Trendspotting: Workflow—Looking Ahead

In this last segment of our workflow series, we will be taking a look at what print service providers should be thinking about and planning for in the next months and years. We started this series with a definition of workflow, discussed how lean manufacturing techniques relate to developing an effective workflow, and wrote about the JDF certification process for various applications and what that means to the overall process and selection of specific products.

One of the major workflow messages I heard coming out of the recently concluded Print 09 trade show held in Chicago in September was increased multivendor collaboration for true integration of multiple, and multivendor, solutions. For example, Heidelberg’s booth was structured to demonstrate a complete workflow, including connectivity with EFI’s Pace and Monarch print production and management solutions, demonstrating how a JDF input from an EFI system could automatically create a Prinect Production job, assign a workflow plan to that job, and fill the job with rich administrative and production data, with JMF providing feedback to Monarch and Pace as the job makes its way through production for real-time workflow and business management.

Also at the show, Web-to-print offerings powered by Press-sense were shown in six different booths at the show, including Hewlett-Packard (SmartStream Director), InfoPrint, Océ (PRIMSAweb), Presstek (Pathway), and Xerox (FreeFlow Web Services). Press-sense iWay was also shown in the Agfa booth. This is yet another example of how suppliers to the market are collaborating with each other to make it easier for print service providers to quickly and easily implement an end-to-end integrated workflow that covers the gamut from initial customer interest through delivery and invoicing.

In fact, although I have not done a formal study on the subject, this show probably witnessed the most alliance/partnership/collaboration announcements of any show in recent history. It even extended to the research and development collaborative alliance announced between HP and RR Donnelley focused on bringing the next generation of printing technology to market, beginning with making MICR printing available on the HP T300 high-speed production inkjet system sometime in 2010.

All of this adds up to the most important piece of strategic advice I can offer to print service providers as they examine their current operations, looking for ways to become more efficient, cost-effective, productive—and certainly, more customer-responsive. And that is: Point solutions are out and integrated solutions are in.

The New Generation of Workflow

For some time, and especially since the emergence of the JDF standard, print service providers have been encouraged to automate their operations by purchasing this Web-to-print solution and that MIS and the other prepress automation package. They were left holding the bag, as it were, as to how to make all of these things work together, rather having very efficient silos with many bottlenecks in between. Especially in the early days, as we have discussed in this series, products could be “JDF compliant” but still not work together, because of vendor-specific commands that could not be understood by other vendors’ solutions.

This situation, luckily, is getting much better, and the certification efforts undertaken by the Printing Industries of America (formerly GATF) under the auspices of CIP4 have gone a long way toward correcting that shortfall. But the suppliers to the industry should also be recognized for their efforts in reaching out to other companies in a spirit of “coopetition” to make the whole process easier for you, the buyer.

The Press-sense example cited above is a good one. Xerox, with its Freeflow Workflow Collection is another great example. And EskoArtwork has assembled an impressive array of partners to accomplish the same end. There are many more, too numerous to list here.