Enfocus SWITCH and Fuji XMF - to intergrate or not

[Chasfinch]

Hello all

--info--
We have recently merged another smaller company. we have about 30 employees the other company was 7 (inclucding 2 owners). Long story short it has been 5 months and there has been no clear direction on which workflow to use. As it stand right now I have put band aides on everything to at least keep things moving. We have had XMF for about 4 years. the smaller company has SWITCH. there as been a push to just use switch.
with the merger there are now 3 owners 2 from the other shop and the 1 here.
I do not know how switch is configured other then that it deals with the filing system (weird drop folder organizes job folder which becomes a bucket for everything) My understanding is that he uses pitstop and a simple impo app. He has some 3rd part proofing which we have not seen here and last a RIP that send to his little poly plate machine all in a switch workflow

we have XMF and have it intergrated with EFI METRIX that is in EFI PACE. we output 2 size plates to DART.

I can go on about the mechanics of the filing system: but I do not think its that important as it can be solved once the workflow is thought through.


SO my questions are: Has anyone used SWITCH that is configured similar to XMF? Has anyone integrated the 2?
And general thoughts of the use between the 2.

what I am seeing is that some sort of integration of the 2 would be best. Having XMF as the workflow and SWITCH dealing with file handling and proofing.

Please any thought or constructive comments will help.

P.S. the prepress department is of corse in chaos due to the lack of attention and direction.

 

[abc]

I know it's been done, we have pretty good links with Fuji as they use PitStop in XMF.
I'll talk to the Switch Product Manager and try to get some names and details.
Drop me a PM with your email, and send anything I'll get.
Do you also want someone to give you an overview of Switch and what it can do?
It's a hell of a lot more than a filing system, and can also integrate with PACE and METRIX to name two of many.

 

[zoran]

I do not think they are exclusive to each other. You would be best to integrate both systems, there are lot's of things that you can let XMF handle, but just as many to handle with Switch. Consider yourself lucky to have opportunity to have and learn both.
We have Printready worklflow, which is powerful and inclusive and we have Switch to handle other things, they complement each other very well.

 

[OffsetStorefront]

You actually got Metrix to work good enough?

 

[Bob Weir]

Hello mellow yellow,


Not real familiar with Enfocus Switch
I believe XMF needs all the help it can get, as its upgrades are on a slow boat from Japan.
It is a shame as the Fuji service department is one of the best.
The negative is you have Fuji, Enfocus, and EFI to contend with.

A Fuji XMF users group would be key.

Good luck

 

[Chasfinch]

Hello mellow yellow,


Not real familiar with Enfocus Switch
I believe XMF needs all the help it can get, as its upgrades are on a slow boat from Japan.
It is a shame as the Fuji service department is one of the best.
The negative is you have Fuji, Enfocus, and EFI to contend with.

A Fuji XMF users group would be key.

Good luck

LOL we just got rid of EFI PACE and metrix

 

[OffsetStorefront]

LOL we just got rid of EFI PACE and metrix

I'm so proud of you

 

[[email protected]]

I agree with your thoughts. You have the building blocks for a complete automated workflow using Pace, Metrix, XMF and Switch. It would be foolish to give up what you already have going. Talk to Enfocus. They can advise you.

 

[WiseGuy]

Mellow... you may want to talk to the guys at All Systems Integration (ASI). They have done XMF/Switch integration in the past. Also, they have some really great add-on solutions for Switch such as:

• Customer/job specific remote file upload.
• Review and approval (individuals and groups).
• A drastically improved Switch Client.

What's great about ASI's solutions is they approach everything from the perspective of the user and for print production. The whole idea is to make it production savvy, but easy for the user to use. Make it natural for them.

For example, if a customer needs to send in a file, a CSR just goes to a web page, enters the customer email and job number and the print buyer is sent an email with a unique upload link. With that, any file the customer sends in by that link is automatically linked to that customer or that job. This way files are automatically tracked and everything is easy for the CSRs and the print buyer. Simple and itelligent.

Anyway... if you want to know more, drop me an email and also check out their web site at: www.virtualprepress.com.

Sincerely,

Michael Reiher
Solutions Guy, ASI