News Article Business Solutions

Stand: 9-DE340, Hall 9
Venue: IPEX 2010, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, UK
Dates: 18 to 25 May 2010

Milton Keynes UK, 22 March 2010
Konica Minolta will showcase its complete application portfolio at IPEX, including a range of new integrated solutions based on partnerships with third-party providers. Applications in the portfolio improve print workflow, including job submission, document composition and output management. With the theme ‘Expect Impact’, Konica Minolta will show visitors how they can grow their businesses by achieving more flexibility to better serve their customers.

“Our versatile software components, no matter if our partners’ or our own developments, are a crucial part of the Konica Minolta solutions portfolio for the professional printing market,” says Olaf Lorenz, General Manager, International Marketing Division, at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. “Individually integrated depending on customers’ needs, the applications optimise the most diverse processes along the entire printing workflow. This leads to a significant impact on the businesses of central reprographic departments, commercial printers and the graphic arts industry regarding quality, performance and profitability.”

At the Konica Minolta IPEX stand, visitors will test and experience various applications for the professional printing environment first-hand at the demonstration points. The line-up includes a range of innovative third-party software for easily managing print production workflows, from input process to output and information management, including the following tools:

• EFI Digital StoreFront (DSF) is a comprehensive e-commerce solution for print service providers with a customisable and interactive user interface to streamline all processes, starting with job submission. DSF allows print providers to enlarge their offerings and grow their business.
• Printgroove VDP Darwin, Konica Minolta’s variable data publishing (VDP) application enables the fast and simple personalisation of any element in a document, such as text, graphics, colours, charts, layout, background and even entire pages. Thanks to its efficient plug-in technology this software integrates seamlessly with Adobe InDesign.
• DirectSmile, the leading software for image personalisation, flexibly and easily integrates variable text in high quality photo designs.
• PrintShop Mail is a VDP software solution that allows users to create dynamic, database-driven documents simply and quickly. Promotional communication can be personalised by varying text, graphics, barcodes or entire layouts based on information taken from the selected database. Advertisements, direct mailings or flyers can be created with one-to-one messages.
• PlanetPress is a software tool to effectively handle all kind of business communications between organisations and their clients, such as invoices, statements and financial reports. Document creation with defined processes helps to develop, maintain and grow businesses as customer communication is handled more effectively.
• PDF Workflow - Print Job Analyzer and Print Job Optimizer are shown for the first time to the public. The Print Job Analyzer checks the incoming print jobs for printability. This configurable workflow performs a ‘pre-flight check’ before the jobs are sent to the printer, so avoiding time-consuming manual ‘pre-flight checks’ and reducing misprints. The Print Job Optimizer includes the analyzer functionality. In addition, it provides automatic corrections such as colour management, resolution adaptation and toner saving algorithms.
• MicroPress Plus by EFI and Konica Minolta is a breakthrough in controller technology for the rapid and efficient management of on-demand production printing and mission-critical jobs. MicroPress Plus comes with a user-friendly unified GUI, which communicates in an identical fashion with any system in the Konica Minolta bizhub PRO digital production press range. It links up to four print systems (including one or two colour devices) and allocates print jobs in the most effective manner using colour splitting and cluster printing.
• EFI Pace MIS is a new browser-based, scalable and customisable print management system to streamline operations, reduce costs and deliver quality customer service. The application is a fully integrated solution for estimating, production, accounting, sales management and e-commerce. The leading edge enterprise system gives a distinct competitive advantage by offering a new level of automation and control.

Olaf Lorenz concludes, “We are continuously integrating new applications in our professional printing portfolio to offer our customers the ideal workflow management solutions for their individual businesses. Our solutions help boost the quality and flexibility of their products and services, to stand out against the competition.”

Ends.

Terms and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and are hereby acknowledged.
 
Konica Minolta’s theme for the IPEX 2010 – “expect impact” – summarises the additional values that the companies’ professional printing solutions offer to customers. The technologies, applications and services open up new business opportunities in the printing and graphic arts sector.

 
About Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd

Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd markets business machines manufactured by Konica Minolta Business Technologies Inc, in the United Kingdom through a direct sales force and a network of independent dealerships. Konica Minolta digital imaging systems are manufactured in Japan and China. All are ISO9002 accredited for quality procedures. 

UK turnover for Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd is in excess of £150 million, placing the company third in the UK digital copier market with a 6.8 percent share of the black and white market and a 16 percent share of the colour market according to Infosource.

With a total workforce of 22,500 employees worldwide, Konica Minolta Business Technologies generated net sales of over £5.07 billion in fiscal 2007. Globally Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc. had a turnover £7.74 billion in fiscal 2007. Building on its strong core of optical technologies developed over many years, Konica Minolta Business Technologies aims to be a corporation offering products and services that are essential to all areas of digital imaging.

 

Images to accompany this release can be obtained from:
www.konicaminolta-images.com

For further information contact:    
Marketing Communications
Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd  
Tel: 01908 200400
Fax: 0871 2534864
E-mail: info(at)konicaminolta.co.uk
Web: www.konicaminolta.co.uk

Editorial enquiries:
Glyn Pritchard
Vox Communications
Tel: 01892 825043
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E-mail: glyn.pritchard(at)voxcomm.co.uk