A US COMPANY THAT HAS BEEN successful in integrating separate areas of MIS, order intake and production in printing companies is coming to Europe.
Hybrid Software was started by former EskoArtwork staff and generates sales of $3.5 million in North America and has 20 staff. Now it is opening an office in Holland with former EskoArtwork executive Jan Ruysschaert to head it.
The core concept is Order Lifecycle Management which “turns on its head conventional thinking about how to integrate a company’s existing hardware software and workflows. By treating integration as a product, printers have, for the first time, the opportunity for low cost of ownership in this area.”
THE IDEA IS TO PLUG INTO web to print, to MIS, to production workflows, using JDF or internally developed XML, to interpret and pass job data from one stage to the next. Information is presented to the operator via a web browser. Because everything is in software and there is no additional movement of files, there is no server installation and it can sit as an application layer above existing workflow infrastructures.
there are three elements to the Hybrid system: FrontDesk which opens with a web to print portal with job acceptance, approval and order functionality (Monitor proofing using Dalim technology is an option.); Face Lift, connects MIS and production workflows associated with digital and litho production with other databases and is an easy alternative to creating a full scale JDF implementation right to delivery and invoicing; FileForce offers cross location integration, regardless of where files are located, making management of complex jobs produced on different sites possible.
PRINTERS IN THE IS HAVE USED THE suite of tools to link to EskoArtwork, EFI, ADAM, and other web to print, MIS and DAM systems. some of these customers have operations in Europe that they wish to connect to, providing impetus to the start up on this side of the Atlantic. Ruysschaert predicts there will be seven additional staff in Europe by the end of the year, four in sales and three in technical back up.
Much of the system is self-install, helping to reduce costs and improve the speed of implementation. “The customer prepares the integration before we get involved,” says Ruysschaert. A typical system will cost £40,000 he adds.
The first target will be packaging and labels companies, hence the decision to launch at Labelexpo in September, with space at Drupa also booked.
