Michael Has is responsible for the worldwide strategy and marketing of Océ's software for high-production printing environments. In addition, he is also responsible for partner management – the management of relationships between Océ and external software and hardware vendors the company cooperates with. He assumed these responsibilities following several assignments in the areas of strategic planning, research and development within Océ at its headquarters in Venlo (The Netherlands) and Poing (Germany).

Prior to working with Océ, Has was responsible for the Prepress and Advanced Technology Groups at the Munich-based FOGRA Institute, the research institution for the Graphic Arts industry. As such, he co-founded the International Color Consortium (ICC, Reston, Virginia) and, for several years, served as their technical secretary. Has holds a PhD in physics and a Habilitation a Maitre des Recherches from University of Grenoble.

OutputLinks spoke with Has to learn more about Océ and its PRISMA Suite.

Q: Introduce us to Océ´s PRISMA Suite.

A: In the late ‘90s, Océ launched the PRISMA software brand – originally PRint Server for Multiple Applications – as the successor platform of the former SIEPRIS software solutions out of the late ‘80s. Océ PRISMA is an integrated set of various products, which cover the functionality from the creation of documents up to their final delivery within low volume production environments, up to very high volume production environments. The implementation of a PRISMA configuration is “tailored” to the characteristics of the customer. The business processes and the volume are important marks for the final configuration.

The various PRISMA suites are specialized solution sets to cover specific business processes in the document production and publishing area. There are six different business process areas defined by the PRISMA solutions packages. The most important ones for high-production environments are: PRISMA for Transaction & Direct Mail and PRISMA for Graphic Arts.

Q: Since OutputLinks readers focus on high volume transaction output, tell us more about Océ´s PRISMA Suite for Transaction and Direct Mail.

A: This solution set delivers the infrastructure that is needed for organizations and commercial printers to create, produce, publish and archive transactional types of documents, such as bank statements or insurance policies. Generally speaking, these are highly personalized and flexible documents in high to very high production environments.

Due to the modular approach of PRISMA for Transaction, various elements in existing and legacy documents can also be exchanged – e.g. by existing applications or new elements of the document. Through this scenario a gradual implementation to a fully automated environment for the creation, production and publishing of transactional statements is possible. Within the production environment a wide mix of printing devices is supported. Inside this solution set Océ PRISMAproduction plays the key role as the central unit of the whole workflow.

Q: … and for Graphic Arts?

A: With this solution set, we cover the more static kind of high quality applications such as books, brochures, leaflets and so on. Here the efficiency and maximized automation – down to the lowest run length – play the key role.

The PRISMA for Graphic Arts solution is based on a similar modular approach as the previously described solution. Again, this modularity allows a tailor-made solution for the customer from order intake via proofing and preflight to production management up to delivery. In this solution set, Océ PRISMAproduction Server plays the central role.

Q: What is PRISMAproduction?

A: PRISMAproduction is the workflow management tool for high volume production jobs in a print and mail room environment as well as in large data centers. It’s targeted for both the organization with an in-house production facility and a commercial printer/outsources and the Graphics Arts and publishing area.

PRISMAproduction allows for a centralized control over the production elements. The modules involved  range from various data input channels, preflight and make-ready capabilities, workflow management functionalities, transformation of applications, printer and post processing management, up to full accounting and logging into electronic delivery channels.

Q: Which functionality does PRISMAproduction offer?

A: PRISMAproduction is either a stand-alone Software Suite for the efficient workflow and data stream handling in a production environment, or it can also be combined with other tools to create a highly automated job handling infrastructure. Due to its independence from printer hardware, PRISMAproduction can easily be integrated in existing environments.

In a nutshell, the major functionalities besides the pure print management of production sites are:

• Data transformation capabilities to transform most common print data languages to the required output format.
• Special connectors for proprietary Xerox data formats enable easy integration.
• Maximized Automation due to highly sophisticated job tickets and ticket rules, completely customizable to adjust as much as possible to the customers needs. Once configured and stored, the process can be used for further automated processing of similar jobs.
• Works at enterprise level; multiple sites can be controlled and monitored from one central point. Allowing for easy fault recovery and remote rerouting.
• Works not only with the Océ devices but also with printing equipment from other vendors.
• Full control also of upstream processes due to it’s brand-new Executive Workflow Module, thus enables a single point of management and control for printing related external processes.
• Centralized accounting gives a complete overview of volumes processed, utilization rates and allows for automated SLA reporting.
• Complete remote control due to full JAVA based user interface.

Another flavor of PRISMAproduction is available for mainframe oriented customers. Here we talk about a completely different market area with yet another set of specific needs. The major functionalities here are:

• Full printer management of direct attached mainframe IPDS printers
• A highly stable and performing connection between mainframe and server for customers who want to unload their mainframe from print management
• Finally, a sophisticated sorting, indexing and conversion facility.

Q: What value does this product bring to the industry?

A: The major value-add for our customers is the significantly streamlined and automated processes which become possible with PRISMAproduction.

The next important value is the growth path for the future without any major changes or modifications which enables our customers to cover new markets and demands without the hassle of implementing new workflows. Last but not least, the investment protection is a significant value for our customers enabled by the easy integration and vendor independency of PRISMAproduction.

Q: What niche of the market does this product fit?

A: I don’t want to call it “niche.” As mentioned, Océ PRISMAproduction is the central point from which complex and highly automated workflows are built. From the market itself, PRISMAproduction is clearly focused on high volume digital production printing in B&W as well as in color. In our terms, high volume is characterized in monthly print volume of 300,000 pages up to several millions of pages. At the very moment, the digital production printing is a relatively small share of the whole printing industry, but that will change over the next years.

Q: How does this product fit into Océ’s “Back to Growth” theme?

A: The new release of PRISMAproduction fit’s exactly to this theme because here we have implemented major enhancements in terms of workflow management, integration with MIS and document delivery which are demanded by the customers right now. When an organization changes – as it is very often the case in these times – e.g. in production volume, adds new business processes or changes due to a merger or acquisition – it can seamlessly advance with the PRISMA products without the need for redeployment, start over again or complex migration paths. A core strategy for the PRISMA products is also the adoption of old and new standards and data formats. It can seamlessly handle the “old” standards of production printing (i.e. Line Data) as well as the new standards like the JDF/JMF job tickets.

The Océ PRISMA suite of products is not tightly connected to the Océ printing equipment. The Océ PRISMA products can also be deployed in an environment with a mix of equipment brands, which turns it into an independent solution that can be implemented in any organization or commercial printing environment.

Thus together with the improving economical situation is the perfect fit in timing.

Q: What are the benefits of this product?

A: The major benefits of Océ PRISMAproduction in a nut shell are:

• The modularity and scalability which enables really tailor-made solutions for the customer.
• The built-in grow path for the customer where he can expand in production performance as well as in application variety without any major changes on the solution.
• The independency of printer vendors which gives our customers a big advantage on integration of existing equipment.
• The capability of creating, managing and maintaining full automated processes in an easy way.

Of course that’s only focused on just one product, but when talking about benefits, it must also taken into account that beside PRISMAproduction are several other Océ PRISMA products available, which finalize a specific customer solution for maximum profit.

Q: Tell us about the greatest successes of the product.

A: Océ PRISMAproduction has actually close to 4,000 installations worldwide. The vast majority of them are sites with two or more high volume production printers. In some countries, Océ PRISMAproduction has a market share of well over 50%.

Based on these numbers, it’s hard to select the “greatest” or “best of” successes, but we do have some very interesting customers in terms of size, workflow and application. Océ enjoys a very good reputation, not only as a leading vendor of digital printing systems but also as a capable business solution partner, offering highly versatile output management systems that serve not only digital but also hybrid environments. Thus, Océ enables customers to combine traditional and state-of-the-art workflow and printing processes. Océ is a market leader specifically in the transaction and mailing printing segment and strongly represented in graphic arts book printing. The application areas growing most significantly are promotional and newspaper printing. For all of these segments, Océ provides most flexible and sophisticated solutions.  

Q: Any final thoughts?

A: I think with these software solutions, we have a very comprehensive offering for our customers today as well as a perfect foundation for the challenges of the future. In the high volume production area, Océ is a well established solution provider and we definitely will grow in this market.

To learn more about Océ´s PRISMA Suite >>>.