Heidelberg Presents End-to-End JDF Workflow Study at drupa

• Open JDF integration with existing and future Prinect products
• Complete integration of all printshop processes - management, prepress, press and postpress - leads to greater efficiency and lower costs

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is using drupa 2004 to present its first future-oriented study of an end-to-end fully integrated JDF workflow with Prinect products that covers all printshop processes from management and prepress to press and postpress.

Central JDF with open workflow architecture
All systems involved in management, prepress, press and postpress operations work with a central JDF through the Prinect Workflow Integrator. The study examines developments made to familiar systems such as Prinect Prinance, Prinect Printready System and Prinect FCS 100, but also embraces completely new developments such as the Prinect Workflow Integrator and Prinect Pressroom Manager. The open JDF architecture of all software products involved enables printshops to work with a central JDF for every job. The full integration of administrative data, presetting data, status information and master data management ensures an efficient and end-to-end flow of data and information.

"This study highlights Heidelberg's strategic approach to open integration via JDF interfaces and to the future development of JDF-based products that increase the efficiency and reduce the costs of print media production. The new Prinect Signa Station and Prinect Printready System are already fully based on JDF," says Jörg Bauer, Vice President of Product Management Prinect at Heidelberg.

Investments in Prinect Prepress Interface and Prinect Data Control are still safe, since their migration into the future products featured in the workflow study is ensured. The Prinect Pressroom Manager and Prinect Workflow Integrator featured in the study will be available at the end of 2005.

Open JDF integration and links to third-party management systems already available
At its drupa booth, Heidelberg is presenting open JDF integration into the existing products Prinect Printready System and Prinect Data Control. In the Prinect Center in Hall 2 at drupa, Heidelberg is showing how JDF data can be imported from eight different industry software providers, including e.g. Megalith Softwareproduktions GmbH systems, Prism Group and PrintVis systems. The first customer installations are already underway with a number of industry software companies and further international installations are planned for the months to come.

Prinect Management Solutions - increased success through transparency
Prinect Management Solutions, which utilize the open and modular Prinect components, offer all the possibilities for open integration of business management processes in the production workflow - from costing, planning and online capture of operating data to invoicing, dispatch and post-costing. Prinect Prinance provides JDF data for the prepress, press and postpress. As a result, current and future Prinect solutions with JDF offer high levels of automation, reliable processes and improved cost monitoring. Integrating all levels of order processing is a key element of the Prinect workflow.

CIP4 organization driving JDF standardization forward
In the CIP4 organization's JDF area in Hall 4, visitors to the trade show can learn how CIP4 is further developing its open JDF integration concept. Heidelberg is a partner member and co-founder of the CIP4 organization and therefore participates in all the organization´s "interoperability tests". Active cooperation with the CIP4 organization is crucial to ensuring compatibility between different manufacturers and setting new, open industry standards.

Image:
An overview of Prinect solutions

For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Matthias Hartung
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 77
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail: matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com