Aachen, Germany – There is no doubt that Cloud Computing has fundamentally changed IT like no other development in the last decade. It represents the new standard for all future technologies. The idea is to avoid the costs of maintaining software and hardware on your own and instead rent it from "the Cloud". An example of a huge success in Cloud Computing is Google Mail, where you no longer need your own mail server or software licenses, as required with a service like Microsoft Exchange Server. Google Mail offers mail services from the Cloud and is accessible from every computer on the internet.

Thousands of corporate clients have already jumped on the Cloud Computing bandwagon including companies like Amazon, IBM, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and the New York Times. Merrill Lynch estimated that the global Cloud Computing market will grow to over $95 Billion in the next five years.

HIFLEX, the global developer of MIS and Web2Print is the first to offer an MIS Cloud Computing solution for the graphic industry. The HIFLEX Cloud Computing Enterprise Solution allows full access to its MIS via the internet – from anywhere and at any time.

More Flexible
Provides the greatest possible freedom, allowing employees to access the system from anywhere and at any time.

Lower Costs
By using the Enterprise Cloud Computing solution from HIFLEX, companies lower their operational costs by eliminating investments in IT infrastructure. Users can concentrate on their core business, reduce the costs of IT administration and eliminate costs of obsolescence as hardware and software are outsourced.

More Scalable
Allows unlimited data storage and the HIFLEX MIS system is as fast as required because Cloud Computing offers the most scalable processing speeds available.

More Secure
Professional data centers offer the highest possible security with constantly updated system protection and redundant data storage in the Cloud.

More Reliable
Service quality is clearly improved, because Cloud Computing goes along with the 'quality as a service' concepts of HIFLEX.

Private Cloud, Public Cloud or HIFLEX Cloud – your choice
Even with Cloud Computing every HIFLEX MIS system remains a separate installation and of course can absolutely still be adapted individually and to the requirements and needs of each customer. Significant to HIFLEX's Cloud Computing solution is the fact that the system does not have to be installed in an external data center. Users have their choice of a 'Public Cloud' a 'HIFLEX Cloud' or installing it in-house and locally as a 'Private Cloud'. For small to mid-sized companies the choice of a professional data center is very attractive because users can benefit from an infrastructure that includes security and failover protection usually only affordable to larger companies.

Cloud computing lowers 'Total Cost of Ownership' or TCO
'Total Cost of Ownership' or 'TCO' represents the complete costs and operating expenses of a solution. Cloud Computing dramatically decreases the TCO. An external installation can be a very compelling choice from an economical point of view. There are no costs for the server hardware, no racks, no cost for backup solutions as well as the significantly diminished costs for expenditure for IT administration. There is also no need to build and maintain expensive climate controlled environments.

Three-year development plan and history for a completely new architecture
In 2008 HIFLEX concluded that the Cloud Computing Model represented the future and that this architecture offered its users many new benefits. The strategy for HIFLEX was to offer its highly automated and powerful Print MIS Workflow as a Cloud Model making it also the most cost efficient system in the world. After the commitment and investment of three full years of development, the results have really paid off and are astounding. Included in the Cloud Computing release is high-speed internet accessability, a change to OpenOffice.org and the elimination of MS Office for document generation and a browser-based configuration with a global system performance enhancement of over 25%.

Optimized system configuration for cheaper and faster implementation
With HIFLEX MIS release 2012 a central, browser-based configuration interface is now available. As a part of the new release and to enhance setup times, HIFLEX provides its new 'MIS Resources' functionality. Users now can access from a complete library of the most popular presses and finishing equipment and other set-up criteria to add or remove total machine characteristics via drag and drop. Based on the significant HIFLEX 'knowledge database' a new customer installation can be configured in a fifth of the time of legacy MIS Systems.

Additionally, the creation and output of all documents was changed to OpenOffice.org and by switching to this royalty free and and open-source application, investments in Microsoft software are reduced or even eliminated.

Platform Autonomy, Independence and Open Source
The HIFLEX Cloud Computing MIS system can be used on Windows, Macintosh or Linux computers making HIFLEX platform independent. Expenses for both software and hardware are much lower and the higher system stability of open-source technologies is another major benefit. Design and adaptation of all documents is substantially simplified and accelerated by a WYSIWYG solution – reducing costs of the implementation even further.

Diminished expenditures – diminished costs – new customer potentials
These breakthrough innovations have lead to a significant reduction in the time involved and expenses for the implementation of an MIS system. Savings vary according to company size, complexity of production and range of products, but for smaller to mid-sized companies the savings are dramatic. For a printer with a gross sales revenue of $5 million dollars, the HIFLEX MIS Cloud release 2012 can be achieved for less than $50,000 – and users can go live with estimating and order-book in less than 90 days.

Up to now many of the small to mid-sized printers judged Enterprise MIS systems as too expensive because of the initial investment and high cost of implementation. With the new release, HILFLEX MIS now becomes available to all small to mid-sized printers as well. These printers too can now benefit from the most advanced technology in the industry and do so without any reductions in functionality or performance. The small to medium market of printers represents a huge global market which HIFLEX is poised to penetrate aggressively with its new Cloud based system.

Improved flexibility, lower maintenance costs and faster processing times are only three of the qualities of the HIFLEX Cloud Computing release. The system setup and go-live times are significantly faster and result with immediate system payback and ROI.