The latest release of the EFI (Electronics For Imaging) Fiery JobFlow 2.2 software “brings a new level of job preparation automation to Fiery-driven environments for print operations of all sizes,” said the company. “Today, according to research from InfoTrends, less than 10% of print jobs are produced without intervention, so there is a huge opportunity for print service providers to increase their productivity and profitability by implementing more automation in the future,” said John Henze, Vice President of Fiery Marketing at EFI. “The significant advancements in Fiery JobFlow 2.2 – such as the ability to import and export ready-to-use workflows and to connect to third-party systems – provide a clear path for printing companies to achieve these automation goals, stay competitive and boost customer satisfaction.”
By automating the manual job preparation steps required for the initial set-up of a job into a workflow, Fiery JobFlow software gives print professionals the ability to submit and process similar jobs with a single click, as opposed to 10 – 20 clicks. EFI added that today, approximately 50% of brochures, business cards and direct-mail pieces are manually prepared by digital print shops. These jobs typically require preflighting, imposition and a soft-proof creation – and each of these steps can take about 15 minutes. Using Fiery JobFlow automated workflows can reduce the overall preparation time to two minutes or less per job. The increased productivity from using the software can deliver a payback time of under three months, said EFI.
Automating job preparation with this technology also improves the overall quality and consistency of digital print output and significantly lowers the potential for human error. Also, the software can be up and running in hours, not days, without additional integration costs. As a result, users can immediately begin taking time and touches out of the job preparation process, thereby producing more jobs with the same staff and equipment. The software greatly simplifies the process for producing print-ready files, even for complex jobs, EFI added.
The workflow automation software offering is available in a free version called Fiery JobFlow Base and in a more advanced, paid version called Fiery JobFlow. Both products connect to all external Fiery servers and to embedded Fiery servers through the optional Fiery Productivity Package. Fiery JobFlow also comes pre-installed on the latest Fiery FS200 Pro platform servers.
The free Fiery JobFlow Base version allows users to:
- Perform essential job processing tasks such as image enhancement, imposition and preflighting (some additional Fiery module licenses may be required).
- Submit files to the proper location or just drag and drop to a predefined workflow.
- Archive jobs at various processing stages for reuse later.
- Receive rules-based e-mail notifications on important job processing steps or problem alerts without setting up and configuring an e-mail server.
- Manage, import and export workflows for maximum productivity and efficiency.
For users with more stringent requirements, the paid version, Fiery JobFlow, enables users to add more efficiency by:
- Submitting multiple jobs and intelligently routing them to other workflows.
- Allowing multiple tiers of external and internal reviewers to approve jobs remotely to shorten the customer approval cycle, (with jobs automatically moving to the next step once approval is granted).
- Inspecting, troubleshooting and correcting jobs using Enfocus PitStop software.
- Using advanced scripting to incorporate job processing from third-party applications.
