At Labelexpo
Americas, Hybrid Software (booth #6314) will announce its partnerships with OKI
Data Americas and Xeikon, and showcase its range of Order Lifecycle Management
(OLM) software solutions. Developed to provide easy, comprehensive connectivity
between web-to-print, MIS, and production systems, OLM software solutions can
help streamline production and improve production efficiencies.
As print buyers
reduce inventories and employ just-in-time practices, the label printing
industry is seeing reduced job run lengths, along with a concurrent increase in
the number of individual jobs. The greater acceptance of digital print (by both
printers and customers) has accelerated this trend, and has also increased the
need for jobs to be processed as efficiently as possible to assure
profitability.
At the same time, the
nature of orders for premedia and print has evolved. In addition to traditional
quotations and print bidding, companies now receive orders from sources such as
web-to-print portals, online search engines, and computerized EDI procurement
systems. Hybrid Software’s OLM products address the entire production workflow,
from online ordering to delivery, integrating with most popular MIS systems,
databases, and production systems. Rather than requiring extensive, customized
software development from IT consultants, Hybrid Software solutions provide
“integration as a product”: all the tools to make the process easier for
inhouse IT departments to map data and implement cohesive production systems.
Hybrid Software announces new partnerships
Hybrid Software will
be announcing the use of their print management technologies as front end
systems for two major digital engine vendors, OKI Data Americas (booth #1350)
and Xeikon (booth # 6135). The systems
provide full production management for digital label printers including order
management, production ticketing, graphics management, production output,
archiving, and reporting.
New applications featured at Labelexpo
Hybrid Software’s
announcements at LabelExpo include the worldwide launch of Pipeline v2.0, an integration application that allows users
to easily share job information from a wide range of otherwise disparate and
disconnected graphic arts production systems, such as web-to-print portals,
MIS/ERP systems, and premedia workflows. Pipeline v2.0 connects directly to
third-party applications that use databases and makes it possible for users to
share data from each system to avoid duplication data entry. By interfacing
directly with all production systems, it ensures that a change in one
system—such as a software upgrade or database schema change—is self-contained
and does not affect other production systems.
Hybrid Software will
also demonstrate its new Taskforce Scheduler, a highly configurable scheduling
system for prepress and graphics production that integrates with MIS and ERP
systems to download a feed of jobs and due dates. It then maps available
resources to insure that the jobs are produced on time with the available
manpower and equipment.
Labelexpo is also the
venue of the first North American demonstration of Proofscope Live, an online
tool for remote softproofing and, uniquely, remote file corrections and
last-minute changes.
Complete OLM product line on display
In addition, Hybrid
will also demonstrate all of the other pieces from its complete OLM product
line:
Facelift is a web-based custom job ticketing and
automation application providing transparent integration between otherwise
disparate production workflow systems, MIS/ERP systems, third-party websites,
external databases and other sources of digitally-held data. Facelift can act
as an intermediary tool to quickly and seamlessly map data, while providing a
customizable interface for production operators. It offers CSRs (and customers)
total transparency of what is happening to a job, between the initial order and
its delivery. Users can create their own templates to encompass every stage of
the order’s lifecycle, regardless of the printing process or product being
produced.
Frontdesk is a web-to-print portal offering a
user-friendly and optimized interface between label printers and their
customers. With Facelift, customers are given powerful file upload and download
services, plus comprehensive job interaction from on-line ordering through all
stages of tracking, proofing and approvals to delivery of the completed work.
Optional components include Proofscope, which provides integrated softproofing
and annotation via its powerful HTML 5 architecture, and Proofscope Live.
Fileforce connects multiple production or print sites
within an enterprise, allowing print providers to benefit from the enormous
efficiencies that can be obtained by load balancing and file sharing between
sites. Fileforce does not require a
centralized file server or DAM system, but instead works in conjunction with
local file servers at each location.
“Hybrid Software
offers label printers an affordable, flexible and extremely powerful solution
for integrating and streamlining the entire production process. All of our
products operate via web browser technology and provide vendor-independent
solutions for Order Lifecycle Management, based on industry standards such as
JDF/JMF and SQL,” explains Mike Rottenborn, President & CEO at Hybrid
Software. “Our products unite previously-isolated systems such as premedia,
MIS, planning, accounting, administration and move into an easy-to-use,
device-agnostic environment that streamlines production, reduces internal costs
and improves profitability. Most important, our products provide software-based
solutions for the integration needs of all printers, which is far more stable,
easy-to-implement, and supportable than custom software development. It’s why
so many tag and label printers, large and small, have reached out to Hybrid
Solutions for help.”
