Over 300 customers attended the Prinect User Days at the Print Media Academy of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) at the end of October 2011. With more than 100 participants from 14 European countries, the number of international customers almost doubled on the previous year. The tried-and-tested format of this event, which is organized by users for users, included industry-related presentations, discussions, and practical workshops on issues relating to the Prinect print shop workflow. "We significantly reduced the number of podium presentations in favor of workshops and discussions, which was very well received by participants," concluded Martin Klein, Managing Director of Stuttgart-based ctrl-s prepress GmbH who co-organized the event. "The value of the event increased considerably thanks to direct contact with development and product management experts from Heidelberg."

Participants were also impressed by the critical look back on ten years of JDF (Job Definition Format). By standardizing workflows, JDF has helped professionalize production processes in print shops, thus creating transparency and reliability in production. Overall, the printing sector has benefited greatly from these opportunities and become more efficient and industrial. Another presentation highlighted USP and marketing strategies and gave participants ideas on how to improve customer loyalty and set themselves apart from other print service providers. Experts from Heidelberg were on hand to provide information on innovations such as the Prinect Business Manager, Prinect Web-to-Print Manager, and the Prinect digital print workflow. "The development of Prinect is being driven by market requirements. We are working on a complete package covering all value-added processes in print shops including a fully integrated MIS (management information system), rule-based web-to-print and shop system, and digital printing that can be linked up directly," explained Christopher Berti, Head of Product Management Prinect and CtP at Heidelberg.

A great deal of time was devoted to workshops. Participants could choose the issue that appealed most to them from a total of 23 different topics. These included "New applications for print products", "Integrated MIS and production systems", "Gang form processing in the Prinect workflow", "High-end proofing", "Optimized gray balance calibration", and "Processing orders online".