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Designwise
TAKING THE SOFT OPTION ON PROOFING
Online collaborative proofing tools that provide compelling benefits
for creatives and clients.
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. |
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“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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