Print co-op streamlines business with workflow solution
Canon's uniFLOW software product has brought significant efficiencies to members of the Christchurch Digital Print Co-operative...
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Providing the companies from the Christchurch Digital Print Co-operative Ltd with access to their offset printer members at one location certainly delivered benefits by allowing them to print high volumes at low cost on a very modern plant. But a challenge facing the co-operative, established three years ago under chairman Chris Wadeson, was to identify a workflow solution that would enable effective web based ordering and monitoring of print costs by each of the companies. Wadeson says: “We are one of the largest outlets of colour digital print in the country. We not only provide printing facilities for the members but also have a number of large scale external contracts so it was vital we could effectively provide them all with relevant and applicable information.” Last year while consulting to a tertiary institution in Christchurch, Wadeson got the opportunity to evaluate the uniFLOW software product from Canon. Peter Tong, certified technical engineer for Canon’s uniFLOW says: “uniFLOW has a unique modular design and open platform architecture that can be configured to address the specific needs of any business, from large corporate enterprises to pay-for-print shops and in-plant printing facilities. It produces a wide range of detailed reports that enables businesses to accurately measure print device usage and costs by user, workgroup or department.” Wadeson investigated other workflow options on the market but found that many were proprietary and would have required significant modification. He says: “I was impressed with uniFLOW’s ability to act as an auditing device as well as controlling work flow and acting as an on-line ordering service. “The open architecture and modular design of uniFLOW enables you to modify the system to meet your needs and add to it as circumstances change. To date we are using the online ordering that is one of the best I have come across, along with the reporting and tracking modules. We also plan to add the audit module.” Tong says: “The members of the co-operative are already gaining significant benefit from the installation of the uniFLOW software. “The processing times have become faster and they can track the status and cost of the print job from the time they place the order on-line through to when the job is finished and dispatched. They get sent an email when they place the order and another when it is complete.” The software talks to every production device, sending the job to the most appropriate one and can run the job on a number of different devices if it needs to. The prioritising of the print jobs is handled by the production manager with the print jobs accepted in strict chronological order. If a company has a specific time frame to meet then the production manager will discuss it with the companies involved to see if there is room to change the printing order. Wadeson says: “The uniFLOW system is gaining huge credibility both here and in Australia”. For more information contact 8/7/3_ex_nl_h |
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