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 Panel of experts honors three HIFLEX users for their JDF-projects. The CIP4 International Print Production Innovation (CIPPI) Award for printers,
who successfully networked their production, goes once again to three honored HIFLEX users for the 2006 awards. These official awards are announced for
three categories. As in 2005, HIFLEX customers were nominated in all three categories, won two awards, and were given an exclusive honorable mention in the third. |
| "Together with our customers, we are delighted with the results and we regard the CIPPI awards as recognition of our technology leadership from the
upper echelons of the JDF community, as it is none other than the CIP4 organization that has created these awards", said Stefan Reichhart, Managing
Director of HIFLEX. "Last year, two of our customers were honored with the first place category and another HIFLEX customer was awarded the second
place category. Having achieved the same results this year has nothing to do with luck, but rather with our focus on helping make JDF-connectivity and a
completely networked print production enterprise a reality. This is our focus so that our customers can significantly improve their bottom line profit
and service their customers far better than their competition. In the field of JDF-connectivity, HIFLEX has a two year technology leadership advantage
proven by our having achieved more JDF-installations than all of the other MIS suppliers combined. Our system is installed in 22 of our partners'
demonstration centers and research and development facilities worldwide", Stefan adds. |
Media Group UNIVERSAL - Grafische Betriebe Manz und Mühlthaler GmbH (MGU) located in Munich, Germany, wins the category "Most
innovative use of process automation technology in an implementation". This full-service offset printer has been working in a networked
environment since April 2004. Today, UNIVERSAL's workflow includes two KBA Rapidas and one Heidelberg Speedmaster as well as a Kodak Prinergy PDF-Prepress
workflow which are all connected to the HIFLEX MIS.
The "most innovative use of process automation" refers to the implementation of new functionality in the HIFLEX MIS by which PPF color
profiles (CIP3 data) are converted into JDF (CIP4 data). This represents a truly consistent JDF-workflow between prepress and press where
the redirection of color profiles via the HIFLEX MIS makes the previously manual step of assigning prepress color profiles to a print job
at the press obsolete and in addition saves UNIVERSAL significant time and labor costs. The Return on Investment (ROI) of the implementation is 607,4%
over a five year period, the associated Net
Present Value (NPV) is EUR 977,055 (USD 1,225,028.--). |
| Printing house Koller+Nowak from drupa-city Dusseldorf wins the category "Biggest improvement in efficiency and customer
responsiveness as a result of process automation". Koller+Nowak significantly streamlined and optimized his internal and external
communication processes through the use of process automation. The printer started by introducing HIFLEX eBusiness in August 2002, which
efficiently extended a transparent order processing (business) workflow to their customers. With the use of Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional,
this provided the basis for customer integration into the JDF-workflow. As a second major step, the JDF-connectivity from HIFLEX MIS into
Kodak Prinergy was completed in April 2005 which improved customer service and enhanced efficiency of bi-directional information from
HIFLEX MIS to Prepress. The Return on Investment (ROI) of the implementation is nearly 800% over a five year period, the associated Net
Present Value (NPV) is EUR 226,505 (USD 289,162). |
| Tanghe Printing from Komen, Belgium, is awarded an honorable mention in the category "Best cost/benefit realization as a result
of process automation implementation". Tanghe was the first printer in the Benelux region who invested and committed to JDF-connectivity:
in January 2004, both Komori presses were networked with HIFLEX MIS system. This resulted in enhanced transparency and significantly increased
efficiency which triggered the expansion of JDF-connectivity to the newly integrated Agfa ApogeeX prepress System in April 2005. Simultaneously,
the Digital Asset Management (DAM) System, NSS Production, was integrated. NSS Production is a network & storage solution that is used for automatic
structuring and organization of data on the prepress server and archiving of completed jobs (archival management). In total, the implementation
resulted in a Return on Investment (ROI) of 822.8% over a five year period. The Net Present Value (NPV) is EUR 886,570 (USD 1,131,657). |
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| The representatives of the three HIFLEX users, that are awarded by the CIP4 organisation. From left to right: Albert Contzen, Joint Managing Director
at Media Group UNIVERSAL, Managing Director at Printing house Koller+Nowak, and Patrick Tanghe, Managing Director at Tanghe Printing. |
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In 2006 the CIP4 Organization (International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress) launched the
CIPPI Awards for the second year - but with two modifications. The first one was to change the method of the judging the nominations. For
this purpose, the CIP4 organization nominated an independent and international group of experts ("CIPPI Award Review Panel"), who review
all applications and vote on the winners. The second modification was a renaming of the award into the "Jürgen Schönhut Memorial CIP4
International Print Production Innovation (CIPPI) Award" in memory of the late Dr. phil. habil. Jürgen Schönhut, a founding member of CIP4.
"The CIPPI award is synonymous with the world's best JDF-connectivity that provides printers with clear and measurable benefits. As such, these
CIP4 awards are a great honor for us, our printing industry partners, and particularly for our users", comments Stefan Reichhart, Managing Director of HIFLEX.
Who are the CIPPI Awards Judges? Click here to learn about these distinguished individuals and how the CIPPI Awards process works. |
HIFLEX manufactures the HIFLEX MIS (Management Information System) which models and supports all business processes in the graphic arts industry.
The HIFLEX MIS contains several modules: Office, Factory and eBusiness (Office: Estimate, Order Management, CRM, Materials Logistics, Document
Management. Factory: Shop Floor Data Collection and Production Data Collection (PDC), Scheduling, Shipping, JDF-interfaces. eBusiness: Online
PDF Creation, Finished Goods Ordering, Info-Center, Fulfillment, Data Handling, Online-Proofing).
HIFLEX is the global technology leader in the area of JDF connectivity and maintains close partnerships with leading manufactures in the
graphic arts industry. HIFLEX is a Networked Graphic Production (NGP) Partner and CIP4 Partner Member. In the 2005 CIP4 International Printing
Innovation Awards HIFLEX won in two out of the three categories and was given an exclusive honorable mention in the third. These results were
repeated exactly in the 2006 awards, further demonstrating how HIFLEX continues to lead the field in real-world JDF. Today, HIFLEX has conducted
more JDF installations than all other MIS vendors combined.
HIFLEX software is in use worldwide and available in 24 languages. HIFLEX reinvests around 30% of its revenue in research and development. |
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