Canon Releases 'Inkjet Workflows – How to Make Your Work Flow ... Efficiently'

MELVILLE, N.Y. — March 8, 2017 — Canon Solutions America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc., today announced the release of its newest industry resource poised to become an essential tool for print service providers in a book titled "Inkjet Workflows – How to Make Your Work Flow…Efficiently." Collaboratively published with thINK Forum, the comprehensive guide was designed to help companies that are looking to integrate production inkjet technology into their print shop, while also providing readers with in-depth research and discussions about all steps within the production workflow process.

As proven before with resources like the "Designer's Guide to Inkjet" and published book "The Inkjet Edge — How to Transition Your Business to Inkjet," Canon Solutions America is committed to developing industry-leading resources that help ensure the success of its customers and its customers' clients. In its newest release, Canon Solutions America has developed a collection of learning, know-how, and recommendations from its valued customers, industry workflow experts, leading industry analysts, solutions partners, and inkjet experts. The sharing of knowledge and experience is paramount to Canon Solutions America's core values, and with "Inkjet Workflows – How to Make Your Work Flow...Efficiently," the company has showcased its dedication to sharing the knowledge and advice of those who have already made a successful transition to effective and efficient production workflows.

"Growth is very often associated with the practice of sharing knowledge and exchanging impactful experiences, both in our industry and as a whole," said Ed Jansen, vice president, Professional Services, Production Print Solutions, Canon Solutions America. "We firmly believe that with our newest industry resource, everyone who embraces its wealth of knowledge can be more prosperous as the industry continues its growth and evolution."

As most print service providers already know, an efficient workflow is at the heart of not only creating, but sustaining success in print room operations. Workflow efficiency is determined by all the processes that allow print service providers to get from concept to a final product with a minimum of manual steps and make sure everything along the way is optimized including document submission, prepress automation, production management, file conversion, data cleansing and optimization, and mail stream management.  With "Inkjet Workflows – How to Make Your Work Flow…Efficiently" print service providers will be able to leverage their strengths, identify process gaps, and more importantly create plans to fill those gaps, and therefore running more efficient operations, especially when contemplating the integration of a new production inkjet press. A streamlined, cost and time efficient workflow can be a huge competitive differentiator. By learning to take as many steps out of the overall process and eliminating as many human touches as possible, print service providers can reduce costs, improve margins, and shorten overall production time to become a more cost efficient producer.

The new comprehensive guide was designed to help companies that are looking to integrate production inkjet technology into their print shop.

"With the development of this new resource, Canon Solutions America has not only shown why a heightened understanding of digital workflow is paramount in today's industry, but the information it provides will give readers an unprecedented look into the emergence of workflow and its vast transformation over the last five years," said David Zwang, consultant, and technical editor for WhatTheyThink.com. "This resource is a guide for the present, but also a look into the future of workflow and how we can prepare for its inevitable evolution."

As a major benefit to print service providers of all sizes, Canon Solutions America's new book takes a look at the depth of production print workflows and the steps that help jobs thrive. Some of the workflow steps highlighted in the resource include:

• Data input – the ability to effectively mine and analyze data that will be used as input to the document creation process
• Document creation –design process considerations based on the intended audience, document objectives, and output channel to be used
• Document submission – Print service providers can receive print files in a wide variety of ways, from mainframes to FTP sites to email, CD, USB drives, and web portals, to name a few. Open solutions to support as many methods as possible lead to an efficient workflow.
• Document preparation – Since all documents are not created equal, with the same standards, or with an output device in mind, this prepress step optimizes files for best performance and quality and ensures the document is really ready for printing. It includes functions like pre-flighting, proofing, approvals, file integrity checks, color correction, imposition, and color binding.
• Data optimization – Some type of data cleansing is required for most every data entry to ensure accuracy, minimize costs, reduce postage charges, and support variable or personalized messaging needs.
• Output management – This step can be relatively straight forward or more complicated depending on how many print devices and technologies there are to manage. In larger shops, it can involve driving all production devices from a single point of control for load balancing, error recovery, reprints, printer adjustments, job scheduling, and color management across printer platforms and multiple print locations.

Available now in the Printing Impressions World online book store here, "Inkjet Workflows – How to Make Your Work Flow ... Efficiently" is poised to bridge the gap for those looking to transform their print shops and take their digital production print workflows to unprecedented heights.

Source: Canon Solutions America.