Print Solutions Magazine, September 2002 -- The E-Files

End users often worry about receiving infrequent status reports and experiencing slow turnaround on their print jobs. Distributors often worry about integrating their e-commerce systems with their manufacturers' software. Manufacturers often worry about the compatibility of machines they bought from different suppliers. According to Gareth O'Brien, vice president of Houston-based software provider Objective Advantage Inc., Job Definition Format (JDF) will ease those worries. "We believe that JDF [will] be the future of information technology in the print industry," he says.

To understand JDF, it helps to know about Extensible Markup Language (XML). Just as a common spoken language allows foreigners to communicate with each other, XML allows different types of software to exchange data. Just as a language contains many dialects, XML allows many types of data structures--including JDF.

Setting the Standard

Although the printing industry has struggled with these different dialects, it has had some success. Minneapolis-based e-solutions provider Four51 Inc. used JDF components to pass XML transactions from its WildfireSM XML management system directly into Peachtree City, Ga.-based manufacturer CFC Print Solutions/Datagraphic's internal production environment without manual intervention. The firm also passed XML data from its online e-procurement system to an operations management system created by Norcross, Ga.-based software developer TopForm® Software Inc.

Many industry pros want software interoperability to be the norm. They endorse JDF as the standard data structure--the dialect every software program should speak. Seventeen software developers belong to PrintTalk, a Reston, Va.-based consortium that promotes JDF. The consortium is allied with the International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4), a Zurich, Switzerland-based association that encourages computer-based integration of graphic arts processes. PrintTalk provides standards that industry pros and end users can follow when defining specifications for print jobs, while CIP4 tailors JDF programming to those standards.

Meeting the Standard

Objective Advantage, a CIP4 member, offers its JDF Development Platform to help software developers, manufacturers and equipment suppliers implement JDF in their products and services. The toolkit includes an "engine" that provides JDF importing, exporting, storage, database maintenance, node execution and more. It also features a multiview, user-friendly JDF editor and technology that facilitates communication between hardware and software systems.

Objective Advantage laid the groundwork for the JDF Development Platform when it completed a project in April for TripleArc, a London-based e-business provider for the printing industry. The two companies worked in conjunction to create the TripleArc Collaborative Workflow System, which allows end users to input JDF-compliant job specifications once, then submit them to multiple print providers. Creating JDF technology can be daunting, O'Brien says. "It's not the thing that everyone wants to get into and muddle their way through," he says.

As a result, Objective Advantage is one of the first companies to enter this small niche of software development. "It's going to more worthwhile for a software vendor to buy our product than to put the hours and research into developing it themselves," O'Brien says. The firm's main competitor appears to be Adobe Systems Inc., which released its JDF Software Developer Kit in September 2001. The kit is designed to help software developers and equipment suppliers implement internet- and Adobe PDF-based workflow systems. O'Brien says Objective Advantage's kit trumps Adobe's because it offers sophisticated tools that allow users to adapt more easily to a wider variety of software programs.

Regardless of which company gains a greater chunk of the market, experts say JDF is the wave of the future. It helps manufacturers network diverse machinery, distributors achieve system interoperability, and end users receive real-time job updates and fast turnaround. At the IPEX show in April, O'Brien saw a surge in demand for JDF. "The feedback--particularly from the heavy-equipment manufacturers--was amazing," he says. "A lot of them seemed to arrive at IPEX with a wait-and-see attitude about JDF....By the end of the week, the attitude had swung to complete acceptance."

Tool to 'Date' Your Customers

Incorporate your events into customers' personal electronic calendar systems. An application from TheDateCompany (www.thedatecompany.com) allows your clients to instantly transfer event information from your web site into numerous calendar programs, including versions of Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes and Palm.

Search-Engine Keywords: 5 Tips

Search-engine marketing is becoming more popular and effective. Keywords are important because they bring targeted traffic to your site as users type queries into search engines. Here are five tips when selecting keywords:

1. Think from a customer viewpoint. What words would potential customers use when searching for your company? Get feedback from multiple sources, including your customers, suppliers and salespeople.

2. Expand to key phrases. It's difficult for search engines to return relevant results on single-word searches because too many answers exist--users won't wade through hundreds of result pages. After brainstorming keywords, input them into a program such as WordTracker, a web-based tool that provides ideas for additional keywords. WordTracker tells you how popular your words are on other web pages and how many people have searched for the words during the last 24 hours. The best terms are ones that are popular but not overused.

3. Vary the order. Create different combinations of your keywords, and create phrases that ask questions. Include synonyms, word substitutes, metaphors and common misspellings.

4. Think geography. If your location is key, include it in your keywords. For instance, John Doe Business Forms in Lexington, Ky., might try "Lexington business forms."

5. Be specific. Use modifiers to make generic keywords and phrases more specific. A smaller, targeted audience is best.

Get Legal Know-How

One valuable online guide to help your company stay abreast of the law is www.businesslaw.gov. The site is designed to provide legal and regulatory information to America's small businesses. Users can utilize wizards, read mini-tutorials and follow links to gain basic understanding of legal topics affecting small businesses (including where to find legal help and how to attain various licenses).

Webb/Mason, a distributorship based in Hunt Valley, Md., developed a partnership with Pageflex Inc., a developer of on-demand document composition solutions. Webb/Mason's Enterprise Print Management Online (EPM Online) system now features the back-end support of a Pageflex product that enables web-to-print marketing and the delivery of customized printed materials. The firm recently received the Excellence in E-Business Award from Baltimore Business Journal for its EPM Online system.

Hodgins Engraving Co. Inc., a manufacturer based in Batavia, N.Y., became a strategic alliance partner of Four51 Inc., an e-commerce provider based in Minneapolis. The companies will work together to promote e-solutions and streamlined production and fulfillment to joint customers and prospects.

TopForm® Software Inc., a software provider based in Norcross, Ga., enhanced its e-commerce solution, Web.ec. The system now includes a direct link to office-products supplier United Stationers.

Forms Management Data Systems (FMDS), a Reno, Nev.-based software and e-solutions provider, launched Q-SEND software. It gives distributors using Quantum 2000 and Quantum Net software access to greater product diversification and integration with clients and vendors. Also, FMDS released enhancements to Quantum 2000 and Quantum Net, including improved capabilities for electronic ordering, as well as technology partnerships for shipping and online-store creation.

printChannel.com™, a San Francisco-based provider of web-based print procurement systems, released print i/o™ 2.0. The program features multilevel configurable product categories, inventory management, configurable user groups, customizable bi-level order approval, the ability to offer flexible pricing and discounts, job tracking, online proofing, output-ready PDF impositions, site branding, order activity reporting, reorder capability, order-status viewing capability, personal address books and wallets, and more.

One Right Business Printing, a manufacturer in Lewiston, Maine, offers e-line, a line of high-quality, cost-effective laser checks and forms. The checks feature the same security features as traditional laser checks, but variable data is printed in black using the firm's new equipment.

International Paper, a paper supplier based in Stamford, Conn., launched www.IPpaper.com, which gives customers access to information about items and brands produced by its Printing & Communications Papers division. The site features areas tailored to paper merchants, printers, graphic designers and paper converters. Visitors can order samples and swatch books, run calculations, and receive printing tips and advice on choosing paper.

Global Graphics®, a subsidiary of Cambridge, England-based technology provider Global Graphics SA, offers Jaws PDF Editor™, a cost-effective application designed to help small firms and business teams view, edit, mark-up and print PDF files. It can be used as a stand-alone tool or with Jaws PDF Creator™, a PDF creation package.

Eastman Kodak Company's Document Imaging business, based in Rochester, N.Y., partnered with Results Engineering LLC, a Westerville, Ohio-based distributor of Hyland Software products, to offer a digital-analog interface between Hyland's OnBase Document Management Software and the Kodak Digital Science Document Archive Writer Model 4800. Applications include creating microfilm for libraries, museums, insurance companies and government agencies.

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