.: The Digital Press

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The Digital Press

CAPTURING BUSINESS THE HP WAY
Could the latest additions to HP’s Capture Business Success programme sway your investment plans?

Two of the newest additions to HP’s growing Capture Business Success programme, the HP Indigo Commercial Job Estimator and HP Indigo Yours Truly Designer Software, are intended to do just that - help HP Indigo users accelerate growth and profitability.

If you’re looking at the cost of an Indigo and wondering about its viability in terms of ROI it is worth having a closer look at this programme, which not only works with creative agencies and end users to make sure everyone is aware of the various digital print applications, but ensures HP continues to establish and develop relationships with a variety of industry partners to further develop the migration of analogue to digital.

But on to more about the specifics of The Commercial Job Estimator and Yours Truly Designer Software (including the new Adobe InDesign CS2 plug in by the end of the year) and how they can help you can grow your business with an HP Indigo press.

Commercial Job Estimator
The HP Indigo Commercial Job Estimator is a software tool that calculates job costs for digital (Indigo) and conventional presses to aid production decision and maximise profitability. It compares and contrasts the cost and timing profiles of your digital and offset printing processes as well as identifying crossover points to guide the you in constructing a print estimate.

Of course, if you can identify the optimal method of printing on a job-by-job basis you can maximise profitability! In practise, the HP Indigo Commercial Job Estimator provides a step-by-step process enabling you to create a profile for each customer and job. The user identifies the offset and digital press to compare, as well as specifying an hourly rate, papers and substrates. Common offset presses are already loaded onto the tool, but you can upload any offset press you have onto it.

The Commercial Job Estimator then calculates the cost to the customer and compares the estimated profit you will make depending on whether it is run on a digital or offset press. Using jobby-job comparisons, you can use the model to build a profile for a typical month’s production and increase profitability on all jobs.

Yours Truly Designer for Adobe InDesign
HP Indigo has always provided its customers with Yours Truly Designer, a variable-data software tool to simplify the creation of variable data personalised print materials, but so far it has only been available as an extension for QuarkXPress. At the end of 2006 HP will expand this tool to support Adobe InDesign CS2, making it the first HP Indigo-specific variable-data design utility available for use in both MAC and PC environments.

"HP Indigo Yours Truly Designer is a very popular tool among our HP Indigo users for creating high impact, personalised marketing material," said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. Customers have told us how important it is for them to be able to use Yours Truly Designer in an InDesign environment and we're making it happen."

When released, the plug-in will offer variable-data document creation and imposition capabilities that are similar or equivalent to the capabilities found in HP Indigo Yours Truly Designer for QuarkXPress. With this easy-to-use entry-level tool - ideal for anyone new to variable data printing - you can create high impact, personalised marketing material. Training on the software is included as part of HP Indigo’s support package.

Automation made easy

HP Indigo has teamed up with US-based software developer Objective Advantage to adopt its OASymbio Suite of end-to-end web-enabled production management tools as a preferred solution for Indigo digital presses. The Suite is a collection of tools that uses PDF and JDF standards to automate production to help you achieve better profit margins.

“Printers today need to ensure they maintain a competitive advantage, and in so many cases, the key to business success lies in increasing production efficiencies and maximizing output. OASymbio automates print production from customer order right through to finishing, providing a more cost-effective way to print both new and recurring jobs,” says Gareth O’Brien, CEO of OA.

As well as automating print production, OASymbio has other benefits, such as: interlinking key processes and players within and beyond the print shop (customers, creative services, sales, suppliers, management, production, fulfillment, shipping etc.); connecting multiple, disparate entities, systems, vendors and products; passing transaction, production and tracking information in a seamless, accurate, automated fashion; and interfacing directly with your customers’ own systems and third party solutions.