There’s a new breed of software tool that designers should be aware of because they are very good news for anyone involved in creative project management. So says Thierry Callot, product marketing manager for portal and colour solutions within Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. “At Kodak we call these tools ‘portal products’, and they encompass a range of functions, including collaboration, monitor proofing (including colour-accurate monitor proofing) and Web-to-print tools. Why be interested in these? It’s simple - they will help you avoid spending time on stupid manual tasks.” Kodak has developed a family of products, at the heart of which is its Insite Creative Workflow System that manages content creation and approval. The suite includes Kodak’s Smart Review streaming technology, which offers a range of tools for collaborative reviewing and proofing of elements. And the company’s Matchprint Virtual Technology allows colour-accurate monitor (or soft/virtual) proofing. Of course, compatibility with industry standards is a key part of Kodak’s proposition, and the Insite Smart Review System allows Smart Review technology to be integrated with any Web-based third-party system.

“Profitability is an issue for companies of all sizes, but for small companies typically handling many small orders, inefficiency can have a disproportionately damaging impact as we all know. Spending half an hour struggling with file formats, or searching for the right application to view a file, can account for a big percentage of the job cost and it’s unlikely that ‘time wasted on stupid manual tasks’ will have been anticipated in the original quotation,” reflects Callot.

“If, for example, you use PDFs and email to communicate with your clients during the design and approvals process, then you do not have a reliable way of tracking the communication. Some IT departments will also reject files depending upon the attachments. And if job instructions are contained in an email, they will need to be rekeyed, and this is where mistakes can easily be introduced.

“Some examples of other small manual tasks that can add up to a lot of unprofitable waiting time are: dealing with file transmission issues; time lost converting files to other formats; duplication of files (also adding to the risk of errors and confusion); time lost waiting for a CD, or a proof; time spent reading emails.

“In short, Kodak’s portal products are designed to do away with these irritations, making project management much smoother and helping our customers avoid having to do those time consuming little things that slow production and kill margins.”

With portal solutions, managing file revisions becomes less of a headache. All annotations are saved in a database; file revisions are easily managed and can be compared side-by-side; overprints, transparency and trapping can all be seen onscreen and checked; approval cycles are tracked; and the use of XMP Metadata means files can also include electronic signatures.

By using a portal server you can also replace inefficient FTP servers too. All stakeholders can look at the same file, removing the need to have duplicate files on your system. There’s no need to download a file in order to view it, nor to own the native application because a standard Web browser is used as the interface.

Another important consideration is 24/7 access. It’s typical for many companies to have a situation where emails and faxes come in over the course of the weekend, and then on Monday morning someone has to go through all these messages and deal with them, creating a bottleneck at the very start point of the workflow. The tools available as part of Kodak’s portal solutions allow files to be automatically routed as they come in. Hot folders are used so that everything that can be automated, is automated – it can effectively be described as ‘self-service premedia’. Staff will only need to intervene when it’s absolutely necessary, so their efforts are focused on more valuable work and as a result productivity increases.

24/7 access via a Web browser also means that both you and your clients can submit, retrieve, review and approve files from anywhere in the world, providing a compelling reason for them to keep on using your services.
“ An analogy can be used to illustrate how big a positive impact these tools typically make on a company, and on its interaction with clients,” says Callot. “The example I like to use is internet banking. Once you start using internet banking, it’s very rare that you go back to the bank and queue. Likewise, once you start using these portal products you never go back to ‘queuing’.

“The tools are also a platform for a way in to other services, such as Web-to-print. It’s typical for digital press users to be handling 50-100 quotes a day, and each will take a minimum of five minutes. If the quote isn’t turned around quickly enough, the customer may go elsewhere. Using Web-to-print tools customers are effectively producing their own quotations in real time, which again makes the whole process easier for them – customers are more likely to buy when they are rapidly presented with all the relevant information.”

The Kodak Insite Creative Workflow System is being used today by all kinds of companies, from small studios with four or five staff, to large print groups and advertising agencies. “The numbers are growing daily because it’s solving a real problem - it’s allowing them to handle more jobs, with fewer errors, and at the same time develop stronger bonds with their own clients,” enthuses Callot.

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