Digital StoreFront Joins Fiery Servers in Xerox's EFI Portfolio

FOSTER CITY, Calif., – EFI today announced it has teamed with Xerox Corporation to provide customers worldwide with the EFI Digital StoreFront (DSF) Web-to-Print solution, giving print providers a new front door to their business. Available first in the United States, Xerox Corporation's direct sales team and channel partners are now offering the award-winning solution.

DSF is one of the leading Web-to-Print products for the printing industry, with more than 3,000 printing sites worldwide. DSF is used by both commercial printing establishments as well as in-plants, providing a digital on-ramp for customers to connect with their preferred print provider. The solution eases print job specification and file handling for the customer while automating workflow at the printer. With DSF, printers can provide proactive job status via the Web and customers are given better visibility into the production process via online job tracking. With integration with XMPie, a Xerox Company, customers have a powerful variable data printing and cross-media personalization tool available as an optional module.

"We recognize the market demand for robust and user-friendly Web-to-Print offerings," said Elizabeth Fox, vice president, Solutions Business Unit, Xerox Corporation. "Paired with Xerox's digital printing expertise, DSF brings the benefits of Web-to-Print to users who, in turn, can quickly respond and address their customers' needs."

The Southwest Region of Pepsi Beverages Company recently upgraded their production center with a new Fiery-driven Xerox DC5000 Digital Press and Digital StoreFront, relying on the expertise of Arizona Office Technologies (AOT), a full-service document technology provider. More than 1,500 sales people utilize the Pepsi production center for Point-of-Sale (POS) pieces of various sizes and shapes.

"Before DSF, sales people were sending job requests in via email, 'post it' notes, and the like, and swamping the print shop operator with calls," said Peter Tunkey, customer marketing manager at Pepsi Beverages Company. "Now with DSF, each sales person can log-on and see the various POS jobs relating to their accounts, as well as a list of other standardized printing projects, and they can quickly submit orders and track them online. This has eliminated multiple errors and significantly improved quality and workflow efficiency. Our turnaround has dropped from an average of 10 business days to three, enabling us to double our production of items."

"In today's highly competitive marketplace, print service providers need to rely on automation to keep costs down and margins high. EFI Digital StoreFront enables this automation to begin at the customer's desktop, allowing providers to successfully extend their services to the Web while streamlining their production workflow," said Marc Olin, senior vice president and general manager of APPS, EFI. "With the powerful sales and channel network of Xerox now offering DSF, together with Fiery digital print servers, more print service providers than ever before will benefit from this critical business solution."

A simple interface allows print customers to submit digital files from their PC or Macintosh computers, view PDF proofs of their documents for immediate review and approval, and easily enter their own job specifications for production and finishing. Once that information is entered, DSF creates a production job ticket and the file is automatically submitted into the print center's workflow, billing systems, print servers and output devices.

DSF provides integration with EFI's Fiery and MIS solutions - the system creates an "end-to-end" content and commerce workflow from the desktop of the printer's customer directly to Monarch, Pace, Radius and PrintSmith print management systems, to Fiery controllers for digital page production, and to VUTEk, Rastek and Jetrion printers with Fiery XF RIPs for digital inkjet production.

EFI is a Xerox Business Innovation Partner. For more information, visit www.efi.com or contact 800-875-7117.