Canon to lead industry workflow alliance

April 8, 2009:Print technology companies including Heidelberg, Agfa Graphics and CYMKit are to join Canon Australia’s new Workflow Program as strategic partners to promote integrated and profitable print workflow solutions.

The aim of the Canon Workflow Program is to support professional print providers in overcoming business and production issues, enabling new production volume and revenue streams. It does this through a portfolio of integrated software solutions designed to enhance a printer’s entire workflow process. This includes colour management, production workflow and variable data solutions, underpinned by professional services and consultancy from Canon.

The alliance represents collaboration between some of the industry’s leading companies, whose combined products make a powerful and compelling offering that can be tailored to individual customer needs. To date this includes Agfa’s Apogee DigitalPrint Link, Heidelberg’s Prinect Digital Print Manager and CYMKit’s colour management and colour profiling solutions (including ISO Certifications). Other companies offering complementary workflow solutions, including pre-press and finishing, are also expected to announce their involvement in the coming months.

“As the Australian professional print market evolves, businesses are increasingly trying to move to the ‘next stage’ of print solutions and this program gives them a clear platform to do that,” said Steve Brown, Production Printing Systems Group Manager at Canon Australia.

“The intention of the alliance is to support our customer’s ambitions and keep them ahead of the market. To do this we need to help them create a meaningful and tangible competitive advantage for their business,” he said.

"Many traditional offset printers extend their business into digital print and we naturally support our customers in pushing their business forward,” says Soeren Lange, Product Manager for Prinect workflow at Heidelberg Australia & New Zealand. “Heidelberg is able to integrate the production workflow with various digital print vendors, of which Canon is a key player. This alliance proves our commitment and gives customers security to invest in a reliable partnership and tested functionality.

“The key reason for a printer to integrate the digital press with a prepress workflow is to streamline production as well as eliminate manual labour and errors. It’s not about getting a PDF file from the workflow to the press. It’s about presetting the device with a JDF and getting management data back for costing and scheduling,” Soeren explained.

According to Regional Marketing Manager at Agfa Graphics, Garry Muratore: "Agfa Graphics is pleased to be working with Canon on such an important workflow alliance. Apogee has obtained comprehensive industry acceptance because of its ease of use and open architecture, so building on these strengths and taking the product to hybrid and digital print environments is a logical step in the product's evolution".

Jason Hall, commenting on behalf of CYMKit, said: "The importance of this industry alliance cannot be underestimated. Today's print market aims to achieve colour standardisation around ISO-12647 and across multiple print technologies within their businesses – digital and analogue as well as the inks, toners and papers used. By teaming with independent partners such as CMYKit, Canon customers can now streamline their entire workflow process and significantly increase their return on investment."

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