By Jonathan Malone-McGrew, Senior Director of Engagement at Solimar Systems

As we counted down the seconds to midnight on New Year’s Eve 2019, I was probably not alone in imagining the halls of drupa stretched out in front of me as I pictured the year ahead. It is a huge disappointment not to be among the crowds of print professionals, surrounded by the latest industry innovations and immersed in inspiring applications and technology demonstrations. However, we are certainly not now standing still this year, waiting for April 2021. Solimar Systems has launched its drupa product line-up and these latest releases, featuring a host of benefits designed to further streamline and optimize print workflows, are now commercially available. Enabling printers to work smarter, more efficiently and with increased automation has always been key, but this year, it will be even more critical. We did not have a crystal ball (and perhaps would not have wanted to look into it this time even if we did!), but our latest solutions have been developed to help printers operate an efficient, flexible workflow to maximize productivity and profitability.

So, this is not a ‘here’s what you could have won’ reveal, as our customers and prospects can still benefit from every product listed below. However, these are the products we would have enjoyed showcasing at drupa this year and, despite them not having the launch platform we originally thought, we are just as excited to present them and explain the significant benefits and added-value that each product offers.

SPDE Essentials 9.1
SPDE Essentials is a new edition of SPDE that features only the essential elements necessary to support several common workflows. It is configured and controlled in the SPDE Essentials Manager, which is a simplified version of the System Manager with some options removed to provide a more focused interface. SPDE Essentials is targeted for users who need crucial functionality and job management of SPDE without the specialized capabilities of the full product.

Built from the technology of the Solimar® Print Director® Enterprise print management solution, SPDE Essentials is a new edition that benefits companies by providing a capable and proven print management system that is positioned for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMB). This edition can manage and convert the most common print file formats - PostScript, PDF and VIPP. Additionally, Essentials can be paired with our PDF optimization technology to create ReadyPDF® Prepress Server or it can also be paired with our secure printing protocol bundle to create IPP Secure Print Server.

SPDE Essentials offers print environments a way to onboard their work, manage it through user queues and release work to printers within the shop while having visibility over the entire process. However, we know that print shops and their requirements change over time, so SPDE Essentials may also be upgraded to the more powerful and fully capable Solimar® Print Director® Enterprise print management solution.

SOLitrack v2.3
In the latest release of the Solimar tracking, reporting, visibility and accountability solution, our team has developed new capabilities and integrations to facilitate the ability to track individual “pieces” within a larger “job” or body of work moving through a print production environment. The ability to know that every unique piece within a job that contains possibly hundreds to thousands of records is not only valuable to print managers and customer service representatives, but it is also important for many industries that must comply with government regulations and contractual obligations that items must be kept secure and accounted for as they are being produced.

The new Solimar Piece Level Tracking (PLT) solution not only keeps track of the individual pieces within a large job, but it also is able to integrate with camera systems to provide tracking and audit information after the printing process and during the finishing and delivery process. This means that a body of work can be tracked from the time it comes into the print environment, through prepress, printing, finishing and the processes to push it into the delivery stream. More importantly, if a piece is damaged, our solution can also facilitate automatic reprints, as well as, manual reprints while providing full visibility to where that individual damaged piece is in the reproduction and re-entry into the delivery stream process. For the pieces that are completed without problem, production managers and customer service representatives are able to see where the piece is in the process--including delivery to the end-user with the right setup and execution. The ultimate benefit is time savings for the organization because there is less time spent researching individual pieces or unique pieces within different jobs, an organization can prove that the piece was produced and delivered and they can provide near real-time status updates to the business and recipients of the printed materials. By saving time, errors that can cause penalties to the business and reducing the expense of customer service activities, organizations can see an impactful return on investment.

Additionally, SOLitrack in this new release has capabilities both in the server-client and in the mobile web-based dashboard to make it possible to associate content with pieces being produced. This can be used to add tracking information, such as priority mail in the United States or for services like DHL or FedEx internationally. Another use for this feature is to be able to attach special handling instructions or other attachments that need to accompany the file. Further, since notes can be added as the piece moves through the production process, it is also possible to use it for a lightweight proof and approval process.

SOLsearcher Enterprise V3.9
SOLsearcher Enterprise (SSE) is a powerful and highly secure electronic document delivery and web presentment solution that enables organizations to effectively index, store, search and retrieve large collections of transactional documents.

Designed to complement or replace existing print processes, SSE allows clients to access critical business documents and reports via the web securely. In addition, its unique email notification system provides an effective report routing facility, informing users when a requested report is available.

The new “Re-index files within an archive” action in the Document Archive Management Wizard makes it possible to re-index all of the documents in a specified archive.

This is especially useful when you augment a Document Archive (update its SDX template file). After you augment the archive, you will want to re-index all the documents currently in the archive to capture data for any new indexes added. This process will avoid the extra effort to locate all the documents, delete the existing documents, and re-submit them.

WCAG-compliant web client. Basically, this means that it is compliant to the accessibility standards for those with low or no vision and need to use screen readers or other assistive technologies to navigate the web client. Since SSE has a customer and CSR portal concept, there are web interfaces that users interact with. These now meet the WCAG-compliant requirements. More details on WCAG here: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/.