Links that run deep into the process

Optimus is one of the oldest MIS companies that remains independent and close to its original founders. It was also a pioneer of shop floor data collection, a long term supporter of JDF and online operation.

Now it is pushing towards connectivity, towards full cloud functionality and automation. Managing director is Steve Richardson. “Ten years ago it was enough to produce an estimate and a job ticket. Now it is all about connectivity to the workflow, the CRM, to websites, to courier companies. And these connections are all very commonplace and can be put in place in a matter of days or weeks.”

The connection comes courtesy of an API and Optimus Web Services which opens the window into the Optimus MIS without having to expose the entire system. The connection is made to the relevant part of the MIS.

The depth of those connections will vary. For some it is the passing of a token alone, for others it will be a bi directional connection where data is passed back into the MIS as well as being received from it. For a web to print application, information about a job needs to pass into Optimus, creating the job ticket automatically. But information needs to pass from Optimus so that the web portal can rely data about the progress of a job.

“We have web to print partners where there are four or five touch point connections,” he says. “This goes beyond accepting job submissions into job tracking and real time pricing. Fortunately, Optimus has long had that bidirectional architecture built in.

“We live in different times to a decade or so ago. Then we might have time to carry out an integration. Now people just expect it to work.”

Optimus takes a hybrid approach. It uses JDF, but also the APIs for connection to non core applications. “A retailer that has a need to automatically order from their proprietary system will not be working through JDF, but does need to link into the printer,” says Richardson. That is where the API approach will work and where those open interfaces and adoption of XML standards make the task easier. “JDF itself is built on XML. Now people are using XML in a much more malleable way,” he adds. “JDF is a fantastic concept and it has evolved to occupy a unique space. We find however that we can do a lot of stuff using XML.”

This means there is no need to develop everything in house – there is no Optimus accounting module any longer for example.

And there is recognition that small apps that are highly specific can be very useful. It has several of these apps, to run on Android powered phones and tablets, that can be used by managers on the shop floor or on the road. “Our stock management and delivery modules run on Android, because these are likely to be needed by those walking around a warehouse or in a dispatch area.”

There is a bar code scanning system, again using a phone, which is being used by one of the larger UK customers. 

Ultimately everything will be hosted in the cloud and the application will run though browsers. That cannot be the case as yet because with few exceptions the internet is not robust and ubiquitous enough. The onsite server remains. But it is says Richardson, the direction of travel.

Optimus has for many years worked closely with XMPie. This has developed to the point that the trust and integration between the two can be completely seamless. Richardson describes a customer in Sweden producing large format graphics where the automation has resulted in a lights out prepress operation and as a result the production bottleneck is no longer the office and prepress but the shop floor.

A full ganging system is being implemented with information being passed back to the MIS about which jobs are on which sheet so that costs can be allocated. Automatically of course.

“Our bigger clients recognise that connectivity is a must, that information must be available. To be successful requires cooperation between vendors and a client that both gets it and truly understands his business.”