The Belgian developer said the latest release reflects the changing needs of the market by offering greater automation, enabling it to scale with a business as it diversifies.

The software’s open architecture means that nearly all disparate, multi-vendor systems, both old and new, will connect to each other.

New features in Switch 2018 include Job Finder, Webhooks and Private Data for All while an additional new feature – the online intel dashboard – will come later, in update 1, for customers with a maintenance contract.

A new Reporting Module will also be available separately and is due for release before summer 2018.

Enfocus said Job Finder “marks a significant first step” in achieving production transparency. It is targeted at users that need to quickly find the status of a job, based on where it is located within the Switch flows.

Customisable boards within the Job Finder give a complete view of all jobs, making it easy to locate specific jobs in the Switch flows – a task that the developer said typically takes a significant amount of time to complete.

“This can easily configure a new view on your Switch production and give a quick overview of your jobs that are currently in pre-flight, for example. This brings immediate value,” said Switch product manager Toon Van Rossum.

The Webhooks feature, which is aimed at scriptwriters, app creators and integrators, brings connectivity with external services.

Enfocus said this tool will transform the way Switch flows and scripts connect to external services by allowing external applications or services to send notifications to Switch. For example, the notification could contain the status of a job or trigger an update when a new order comes in via the user’s MIS.

Private Data, which was previously only possible through scripting, enables the user to store, customise and manage specific data within Switch. This feature is said to make data handling much easier and accessible to all users.

Some of the most frequently used actions in Switch can also now be triggered by one click, Enfocus said, with one-click actions available to access the sample job variables and metadata, as well as to release all connections that are currently set on hold.

The web-based Job Client has also been enhanced to enable users to easily find jobs in a checkpoint, edit and update jobs in native application from a checkpoint, and select and process multiple jobs at once.

When implementing new features into Switch, Van Rossum said the business takes three factors into account: “These are feedback from our users, feedback from development – and the effort it takes to implement something, and finally the long-term vision and whether a new feature will take us closer to where we want to go with the product.”

Switch 2018 is available with immediate effect, and has replaced Switch 2017. Current Switch users with maintenance contracts can upgrade to the new version at their convenience for free while new users, or past users who no longer have a maintenance contract, will automatically get the latest version.

Pricing for new users ranges from $5,000 (£3,500) to $20,000, dependent on the customer’s requirements and the level of training and support required from the vendor.

“We’ve already had some great comments about Switch 2018,” said Van Rossum. “Customers have started upgrading and we’re very happy with the feedback.”