Nov 13, 2007
Output Management Systems—What's Your Flavor?
By Ken Renko, Product Marketing Manager, Pitney Bowes’ Emtex Software
Anyone who loves ice cream knows that the number one appeal of Baskin Robbins is its mouthwatering selection of 31 flavors—enough to satisfy the most discriminating palate. Whether you're a plain vanilla, Rocky Road or Tax Crunch aficionado, there's comfort in knowing you can always find a flavor that's right for you. The same goes for condiments. Who can argue against the 57 varieties made famous by the H.J. Heinz Company? Whatever your preference, there's a way to transform a standard-issue hotdog or hamburger into an entirely different kind of experience.
Certainly, when it comes to output management, 30 or 50 choices may be a classic case of too much of a good thing. Indeed, too many choices can be a negative especially if you choose the wrong one. However, the basic premise—not being limited to a one-size-fits-all solution—holds true. Just as you want to be able to order the ice cream flavor that's uniquely you, you want an output management solution that addresses your individual requirements with the right mix of features, capabilities, and sophistication. In this case, having choices is beneficial because it eliminates the need to take on unnecessary cost, complexity, or effort.
In addition to offering the right mix of capabilities, that same output management solution should be agile enough to flex and grow as your print operation expands and your requirements become more complex. With the right output management system, you can tailor your configuration to your unique needs today, knowing that as requirements change, you have a scalable solution that can be expanded and customized to support new capabilities.
Not all print-to-mail operations are alike, nor should their output management systems be. Ideally, an effective output management solution incorporates fundamental capabilities that are combined in different ways for every implementation. This month's column describes the basic components that make up an output management system and how they can be deployed in different configurations with varying levels of complexity to satisfy site-specific requirements.
Basic pillars of an output management solution
A complete output management system comprises three basic pillars, each of which confers a distinct set of benefits. A good output management solution usually includes each of these components. The variability comes from the different degrees to which each is implemented.
- Centralized and automated workflow—an open and cost-effective approach to job control, tracking, auditing and accounting that streamlines and automates processes to optimize throughput and asset utilization. At the same time, centralization and automation enable greater productivity, compliance, and lower processing costs. Print operations benefit from improved resource management, job routing, and efficient control of print production
- Real-time PDL transformation—a robust, text-based, PDL conversion tool that provides vendor-neutral “any-to-any” flexibility to provide greater control, optimize throughput, balance workloads and eliminate production bottlenecks. With real-time PDL transformation, you can meet tighter SLAs, maximize available printer assets, and create e-documents for multi-channel delivery. No longer are you limited by proprietary architectures—you can choose the best printer technology for your current and future business requirements.
- Real-time document re-engineering—provides downstream flexibility to optimize mail-pieces and smoothly enhance and re-engineer print streams instead of having to rewrite underlying legacy business applications. By making changes within the print stream “just before print” for content, you can flexibly add finishing marks, index, sort, split, merge, and create inserter control/integrity files. Not only can you extend the life of your legacy documents, you have the tools you need to produce targeted, customer-relevant inserts for bills and statements, optimized for each recipient.
This capability is extremely beneficial because it enables you to respond to unplanned events and make better use of your technology assets. For example, say you have a critical job that has to be printed, but the printer that you normally use for that job is busy, down, or otherwise unavailable, you can dynamically re-engineer that job to run on a device that is available. Similarly if you have a job that's typically sent to a particular finishing device or inserter and that device is unavailable, you can re-engineer the document on the fly to include the control codes required for another inserting system that is available. A key benefit of this type of dynamic load balancing is that you have the flexibility to get the work out—without having to change or rewrite the original application.
Centralized output management systems come in three basic "flavors".
While every output management system will share many of the same building blocks, output management solutions can be as individual as the documents and operations they manage. The extent of your deployment depends on a lot of things. For example, it will be determined by your application requirements, the size and complexity of your workflow, and whether you need to manage devices and processes in a single site or across multiple platforms and locations. The good news is that good output management systems can be scaled to add capabilities and increasing levels of complexity as your print operation grows. You can start small with a "plain vanilla" solution and migrate to a full-blown "banana split" solution as your requirements change. While there are infinite combinations of features and capabilities, for the sake of understanding, output management systems come in three basic configurations.
The basic configuration
For print and mail operations with basic requirements, the "plain vanilla" output management system is a basic configuration that runs in single-server mode. The basic output management system consists of a single server that is used by operators to control and manage print jobs and devices.
This configuration is most often used in small print shops to drive a limited number of printers and devices. The basic vanilla system provides full output management capabilities, including PDL transformation, reprints, document-re-engineering, job accounting, and a full range of connectivity. The advantage of the basic configuration, for shops that want to "start small", is that it can be scaled to the next level of sophistication—a site-wide or enterprise-wide output management configuration.
The site-wide configuration
Sometimes a single scoop of vanilla ice cream is all you need. Sometimes you need more than one scoop and a bit more flexibility. It's the same with output management. When your requirements are more complex and/or if you have a larger facility and you're struggling with managing five or more printers from multiple vendors, you'll want to start with a site-wide configuration.
This solution features a client-server architecture that uses a single control server or multiple servers with or without redundant backup. The site-wide configuration enables print operations to centralize job management and distribute job processing locally, using the site server as the central point of control for PDL transformation and job routing, accounting, and tracking.
In this configuration, print operations benefit from complete output management capabilities, including all the features of a basic configuration plus full resilience and scalability to the enterprise-wide system.
The enterprise-wide configuration
The enterprise-wide configuration is the solution of choice for more complex, multi-site enterprises. Much like a site-wide configuration that supports multiple platforms and printing devices, the enterprise-wide solution adds centralized control of multiple devices and processes across multiple sites with client/server configurations at every site. In addition to the functions provided in basic and site-wide solutions (PDL transformations, document re-engineering, automated reprints, job accounting, etc), when you invest in an enterprise-wide output management solution, you can expect an expanded set of features and capabilities.
At this level, your solution should include continued operation by local servers in the event of a LAN failure, common support for multiple sites, shared disk storage for redundancy, the ability to transfer operations to different sites for disaster recovery, and centralized job accounting for the entire enterprise. Multi-site print operations that implement an enterprise-wide solution benefit from a centralized view of the entire infrastructure.
Stay tuned for next month's column…
What to look for in an output management solution.
Now that you know why you need it, what it is, how it can help you drive productivity, and the basic components of an output management system, how do you select the right solution for your needs? In my next Output Links column, I'll provide guidelines and some basic criteria for actually selecting an output management system. In the meantime, I invite you to contact me directly with your thoughts and comments. Contact me at krenko@us.emtex.com .
To learn how a centralized output management solution can help you improve the productivity, efficiency and quality of your print operation, read the Emtex white paper, "Centralized Output Management: the Key to Maximizing Existing and Future Production Print Performance."
Ken Renko has been involved with printing systems and output management technology for more than 30 years. He joined Pitney Bowes’ Emtex Software in 2006 as a Product Marketing Manager in Boca Raton, Florida and is responsible for product management and marketing support for industry-leading enterprise output management solutions including Virtual Intelligent Presentation (VIP), Virtual Document Enhance (VDE), and FlexServer. Before joining Pitney Bowes’ Emtex Software, Ken held various technical and marketing support positions with Océ Digital Document Systems and the Xerox Printing Systems Group. The combined years of experience have provided him with an objective understanding of the requirements and challenges that impact transactional printing, document output management, multi-vendor workflows and variable data applications. He has developed a number of white papers, authored industry articles and has been a regular presenter at Xplor and On Demand.
To learn more about Emtex solutions, please visit our website at www.emtex.com .