Kehl, Germany March 20, 2008 -- Dalim Software announces that Brown Printing, a multi-plant publication and catalog printer with locations in Minnesota, Illinois and Pennsylvania, has successfully integrated its DALiM MiSTRAL automated production, project management and job tracking system with Group Logic's MassTransit digital file transfer solution. The solution was a collaboration between Brown Printing, Group Logic and Blanchard Systems, a computer systems integration company and value-added reseller working exclusively within the graphic arts industry, and the US distributor for Dalim Software.

DALiM MiSTRAL is a uniquely powerful project management and job tracking system that allows everyone involved in the production of a printed product to have complete real-time visibility with every aspect of the job.  Clients, MIS, PreMedia and print professionals can log in to the system and see the exact status of every element. 

MassTransit is the only enterprise software solution proven to transform digital file transfers into strategic business processes. Its comprehensive capabilities - coupled with Group Logic's expertise and service - allow customers to fully capture the potential of digital file transfers for their business.

Toward a faster, more efficient customer experience

The aim of the installation was to streamline Brown's PreMedia customer interface by enabling Brown's customers to use MassTransit's Web Client to upload files directly onto the b.Direct (DALiM MiSTRAL) server.   Through MassTransit's file transfer technology, b.Direct users gain fast, secure, reliable transfer of even the largest files with a simple drag and drop to the browser.  In addition, through automated processing of received files, Brown's MassTransit Enterprise servers can automatically deliver files into the b.Direct process.

Brown was already using MassTransit for other work, and had built an organization-wide infrastructure to move files from customer to plant and between plants. Because of its success with MassTransit,  the company wanted to take advantage of MassTransit's unique file transfer technology through b.Direct, its online collaborative production system based on DALiM MiSTRAL.

The idea, says Lee Edberg, Central Premedia Manager at Brown, "was to let publishers click in b.Direct, automatically launch their MassTransit Web Clients, and send digital files into the process through a simple drag and drop. To do so, we needed to automatically communicate DALIM MiSTRAL job number metadata to MassTransit, so that it could transfer files directly to the correct folders in the DALiM MiSTRAL server."   Mistral's and MassTransit's meta-data communication capabilities were key to implementing the process, as were integration services offered by Dalim Software, Group Logic, and Blanchard Systems.

The workflow achieved makes the process very simple for Brown's publishing clients. The client logs into b.Direct, where they view jobs by the issue and title. Blank page thumbnails within a job indicate that a job title is ready to accept files. The user can click a button to initiate an upload through the MassTransit Web Client.  This Client sends completed files and job metadata quickly, securely and reliably using Group Logic's MassTransit protocol . Brown's MassTransit Enterprise servers receive the files and use the job metadata to automatically move the materials to exact location where they reside on the DALiM MiSTRAL server.

Brown has had the MassTransit tie-in to DALiM MiSTRAL up and running for the last 3-4 months in all three of its plants. "Our reaction time to the publisher is faster now," Edberg says. "The publisher logs in, sends job files which are processed in the queue within 30 minutes. The customer can see page thumbnails in b.Direct almost immediately and do additional work. Before, our operators would typically wait until all digital files for an issue were on our servers before moving them manually to the DALiM MiSTRAL server – a slow, labor intensive process. With the new MassTransit-Mistral integration we've eliminated the manual work, sped up the process and allowed customers to submit pages anytime from anywhere, and see their processed page within minutes."

Future plans call for the DALiM MiSTRAL server to be able to upload job information directly from MassTransit servers that publishers own. "We have some ideas about that," Edberg says. "It's the next step."