Prepress
EFI Pace Awarded JDF Certification; Now Integrated to Fiery and Other EFI Solutions
Thursday 30. October 2008 - Management Software Completes PIA/GATF Testing on Behalf of CIP4
EFI (NASDAQ: EFII), the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced the EFI Pace management system has received JDF certification from PIA/GATF in addition to being integrated to EFI Fiery, EFI Digital StoreFront and scheduling and data collection solutions. A 2008 “Must See ’ems” award winner, EFI Pace offers end-to-end print shop and production management for mid-sized commercial and specialty printers, and is on display in Graph Expo booth 2000 (through Oct. 29, McCormick Place).
EFI Pace is among the first management systems to pass the stringent Job Definition Format testing process by PIA/GATF, the official certification body for CIP4 (the International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress). EFI Hagen and EFI Prograph have already been certified.
Since the addition of EFI Pace to its Print MIS offerings in July, EFI has focused on integrating Pace with other solutions to provide the ultimate package of business management and production control. The new integrations are:
EFI Pace to Fiery-driven output devices for job ticketing and data collection, allowing even greater productivity improvements.
EFI Pace to EFI PrintFlow for dynamic scheduling and optimization.
EFI Pace to EFI Auto-Count Direct Machine Interface for production counting, monitoring and waste reduction.
EFI Pace to EFI Digital StoreFront, the company’s Web-to-Print platform, creating an end-to-end content and commerce workflow from the desktop of the printer’s customer to the MIS system.
“EFI is proud to receive JDF certification for our newest management system, and very pleased to have so quickly added integrations to other EFI solutions to further strengthen the product offering,” said Jay Farr, general manager, EFI Pace. “These accomplishments are welcome news for our customers who can now increase their productivity with automated workflows, eliminate errors derived from manual keying and improve communication throughout the production cycle.”
The JDF certification process involves a series of tests – ranging from attribute value tests to full blown JDF job ticket conformance – over several days conducted in the PIA/GATF’s state-of-the-art facility. EFI Pace passed all the rigorous standards of JDF product certification and is now certified to create and accept updated job details as the job is running via JMF (Job Messaging Format). The system has efficient two way communication between capable devices, and the ability to communicate correctly to both prepress and conventional printing workflows.
“EFI has been committed to JDF for many years and we’re very happy to add EFI Pace to the short list of certified solutions, giving print providers assurance of a smooth JDF workflow throughout their operations,” said Dr. Mark Bohan, vice president, research and technology, PIA/GATF.
EFI Pace includes software modules for estimating, scheduling, production, accounting, sales management, and e-commerce, and uses an appliance model that allows for installation and training in a fraction of the time required by other solutions. This advanced, secure system architecture is customizable, XML driven, JDF and ODBC compliant and allows browser-based access from Mac and PC platforms to better leverage emerging technologies that are defining the digital workflow process.