Mortsel, Belgium – 27 April 2004 – Agfa today announced a new product in the company’s Services portfolio. JDF Consultancy for commercial printers is a service offered by Agfa’s experts in which they analyse business and production processes in a printing company and make practical recommendations for how to improve on them using JDF. The analysis phase surveys processes for customer contact and client relationships, internal and external administration, allocation of responsibilities for tasks within the organisation, production workflow automation as well as proofing and approval cycles for any given print project. The analysis includes details of how many and which people are in contact with the printer’s client or the print buyer for any one project. It also outlines how the printer’s internal and external communications processes can be optimised. This phase is carried out in interview form and results in a customised JDF Consultancy report. The JDF Consultancy report details the benefits that JDF can bring to the individual company’s organisation and prioritises problems and solutions needed, such as shortening approval and proofing cycles, avoiding duplication of cost, achieving faster project turnaround or reducing overhead cost. It screens administrative and production processes, how they affect each other and how they can be optimised. The consultancy report offers advice on how to streamline production, reduce cost and generate additional revenue. It also includes practical recommendations for implementation, which the printer may choose to have Agfa’s experts supervise in a second phase. “We believe that printers are looking to Agfa to help them understand JDF and what it can do for them,” said Agfa’s director of Global Services, Jan Vangeel. “Although no two printing companies are identical, our service engineers hear the same questions over and over again. While email marketing, the internet and other new media have impacted and changed the marketing mix forever, we are convinced that print will remain a communications media of choice. To compete with new media however, print needs to show how fast and cost-effective it can be. JDF Consultancy helps printing companies streamline their operations so they can get ahead of competition and demonstrate the Power of Print.” “We were the first company in Europe to experience Agfa’s JDF Consultancy,” says Luc Deschildre, CEO of Continuga, a commercial printer with €13.5 million revenue in Heule-Kortrijk, Belgium. “It was the best investment we ever made: the plan gave our business new direction. We now all know that we need to change our processes and how we can do it. It is too early understand the full benefits we will gain from JDF Consultancy, but we’ve already been able to eliminate duplication of cost that we were unaware of, and turn around projects faster. That makes my customers happy.” JDF Consultancy will be commercially available from Drupa onwards. Agfa’s solutions and services can be found at Drupa, 6-19 May in PrintCity Hall 6 D27, Dusseldorf, Germany.