Why you need a solution

Most organisations have a requirement to manage graphics related projects, which need to deliver printed material such as packaging, advertising, labels, magazines, leaflets, books, catalogues or point of sale materials. In addition to managing these projects effectively, the printed item must be both on time and correct.

As much as 80% of the cost of a job can be attributed to project management!

Following on from the above statement, we can focus on a specific area that is often handled inefficiently, namely job proofing and approval. This is a daily activity within a graphics project, which could be handled more effectively in most organisations. It is typical, that an artwork file (often a PDF document) is circulated via email to the various departments such as: marketing, regulatory, buying, editorial, design, brand management, legal and production, so it can be reviewed. The objective of the aforementioned process, is to ensure that only the correct artwork version is sent for commercial printing. Failure to approve a job efficiently, may lead to: loss of sales of products & services, embarrassing mistakes and worst of all, a product recall with the legal ramifications that might follow!

The above example of a ‘typical’ artwork approval process is often loosely referred to as 'proofing the job', but it is important to identify that proofing comprises of three key areas:

• Content proofing: - this ensures the content of the artwork is correct. Departments have different needs when considering content proofing. For example, the legal department want to ensure that any statements made on the artwork are 'legal, decent and honest', an advertising department will want to see that ads are correct, the marketing department will want to ensure the messages are appropriate to the product or service and in line with the brand value.
• Technical proofing: - this ensures that the technical make up of the artwork is such that the correct brand colours are used and that the colour separations are fit for the particular printing process such as litho, flexo, gravure etc.
• Management of proof revisions: – this refers to the tasks, the sequence in which they must be done, the duration of each task and the person or department that must perform the task on a given proof version. It also encompasses the communication to production, of corrections, resulting from a proof rejection.

Typically what most organisations refer to as workflow, is no more than attaching a PDF version of the artwork to an email. These emails, with their attached PDF’s, are then distributed to the various departments for review and approval. In some companies a hard copy proof is circulated and tracked manually. In most cases the whole process is tracked inefficiently, via a static spreadsheet. The email approach, with its attached PDF’s, has some significant limitations:

• Multiple PDF’s: - every person involved in the review has their own copy of the PDF artwork. When a user annotates an artwork for changes they are doing so only on their local copy - users do not see each other’s comments. In most cases comments or instructions relating to the artwork PDF proof are within the email that accompanies the returned PDF. These emails arrive back in random sequence and in different email formats (sometimes with >before every line) – that is if the recipients actually decide to reply on time.
• Comment Consolidation: - when users send back annotated PDF's, or worse, PDF’s with instructions within the email, the project manager must open multiple copies of the PDF (1 from each user) and consolidate all their comments together. This can lead to conflicting requests or missed comments because the mails are returned in a random sequence.
• Lack of project visibility: - when a project manager sends out an artwork for review, there is no visibility of the status of the review cycle for example, who has already reviewed the artwork? Has everyone completed their review? Is the overall project going to be on time? Who is holding up the project & why? – Managers of artwork projects have more than one artwork project on at a time - and time is always in short supply.
• Damage and Loss: - in some situations where a hard copy proof is circulated it can be damaged and have misleading comments relating to wrong versions of this proof. There are additional problems relating to quality, if artwork needs to be faxed to recipients.
• File uploading, downloading & security: - For example, when a PDF is attached to an email and sent to 4 recipients, the file is uploaded to the email server, then when the recipients synchronise their email, the actual PDF is downloaded attached to the email 4 times; once for each recipient. This adds to the volume of network traffic, and presents a security issue, because PDF’s, even when ‘locked’, can usually be edited.

From our extensive experience we know that the issues described above result in a greater number of artwork approval revisions, which in turn result in increased costs and increased time to market for the service or product that the printing is supporting. The more projects and people involved in the artwork approval process, the bigger the problem and the greater the cost incurred.

Our Smartflow workflow engine, together with the Approveit configuration, is designed specifically to address these issues. We deliver an easy, efficient, user friendly graphics project management and artwork approval process to the users. When this efficient workflow is complemented with the fast, secure virtual proofing capabilities of Viewit, the supply chain benefits significantly.

The diagram below, shows at high level the Approveit workflow in contrast to the typical workflow shown above.

We achieve this with:

• Workflow management: – with Smartflow you can easily, and securely, set up project tasks and timelines. You will be able to manage the relationships between projects, task owners, users, departments, functionality and security of access. All of this is done with a simple to use template driven interface. We provide you with a powerful and configurable workflow engine, so you can control both tasks for each and every artwork project, and the people who need to be involved.
• Centralising the artwork: – with Approveit, all users can annotate and comment on a single common file in the correct sequence. This is a truly collaborative approach where each user, with the appropriate security rights, can see all comments on one proof, in the order they are supposed to see them, providing a controlled, yet flexible way of working.
• Project Tracking: – Smartflow, provides your management with an instant overview of every single project and artwork approval. In addition you get a detailed breakdown of the project status so you can identify those that are on time, at risk or behind schedule. This enables artwork project managers to manage proactively and easily, via a common platform over the internet or on their intranet.
• Secure virtual proofing: – within Approveit, we use unique Viewit pixel delivery technology to control the virtual proofing session and proof access. It works by uploading the proof file once to the proofing server, where it is held securely, so that no recipient (unless specially authorised), can have access to the actual file. The proofing server then streams views of the active proof to the browser of each reviewer and approver. This provides an extremely secure method of collaborative proofing which is simple and fast. The unique pixel delivery technology even works fast over low speed ‘dial-up’ connections.

A complete end to end artwork management solution is more than artwork proofing and approvals. This is why Approveit can also provide a platform for future growth, because it provides access to the Smartflow software building blocks which you use to build your configuration with. The building blocks we refer to, provide you with an easy way to define the relationships between:

• companies
• users
• role/roles
• security group/groups
• functionality
• project type/types
• project data field/fields
• workflow templates

To see Smartflow functionality click here

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