Such pre-press whizzes will be acutely aware of just how much manual inputting of jobs and programming would be needed without such software godsends.
For Nottinghamshire’s Prime Group’s Barney Netherwood to describe the company’s Enfocus Switch workflow software as "beautifully invisible" is, then, praise indeed.
The company first invested in the package three years ago after technical manager Netherwood and managing director Jon Tolley saw it at Ipex. The company didn’t have any other workflow software at the time and it was Switch’s straightforward operation that persuaded Prime to go for it over other offerings.
"We chose it because of its data handling capabilities and the simplicity of the workflow. The simplicity made it a clear winner for us," reports Tolley.
The former feature has been incredibly important to the way the program has worked for Prime. Data handling is also the area Prime has been particularly impressed by in terms of the most recent upgrade made to the program, through an automatic Switch 11 install in May.
"We use this product in quite a different way to what it’s probably traditionally installed for in most print houses," explains Tolley. "Most people tend to use the workflow for taking a file from an email, checking it, reporting back on it, writing a PDF from it and putting it into Prinect. We know we’ve got those tools, but we just don’t tend to use it for that currently."
Concrete advantage
Rather Prime uses Switch as "software cement" as it enables different systems, such as Prime’s Tharstern MIS and new Oneflow variable data workflow, to ‘talk’ to each other, passing data automatically between them.
"We’ve always used it for data manipulation. We do all sorts with data, splitting and sending it down different workflows so we automatically generate field output. Plus we use it to strip out data, check data and various other elements," says Tolley.
The upgrade has enhanced these capabilities even further, says Netherwood. "The two major bits that make the difference to us have been the database module and the web services module," he says. "They’re kind of the same thing but one is for getting into data that we hold and one is for getting into data that the customer might hold.
"Before we’d have had to write the code for it ourselves and stitch it into Switch. What Enfocus did with version 11 was to bring that into the actual operation procedure so that it’s much easier to report on. So now it’s truly gone from being for us a file management tool to being a file and data management tool."
Netherwood explains that these capabilities are proving just the job for a print house now printing 64% of its workload digitally. "It’s most useful for the low quantity orders, so personalised products," he says.
"The management of the artwork becomes very difficult so the ability to grab an order and go back out to the customer’s system to get the information that you need, parts of the assets for example, is very useful."
This is very helpful where last-minute changes are made once the order’s been placed, explains Netherwood: "Sometimes the information changes, we might have to do a ‘get latest’ at the point of delivery."
He adds: "If you’re doing a regular job with offer codes on you can automatically look up the latest versions. So say you’ve got flyers you run once a week with offer codes in them, we can run something out from Switch to an internal database that we hold or back out to the client’s database and fetch out the set of codes viable for that week and put them on the job. That gets put on to a rendering engine and built into the artwork."
Having been through three or four iterations of Enfocus Switch since investing several years ago, Prime predictably found the upgrade process to get Switch 11 pretty straightforward.
"Installation was really simple, it’s done as a replication in Switch rather than an upgrade so you’ve no need to take the existing systems offline and we were able to test each workflow piecemeal before we moved it over," reports Netherwood. "So it was pretty easy to do. We didn’t require a huge amount of support. We were done within a week – and we take things slowly.
"The upgrade procedure is very simple so apart from a bit of Q&A session we didn’t really need much intervention in order to do the thing ourselves," he adds, reporting that the support was characteristically helpful.
And the performance of the software has been strong since May. "There have never been any more problems with Switch than with anything else I’ve ever encountered, and none have been terminal," says Netherwood. "They’ve all been resolvable and the log-in system’s pretty good so you can always figure out what’s going on fairly quickly. If it needs some attention it’s usually done remotely and Enfocus is very good there."
Prime is therefore unhesitating in wholeheartedly recommending the software to others. "Switch 11 is one of those pieces of software where if you do anything with file or data information it will make your life easier – and I think that covers most people," says Netherwood.
Enfocus would add that Switch 11 will be good for even more businesses than this covers. The key to the system, the developer says, is its flexibility in automating repetitive tasks associated with receiving and sorting files. While other workflows might have a pre-defined idea of how a business should process files and data, Switch is more versatile, says Enfocus.
Error handling
One bit of advice Prime would give to prospective users is to be aware that they need to set up their own workflow for handling errors and corrupt files. This isn’t something Enfocus could be expected to integrate into Switch, stresses Netherwood, just something users need to realise.
"Enfocus doesn’t handle errors in a particular way, it just flags them and then asks you what you’d like to do with them," says Netherwood. "So you have to set up your own workflow for failures as much as for successful jobs. I wouldn’t necessarily say Enfocus should improve the product, it’s more just about awareness for the users."
"The way our error handling works is that most tools and configurators have error connections," adds an Enfocus spokesperson. "Through these connections you can set it up to have reports go out when a file fails. It is only if the actual application that is processing a job doesn’t support it and doesn’t do this type of error handling that files go to the ‘Problem Jobs’ tool. This way Switch adds an extra layer of error handling allowing you to add the Problem Jobs tool to the flow and allowing you to add extra steps to that. Most of our customers are very happy with the way this is handled."
And overall there’s now, since Switch 11’s installation, not much Netherwood can think of that would improve the software. While the beauty of the system means customers won’t know it’s there, Switch 11 has made the lives of Netherwood and his team even easier.
"It makes the implementation of things a lot quicker. We don’t have to write a customised program to do those parts anymore, we can just write a small utility within Switch that does the same thing," says Netherwood. "It’s saving me writing a complete workflow for every job that comes in. I can just write a little bit of code inside a script rather than a lot of code outside a script."
The power of Enfocus Switch 11 is not for Prime, then, what it does exactly. Rather it is what it saves its pre-press department from doing manually. Switch 11 might not be the sort of software that Prime’s customers rave about or even notice. But this, as with much software, is exactly the point.
SPECIFICATIONS
Operating system Mac OS X (Intel)
System requirements Minimum: dual-core processor, 2GB RAM; Recommended: quad-core processor, 4GB RAM
Price £1,565
Contact Enfocus +32 (0)9 216 9211 www.enfocus.com
COMPANY PROFILE
Prime Group was established 25 years ago as a traditional litho printer. Now, since branching into digital in 2004, it prints around 64% of its jobs digitally. The company caters for a mix of consumer and corporate customers, specialising in variable data, one-to-one, direct mail, image personalisation and barcode and voucher products.
Why it was bought...
Prime has enjoyed a strong relationship with Enfocus and UK distributor Protocol ever since installing a Switch workflow three years ago. So when an automatic upgrade became available in May, the company was more than happy to switch to this version of, well, Switch.
How it has performed...
Switch 11 has enhanced those features Prime already valued from this workflow package. The software now offers more automatic and efficient integration with internal and customer databases, enhancing its data manipulation capabilities. The company has also been pleased with the software’s continued strong performance, with very few glitches to report.
