the NTT Group since 2010. It is the official technology partner of Tour de France organizer the Amaury Sport Organization and partner of South Africa’s Dimension Data for Qhubeka cycling team.

Avanti Slingshot’s Advanced JDF Framework workflow module, according to the company, provides a platform to more easily integrate third-party workflow products like Xerox FreeFlow Core, Ricoh TotalFlow, HP SmartStream, Kodak Prinergy and Konica Minolta Printgroove.

Avanti has been one of the industry’s most active members of the CIP4 organization, which develops the Job Definition Format (JDF) and Job Messaging Format (JMF) standards, designed for data integrity and cross-system communication in manufacturing. It carries information like job ticket numbers, job descriptions, size, colours, media information, quantities and content files.

Avanti points out that JDF has evolved into a standard that now encompasses over 1,000 pages of specifications. “What that has translated into for a print shop is often very complex and expensive projects that typically take a long time to implement as vendors attempt to create the handshake between their system and the workflow tool with which they’re trying to communicate,” stated Patrick Bolan, President and CEO of Avanti. “Avanti’s Advanced JDF framework ensures that JDF is no longer the exclusive domain of large corporations. It does the heavy lifting to make that handshake a much less costly and time-consuming project.”

The Avanti JDF Framework uses templates built from validated JDF standards Interoperability Conformance Specifications (ICS). Avanti Slingshot incorporates business intelligence (CRM, dashboards and reporting), production planning (estimating, imposition, automated purchasing, sales orders, inventory management and scheduling), warehousing, shipping and billing.

“PRINT13 was our tenth Graph Expo [branded by show organizers as PRINT 13 every five years] since buying Avanti in 2004 and by far this was our busiest,” Stephen McWilliam, Avanti Executive Vice President, wrote in an email when contacted post-show about Slingshot’s launch. “Normally, we have our three demo pods in our booth busy most of the time for demonstrations, but thank goodness we added a large screen theatre into our booth because, at times, people were five deep and 12 across in the theatre.”

McWilliam continued to express how he felt the hot topic at PRINT 13 was workflow, with all major vendors showcasing new or updated software platforms. Avanti Slingshot was involved in a range of third-party demonstrations at PRINT 13, including prominent positions on the booths of Ricoh and HP.

One of HP’s live booth demonstrations, for example, focused on a Web-to-Print portal (XMpie uStore) submitting jobs to Avanti Slingshot, which then automatically sent parameters to HP’s Smartstream Production Centre and ultimately down to an HP Indigo press. McWilliam explains, that when the demo job was complete, run-time, stock consumption and job status information was sent directly to Avanti for updating the schedule (job status), inventory and billing.



Avanti Slingshot was the focus on of PrintAction’s August 2013 cover story.

Avanti’s new Slingshot product, which can be cloud-based or hosted onsite, has been in development for over three years and was built from the ground-up to handle multiple lines of business, including large-format inkjet, toner and offset lithography, mailing and fulfillment workflows, as well as creative, marketing and data management services from one platform.
 
“We are very excited to be launching a product that will help take our customer’s organizations to the next level,” stated Patrick Bolan, President and CEO of Avanti. “Avanti Slingshot leverages advice from industry thought leaders, customers and a rich 29-year history in this specialized market.”
 
Avanti stresses that Slingshot is an entirely new product with a modular and flexible architecture that allows printing operations to scale up as they grow and add new services. It is browser-based, providing printers with the ability to securely access the system from any device at any time.
 
Slingshot incorporates business intelligence (CRM, dashboards and reporting), production planning (estimating, imposition, automated purchasing, sales orders, inventory management and scheduling), warehousing, shipping and billing.

Avanti explains many of its resources put toward building Slingshot were focused on reducing the level of effort and amount of time required to install an MIS, which has been a historic barrier for many printing operations. Every Avanti Slingshot ships with a QuickStart Database, an Estimating Standards Library, and migration and import tools, which, as Avanti explains, can dramatically streamline the transition from an existing system.

In its preparation to commercially release the product, Avanti has installed  Slingshot in several companies (both commercial and in-plant sites) over the past nine months. “We wanted to make sure Avanti Slingshot was bullet proof and ready for prime time before the general release to the market,” stated Bolan.

Avanti Slingshot also includes what the company describes as a robust Application Programming Interface (API), enabling the integration of third-party applications and the connection of “islands of automation”. The new platform leverages industry standard protocols such as JDF/JMF and XML. “Our goal is to continue to provide the most open Print MIS system in the industry,” stated Bolan.

Xinet 17.5
Xinet is a described by North Plains as an optimized media production environment, tuned to deliver productivity benefits to creative teams producing rich-media assets in an environment tightly integrated with the Adobe Creative Suite.

Xinet Pilot, a key module of Xinet 17.5, has been enhanced by expanding previous Asset Browser functionality onto the creative desktop, which provides more flexibility to access, automate and synchronize asset production. Also, North Plains’ ConnectR technology now allows Xinet to push assets and related metadata with a single click to both On Brand and Xinet Digital, North Plains’ new brand engagement products.



Additionally, assets and metadata that have been pushed to Telescope software can now be pulled back, from within the Xinet interface. Xinet 17.5 now includes Unicode support to encode multiple languages and character sets. North Plains explains this allows for deeper localized deployment across multiple geographies. Audio files can now be previewed in Xinet via MP3 audio thumbnails and Xinet can now be licensed without a hardware dongle on Windows and Linux.

Telescope 9.1
Designed as an enterprise-scale digital asset management system, the new release of Telescope 9.1 also focuses on interoperability in that ConnectR technology now allows Xinet users to pull content from a Telescope repository. As a result, Telescope and Xinet can now be connected in a bi-directional workflow for asset transfers.

Additionally, the Telescope Web interface now includes auto-complete functionality in many data entry fields to speed-up form completion. As a user types, Telescope automatically filters out non-matching items from the list until the user selects the desired value. Files can now be dropped directly onto Telescope to trigger import, and catalogues of selected assets can be dropped directly to the desktop or into a creative application like InDesign.

On Brand 2.6
On Brand is a hosted solution with an interface for the management of brand assets and brand guidelines, while also holding optional capabilities for marketing resource management.

Permission support in On Brand 2.6 now extends down to the asset level, which North Plains describes as providing for better control over what digital assets and materials can be viewed, downloaded and shared. This provides greater protection and distribution options for brand managers. On Brand 2.6 can now be used to brand portals in multiple languages and themes, improving accessibility across multiple geographies.

By Ed Boogard


“Printing using movable type” has turned into “printing using movable data”. It has been almost eight years since Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg, paraphrased Gutenberg’s invention to describe the transformation of the industry. And data has been moving ever faster, in ever more directions, ever since.

“Everything that can go online, will go online,” stated Schreier, who has been appointed President of drupa 2012, in his speech last September during Graph Expo 2011. And ‘everything’, of course, includes the printing industry. Who could have imagined only three years ago to be able to access all relevant management information from your print shop by using an app on a smartphone? Or to allow your clients to view, annotate, and approve jobs on their iPads? It was only at the time of drupa 2008 that Apple announced a new iPhone using 3G. And the iPad did not even exist.

Get your App
Now, Heidelberg’s Prinect Mobile app connects your smartphone directly to the workflow at work, and lets you check a job’s status, monitor machine reports of all equipment and even analyse production during shifts.

Agfa’s :Apogee Prepress App gets you quick check of a specific job during production on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. “A convenient status overview of the prepress equipment, including proofers, CTP systems and other output devices, can also be displayed with this App,” says Erik Peeters, Marketing Manager for Apogee at Agfa Graphics.


And Fujifilm’s XMF Remote app is changing the way printers and their clients interact, as John Davies, workflow solutions manager Fujifilm Europe Europe, explained at the UK Publishing Expo 2011: “Print buyers are, in the main, creative people, and it’s creatives who have been early adopters of iPad technology, using it as a professional business tool. If we want to enhance the experience of these creatives who are responsible for commissioning and approving print work, we have to provide them with tools that they want to work with.”

Shift to software
Between last drupa and the 2012 edition, capital investment has been impacted by the global recession. Printing companies have been forced to find new ways to innovate and improve their business without large investments in machines or equipment. Shifting their attention to software, focusing on the handling of data and information, has proven to offer affordable solutions that enhance productivity, efficiency and margin. Also, new services and products can be provided to customers, opening up new markets as well. As software from, for example, DirectSmile and XMpie shows, variable data does not only mean you can personalize print, but you can make it interact with e-mail, personal websites and mobile messaging as well.

Information and technology
Drupa 2012 is set to show printing really is all about information and technology. As lines of lead became streams of bits and bytes, digital information has been changing the printing industry dramatically. It allows the production process to become highly automated and standardized, by creating connected workflows from start to finish. Printing has not only become faster and more efficient by connecting commercial data with production data. It has also become more flexible and effective by using creative data on digital presses to produce highly segmented or even personalized printed products.


Digital information is changing the business of printing, by changing the way printers and clients interact, communicate and connect. Web-to-print provides new ways to request and deliver quotes, exchange job information, upload files, do proofing and track jobs. It has strengthened relationships as printers became solution providers to their clients. It has weakened relationships as clients turned to the highly transparent Internet marketplace. 


And digital information is changing shape and form, as more and more digital alternatives to print, like e-books and tablets, become available. They attract an increasing part of the moveable data as both print buyers and print consumers start to prefer pixels to paper.

Automate production
“The most important trend at drupa 2008 was the effort that all companies – in prepress, press and postpress – put in developing IT solutions to automate and control the entire graphic workflow,” says Italian prepress expert Ester Crisanti. “Many solutions were focused on handling the files exchange, others were specialized in checking the colour reproduction on-board of the press machine and, on top of all, there was the JDF technology. Crossmedia publishing and hybrid workflows were new at drupa 2008 and there were some interesting offers that now, after 4 years, are becoming a strong reality.”


Fujifilm early on put the Adobe PDF Print Engine at the heart of its JDF based XMF workflow. Others followed soon, like Agfa’s ApogeeX, Screen’s TrueFlow, Kodaks’s Prinergy and Xerox’ FreeFlow Print Server. These end-to-end PDF workflow solutions now guarantee output consistency and allow for true hybrid workflows, combining conventional and digital print, and crossmedia workflows, including all kinds of electronic media as well.

Hybrid workflows
“Hybrid workflows will arrive at drupa 2012,” says Gareth Ward, editor of Print Business magazine (UK), as he analyses developments since last drupa: “They not really exist, rather co-joined workflows and there is no great appetite for them in real use. MIS moves forward, but with different demands in different countries can hardly be said to have changed the industry. Web to print has been the most significant development, though again not all countries use it in the way it is used in Germany. And automation remains a concept rather than practicality in most shops.” 


Eddy Hagen at VIGC, the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication, also picks hybrid workflows as the main topic at drupa 2012, as more printers will be offering both conventional and digital printing. Also, JDF/JMF will remain an important theme, but it will still take time for it to live up to its full potential, Hagen thinks. He would also like to stress the importance of MIS: “Every company has to be able to analyze its costs and revenues on a job-to-job basis. You have to know which jobs earn you money and which don’t, so you can turn your company into the right direction. The financial crisis has made it clear that efficiency and automation are key. That is why many printers now turn their attention to web to print.”

Management information
Workflow solutions have grown from separate systems controlling part of the production process, to managing all business related information. For example Kodak’s Unified Workflow Solution was designed to bring all systems together and integrate and unify all information available. More recently, Screen introduced Equiosnet, a “universal workflow environment” providing end-to-end automation “from the initial job quote all the way through the invoicing of the finished project.” 


JDF and JMF have enabled production workflows to connect to the business information systems surrounding it. Data needs to be available throughout the complete process – to everybody concerned in every possible way. That is why, early 2011, Heidelberg acquired software specialist CERM to expand its portfolio of management information systems. Marcel Kiessling, member of the Management Board responsible for Heidelberg Services, explained the strategy behind the takeover: “We aim to present a fully integrated MIS solution with central data management in combination with our Prinect print shop workflow at drupa 2012 and start the worldwide roll-out step by step.”


Connecting to customers
Customers become connected to the workflow as well. Suppliers like EskoArtwork provide software that enables brand owners, designers and retailers to collaborate with packaging manufacturers and printers in artwork creation and quality assurance. Softproofing and even virtual 3D modelling of the product to be printed has opened up ways to interact in a fast and secure way, on a global scale.


This interaction not only allows for automation and efficiency but also reduces costs and time related to miscommunication and technical errors. And that is exactly what also Enfocus is aiming at, by connecting designers, publisher and printers and let them at the same time to do what they are best at – be creative, or focus on content and sales, or put ink on paper. 


Pascale Ginguené, consultant and trainer in digital technologies for the printing industry, looks back at drupa 2004 as a workflow, MIS and JDF oriented show, with 2008 following up on that with web to print en inkjet technologies taking centre stage: “Quite logical developments, as it is first necessary to improve, automate and streamline production before opening up your systems to the outside world via web to print.” She thinks drupa 2012 will be an opportunity for vendors to demonstrate integrated cross media workflows: “These will form both the backbone of marketing and corporate communications, as well as the heart of the services a printer has to provide.”

Web to print
At drupa 2008, InfoTrends published the results of an extensive survey in Western Europe finding that “only one-third of all respondents indicated that they had deployed a Web-to-print solution, and another 20 percent were considering deploying a solution within the next few years. If all of these respondents did in fact deploy such a solution, this would result in a 68 per cent increase in installations over the next five years.” At the same time, Web-to-print volumes were expected to grow 264 per cent by 2010 to become worth in excess of €10.5 billion. As recent predictions concerning the US market show, this growth will continue. InfoTrends forecasts the Web-to-print share in commercial print volume to double from 15 percent in 2009 to 30 percent in 2014 – representing $31 billion on a total of $107 billion – after having increased already five-fold over the last ten years as only 3 percent of print volume was Web-enabled in 2000. Companies like Kodak have anticipated this growth and now offer a wide range of web to print solutions to be integrated into any existing workflow.

Moving to the cloud
Digital workflows are about to take on another new direction. Although terms like Application Software Provider (ASP) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) have been around for some time, ‘the Cloud’ is now fundamentally changing the way data is being stored, routed and handled. Hiflex, already showing their iPhone application at drupa 2008, is taking the lead with its next major release of Hiflex MIS – called version 2012 or drupa-release. It will take the complete management information system to the cloud. In this way, both Hiflex MIS and Webshop can be entirely operated via the Internet and installed and executed on a server in a printer’s facility (a so-called private cloud), in an external data centre (public cloud) or at the Hiflex Data Center (Hiflex cloud). It took Hiflex almost three years to develop this new architecture for its existing solutions. Using the cloud will reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) as users do not need to invest in server hardware, facilities or back-up solutions anymore.

As more software solutions will be available in the cloud, more data will run through cyberspace. Information will not just be sitting in dedicated databases, waiting to be send to a designer or printing company. Data can go many directions. “The Cloud will be the overriding change,” Gareth Ward predicts, adding: “Can I be the first to claim 2012 as the Cloud drupa?”

Electronic media
Since drupa 2008, electronic media like e-book readers, smartphones and tablets have moved from hype to hip and happening. Especially publishers of books, magazines and newspapers have been eager to try and see how print on paper can be replaced by digital publications. Saving on print, distribution and stock on the one hand, and on the other applying new business models and trying to find new ways to serve customer’s needs. As e-books now outsell paper editions on Amazon, it is clear that ‘movable data’ are no longer always making their way to the printing press.

“The evolution is so fast that is not possible to figure out the future,” says Ester Crisanti. “We could only try to imagine how the market will evolve. I like to say we are living in a fast changing world, so it’s important to stay updated trying to understand the technology evolution, the customer needs and the trend of doing communication.” drupa 2012 will offer the opportunity to do exactly that: get up to date with the way data move and make sure you know how to best connect the dots.



“We are very excited to launch Version 12 which adds powerful insight into customer behavior, enabling print providers to better understand and re-act more quickly to customer needs,” said Patrick Bolan, President and CEO of Avanti. “With more integration and automation capabilities, Version 12 will give our customers the opportunity to reduce costs and more efficiently process jobs.  Enhancements to eAccess, our Web-to-Print offering, will help our customers remain competitive and will help generate new sources of revenue.”

Version 12 also provides enhancements to Avanti’s Finite Capacity Scheduling and Purchasing and Inventory Management modules, such as:


– JDF-based job status updates can now automatically update milestones in Avanti’s Finite Capacity Scheduling module;
– Avanti’s Purchasing and Inventory Management application now interfaces with xpedx, automating the web submission process of purchase orders.

In addition, many user requested enhancements have been added to Avanti’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and eDashboard Business Intelligence modules. Selected enhancements include:

- Aggregation and reporting of customer orders, quotes, print job status and other important shop information which can be tracked in Avanti eDashboards through a simple, easy-to-use GUI;
– New business generation and lead tracking capabilities in CRM;

- Microsoft Outlook integration within CRM including automatic synchronization of emails, contacts, tasks and appointments bi-directionally.

The software has already won a Best of Show award at the On Demand 2010 Conference this past April.