Enfocus Software vice president Fabian Prudhomme and Enfocus' international team want the industry to know that automation in 2011 is a much different, more feasible enterprise than it was just a few years ago. So says Prudhomme in his opening letter to professionals in the company's just-released whitepaper, The Truth About Automation. The whitepaper is available for download at this link (http://www.helenesmith.com/?p=2718), or through Enfocus resellers (http://www.enfocus.com/FindReseller.php).
 
What's inside the whitepaper:
 
The 2011 Economy
The Truth About Automation briefly but importantly sets the stage for the conversation about automation with an honest examination of the current worldwide economy -- and specifically, its impact on the job market. The reality of this job market provides the context for the rest of the white paper.
 
How to Determine Who Does What
The Paper then delves into the differences between machine and human capabilities; helping the reader to understand that properly applied automation allows businesses to maximize the capabilities of people and systems; thereby increasing employee morale and streamlining processes for maximum profit.  These points are illustrated in this excerpt:
 
These graphic arts operations are doing what they always did, but doing it faster and better, with automated quality control and processing that needs human beings to add value everywhere the machines cannot. For example, designers are doing design-what they love-instead of preparing files over and over again for proper processing through a workflow, and taking countless calls from the press room, the client, and everyone else regarding changes, version problems, setting permissions, and the inevitable expectation to do IT on their own systems.
 
The bonus is that re-allocating talent can simultaneously help fulfill the need for printing and production organizations to expand their services and/or form deeper business and marketing partnerships with clients.
 
From The Truth About Automation, p. 4
 
Automation in Practice: what you need to know regarding automation types, relevant ramp-up times and costs
In the second part of the Paper, the Enfocus authors discuss how to find and implement automation opportunities; even in workflows that professionals believe are already streamlined as much as possible.
 
And because there are so many in the industry who have had varying types of experiences and levels of success with automation in the past, Enfocus covers automation's history in our industry, and the substantial and meaningful changes it has undergone over the years.
 
One of the most significant automation topics covered in this section is open and closed system architectures. Choices made about openness and modularity affect integration, scalability, cost and ease of use.
 
The Benefits of the Enfocus Switch Modular Automation Platform
Popular sentiment is promoting the view that the future of automation looks, feels, and is just likely to be Enfocus Switch. The whitepaper discusses the key reasons why the Enfocus Switch fanbase is growing at such a rapid pace; from modularity and scalability though price, ease of use, investment protection via integration with existing assets, and robust functionality, security and reliability.
 
The Truth About Automation then covers Crossroads, an online community where Switch application partners (https://www.crossroads-world.com/) and customers meet, provide guidance to one another, and share Switch installation and implementation techniques as well as the "flows", themselves.
 
The paper concludes with practical information on how to get started, and includes links to numerous, relevant resources.