(See official press release here.) 

The annual HP DSCOOP event was well-attended as users had the opportunity to look at new products and discuss product direction with HP and other users. This year’s event was branded “Unleashing Print” and focused on inspiration and creativity in bringing new and old print applications to market. It went beyond the display of hardware and looked at software tools and processes and how they can bring life to the hardware and the printed output.

We have looked at HP PrintOS a few times since its launch at drupa 2016. HP PrintOS is an open and scalable cloud-based platform that was created to foster the growth of an ecosystem of production and efficiency tools that can work with HP devices. At the time of release PrintOS applications were primarily HP developed or integrated applications that helped customers better understand what and how they and their machines are doing. There are currently about 1500 sites that have registered for PrintOS although that will probably be changing rather quickly. According to HP Manager, Workflow Solutions, Gershon Alon, this is primarily due to the increased efforts to bring new 3rd party applications into the ecosystem.

This movement has slowly started to gain traction. To date, some of the applications that are now PrintOS-compatible include the Avanti Slingshot MIS system and announced at DSCOOP 2018, HYBRID Software’s PACKZalyzer. PACKZalyzer “will allow order entry or customer service personnel to receive files from clients and get them ready for production before they enter the prepress department.” This solution is based on two of HYBRID’s core product technologies; PACKZ, a native PDF editing software and CLOUDFLOW their rules-based pipeline workflow system.

For those of you not familiar with HYBRID Software, their target market is labels and packaging. Many in the core team have been developing software for the packaging market since 1992 and therefore have a deep knowledge of the market needs. Considering HP’s successful efforts in creating a market for digital label and packaging printing solutions, HYBRID PACKZalyzer is targeted at the sweet spot. We believe that other PrintOS compatible applications will start to make their way into the market and help HP build a strong cloud based production ecosystem for their clients.