Birmingham, UK (April 5, 2006) – The JDF (Job Definition Format) Pavilion at Ipex kicked off with 15 demonstration groups that featured cross-vendor process automation digital data interchange. They include major industry vendors with established JDF products and companies and JDF products that have never before participated in CIP4’s public demonstrations. One example, from Demonstration Group 2, pairing JDF veterans and new member companies, features Kodak, LithoTechnics, ePrint Direct and Creo PODS solving some problems that most commercial printers will find all too common. This JDF workflow includes Microsoft Office files converted to PDF and linked to JDF via ePrint Direct. “We want the guy that prints to a network printer to be able to “print” to a press from his desk just as they would with any ordinary office document,” said Paul Clark, ePrint Direct’s Technical Director. “These are people that are going to want to print Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint files that normally are a nightmare for in-plant or commercial printers, but the user isn’t ever going to know enough to prepare files that a printer can, and will want to, work with.” In another example, Demonstration Group 14, features Dr. Lauterbach & Partner’s LP.Solution Component SAP-JDF-Interface which is used to create job tickets for complex packaging jobs and provide detailed JDF data to e.g. MAN Roland’s printnet Sheetfed PressManager. The LP.Packaging preconfigured SAP solution allows users to plan the details of any type of packaging job. Packaging jobs may have multiple components that are produced on a variety of devices. In this demonstration, the portion of a packaging job that is going to a sheetfed press is handed off as detailed JDF production data to MAN Roland’s printnet.” “Dr. Lauterbach’s product runs on MySAP,” said James Harvey, Executive Director of CIP4. “I’ve been asked many times by publishers and printers that are already running SAP for their corporate ERP systems whether or not JDF can be used by their SAP systems. Of course, JDF is XML, and SAP can manage XML, but the LP. Solution Component SAP-JDF-Interface goes a step further and shows SAP systems owners that JDF can be used directly and actively with their SAP implementations.” Information on the systems discussed above, as well as other JDF-enabled systems and software can be found in the JDF Marketplace, a free PDF download available at www.cip4.org. The JDF Marketplace has just been updated in time for Ipex and now lists 215 products and services in over 400 listings in multiple categories. Attendees of Ipex 2006, who wish to learn more about JDF and to see the 15 multi-vendor demonstration groups in action, are encouraged to visit the JDF Pavilion in Hall 20.