Automated Workflow

Wim Delagrange, Esko-Graphics product manager for BackStage, targeting the packaging sector, asserts the best question for package printers today regarding JDF interoperability may very well be: Do you need an MIS to implement JDF or not?

"With the use of JDF, the implication is that there is something in the complete job workflow that defines the job. The MIS is the part of the workflow that defines the instructions to execute the job—where the job creation and order entry software resides," Delagrange said. "Prepress is the environment where the job is executed; not defined. We have suggested that the best way to adopt JDF is to start at the beginning: link MIS order entry with your graphic workflow servers. JDF enables all of these components to speak together. This also allows you to send important data about the job from the graphics servers back to the MIS.