Tucanna Software & Development installed their tFlow Approval and Production products at S2K Graphics to facilitate client plant processes, and automate prepress production, successfully providing a 50% reduction in prepress production time.

S2K Graphics, a FRANKE Company, is a premier large format Digital and Screen printing company with production facilities in Los Angeles California and Nashville Tennessee.  This 24 year old company provides the quick service restaurant industry with innovative point of purchase materials and project management. S2K serves a variety of national accounts coast-to-coast.

tFlow streamlines operation
Working along with Mike Ruff and Tony Quinn from Nazdar Consulting Services, S2K made the decision to select Tucanna tFlow.  They completed the installation of tFlow Approval and tFlow Production in the summer of 2013 to streamline their processes and address the changing requirements of their client base. These changes include quicker turns, shorter runs, increased versioning, and a lot of regional customization. This has significantly impacted their CSRs and production, so they were looking for a solution that would streamline and automate their processes.

With the implementation of tFlow, after a client supplies the artwork to the salesman or the plant, it is directed to their fully staffed art department which receives the artwork and prepares a layout. Once  the layout is completed it is uploaded to tFlow Approval directly from Adobe InDesign via the tFlow Adobe CC connector.  The connector extracts slug line information from the file and automates job and order creation, versioning, and email notifications to the client or project manager that the layout is ready to be reviewed. The notification includes a link that takes the client directly to the layout where they can make comments, request changes or approve the job. This process streamlines the sales person to client interaction, reducing time and paperwork between the CSR and the art department. Once approved, the job is automatically downloaded by tFlow Production which repurposes the file for different output specifications, normalizes, and then routes the file to production for printing.

S2K currently prints over 1000 jobs per month on large format UV flatbed and UV and Latex roll to roll printers, and this new system has no problem in keeping up with production demands.

Software for Humans
Phil Garcia – VP and General Manager of S2K, said “we looked at other solutions, but they required that we alter our workflow to their systems, rather than having the system facilitate our workflow”. He added “now that we have completed phase one, we look forward to further extending and integrating new tFlow functionalities into our workflows. It is just easy to use, and it doesn’t require a lot of complex integration or training”.

Automation is the key to success, and tFlow Approval and tFlow Production were designed with that in mind. Tucanna offers a full production automation and online collaboration suite that brings together customer service representatives, clients, creative professional, design agencies, brand owners, and printers closer than ever before. tFlow Approval can be installed in the local network or in the Cloud, and is accessible via a standard web browser, greatly enhancing the job-submission workflow and customer approval process by replacing countless emails, low-res PDFs, and images which would have required being sent back and forth to all members of the project.

"We enjoyed working with S2K, and look forward to helping them achieve much higher levels of production efficiency", comments Darrian Young, Managing Director at Tucanna. "Businesses of all sizes must be more agile to succeed and survive in this constantly changing and competitive operating environment. It is now essential to limit major capital investments, optimize your existing processes, and reduce ongoing operating costs. tFlow software provides a low cost, high value, flexible solution that will support you in this goal today and into the future".