To help you understand and explore how automation can help you, ColourProcess and Enfocus Software are organizing two breakfast seminars. The first will be in Sydney during PrintEx11 on Thursday May 5^th and the second in Melbourne on Tuesday May 10^th. More details to come soon. Register your interest here and we’ll keep you posted.

Here at ColourProcess, we’ve long been fans of automation software. Our own SwitchBOX, an all-in-one automation product tailored to suit each client’s individual needs, has helped many businesses across the country improve their output and efficiency. This month, we’ll take a closer look at how SwitchBOX can help your business.

Two years ago, one of our Sydney based clients installed a SwitchBOX configuration, built to run 30 jobs. Two years later, they have 90 jobs a day are being processed – all with no increase in staff in their pre-press department. A second SwitchBOX user has multiplied the company’s page output by 300% in the last eighteen months – again with no increase in staff.

As one of our users commented, “If you removed all the SwitchBOX servers in place tomorrow, we would need to increase the price of producing a page ten times [to compensate for the necessary staff increase] and we simply wouldn’t be able to handle the workload.”

From these stories, it should be clear that automation is a fantastic way to increase both the quality of your product and your cost efficiency. The productivity efficiency of a company – and an industry as a whole – depends on investment in innovative technology.

It is not news that the Australian print industry is going through challenging times. The most recent ABS figures for the three months to December 2010 show a 2.7% decline in industry growth compared to the same period in 2009. In such a climate, it is the first instinct of many companies to restrict change and focus on staying afloat. However, such times are actually ideal opportunities to be looking outside the day-to-day running of a business for ways to improve and innovate. Automation software might mean an initial financial outlay, but the return on the investment is significant. You will save money by being able to assign your staff more complex tasks while your automation software takes care of the repetitive jobs that would have previously occupied the majority of their working day. This shift in workload will also allow you to take on more jobs and produce them faster, which, in turn, could lead to an increase in profits. Smart printers will embrace automation to streamline production and keep production costs down. To learn more about how SwitchBOX and ColourProcess can help you move your business forward, contact us.

Rebecca Wolkenstein is the Editor and Creative Director of SoHi Magazine, a beautiful quarterly profiling the best in life and style in the NSW Southern Highlands. She was experiencing problems with the printing of her magazine and was referred by some high-end retouching contacts in Sydney to ColourProcess. Before she spoke with us, Rebecca says, “I was getting a dreadful result from the printing of my uncoated magazine. It was very flat looking and every image looked as thought it was from a different source – which they were!” ColourProcess consulted on the printing of the magazine, recommended training for Rebecca and her head designer and supplied them with printer profiles and monitor calibrations. Now, she says, the problem has “definitely been solved” – and she and her team know how to avoid similar problems in future. “Before ColourProcess I was literally losing sleep wondering what would come back from the printers. Now I feel in control of my print production,” she told us.

SoHi magazine publishes quarterly – check out their website here. We’re sure you’ll agree it’s a beautiful publication. If you want your future printing results to look as good as hers, contact us!