Erez Goldstein, director of product marketing at PrintFactory 57 www.printmonthly.co.uk Issue 363 - November | December 2026 WORKFLOW SOFTWARE | DAVID OSGAR Flex4 OPS enables customers to place orders online 24/7 24/7 workflow is a bit like changing your keyboard layout: you may know it will be more efficient, but your existing muscle memory makes it frustrating and slower at first. Under customer pressure, it’s tempting to go straight back to what you know. Start with a manageable area, give the team time and support to learn it properly, and make the new process the normal way of working. Otherwise, it’s easy to stay trapped in the manual work that leaves you too busy to improve the business.” A Clear Picture As well as artwork, another key part of a workflow that has changed within recent years is pricing. One aspect of this that Clarity Software is helping to solve is quoting. “Most businesses quote far more work than they win, so every minute spent building an estimate by hand is a cost against a job that may never arrive, and if the price list behind it is two years old, the quote is wrong before it leaves the building,” says Sam Yarnall, sales and marketing director at Clarity Software. Yarnall continues: “We have been integrating supplier catalogues directly into the software, including Sign Trade Supplies and William Smith, so quoting pulls live product data instead of a list somebody typed in years ago. The other two areas we are helping printers with is knowing where a job is without walking the shop floor and profit visibility – because plenty of businesses can tell you their turnover but can't tell you which jobs actually made them money.” Clarity Software has built management information software for the print and sign industries since 2001 and now serves over 5,000 customers from its Birmingham headquarters. The software can run the commercial side of a business from enquiry through to invoicing. Its solution comes in two options: Clarity Pro, a desktop system for more complex operations, and Clarity Go, a cloud-based platform. When it comes to Yarnall’s advice around workflow software, she adds: “If something about your current setup is irritating you, talk to your existing provider before you talk to anyone else, because how they handle that conversation tells you most of what you need to know. “If they go out of their way to understand the problem, they are worth sticking with; if they are dismissive or take three weeks to get back to you, you have your answer. I say this knowing full well it sometimes costs us a sale, but I would rather a business come to us after properly benchmarking the market than because they were rushed. It is probably a slightly old-fashioned view, but I am still a huge believer that people buy from people.” A Fully Connected System When it comes to workflow software, the hardware that prints the products and solutions is equally as important as the files and processes that come with the orders. Many software providers can be tied to certain brands, while others remain brand agnostic. An example of this agnosticism is PrintFactory, a Dutch software company that specialises in RIP, colour management, and print workflow technology for large-format and digital print production. Despite now being part of Kornit Digital, the software remains an open and unified production platform that brings together editing, layout, colour management, RIP, and workflow into one environment. Speaking about the considerations printers should having when looking at workflow solutions, Erez Goldstein, director of product marketing at PrintFactory, says: “Printers should consider whether a workflow solution can work with their existing production equipment while also giving them flexibility as their business changes or grows. “Hardware independence is particularly important for businesses with mixed fleets because it allows them to standardise workflow without standardising on a single printer or cutter manufacturer […] Ultimately, the objective should be to reduce fragmentation and make the overall production environment easier to control.” One of the key challenges that Goldstein sees in the industry regarding workflow is the previously mentioned fragmentation of systems like RIPs, colour tools, and workflow systems. He also cites the challenges of handling on-demand, shorter runs, as well as complex production environments, both of which are rising issues as more businesses operate mixed hardware fleets with multiple systems or more than one production location. Goldstein continues: “Maintaining consistent workflow and colour across those environments makes standardisation increasingly important. Integration is another consideration, as production software needs to exchange information with other systems rather than operate in isolation. This is why PrintFactory combines a unified production environment with integration options including APIs and workflow connections to external systems.” Also speaking about the integration of software and hardware is Ricoh, a provider of print hardware, software, and processes involved in production print. Chris Wheeler, head of Workflow and CIP Solutions at Ricoh UK, says integration is a major issue. “Production print is, in effect, a manufacturing process: jobs move through a series of planned stages, from file preparation and printing to finishing and dispatch. That process becomes more efficient through linking systems and reducing the number of manual handovers and touchpoints. “We are helping customers manage the impact of the skills shortage. As experienced production-print operators become harder to recruit and retain – and businesses bring in temporary staff during seasonal peaks – software can make complex, knowledge-led tasks easier to carry out consistently. For example, newer
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