From Manual to Automated: How Imposition Software Saves 80% of Prep Time
An interview between Infigo and Ultimate Tech
Are you still preparing files manually in InDesign? Julie Watson, CEO of Ultimate Tech, explains how modern imposition and finishing automation can save print service providers up to 80% of prep time, with same-day ROI.
In this fireside chat, discover how to automate file preparation from web-to-print through finishing, why automation isn’t just for large print shops, and real strategies to tackle rising costs and labour shortages. Learn how JDF connectivity eliminates manual make-ready on finishing equipment and get quick implementation tips to get started in just hours, not months.
Perfect for commercial printers, label converters, and wide format providers looking to do more with existing equipment and staff.
Introduction to Ultimate Tech’s Print Automation Solutions
Printing United day 2 afternoon fireside chat and I am joined by Julie CEO at Ultimate Tech. Julie, thank you for joining me.
Well, thank you for having me.
Welcome to this fireside chat. Would you like to introduce yourself?
Yeah, Julie Watson, CEO of Ultimate Tech. So, I’m second-generation leadership at Ultimate Tech. We were founded in 1989, and we focus on imposition, nesting and finishing automation software.
Wow. So, second generation. So, you’re taking the charge and leading the leading things forward. Brilliant. So, um, Julie, obviously we’re very early on in our partnership together. I think there’s a lot of mutual excitement between where we’re taking things. So, um, how are we connected at the moment, and what’s your take on the Imposition Software for Commercial and Digital Printing partnership this far?
Well, you know, obviously your system helps customers create files online and submit their orders. Now, a lot of these orders are probably short run or, you know, digital digitally printed and you cannot prepare those files manually behind the scenes. So, as you’re collecting these files online, you want to seamlessly automate the entire process to printing and finishing. Get as many jobs out the door as possible with as little manual touch points and that’s really how our combination of solution enables customers to do basically.
Reducing Onboarding Time with Finishing Automation Fantastic. So, tell me a little bit more about your solution because when I’ve been doing my research and understanding more about the technology, obviously lots of different products within your range.
Tell us a bit more about what Ultimate Tech brings to the market. Yes, imposition of course is something that’s really crucial to printing in general. So, you will find some imposition a little bit everywhere scattered in different solutions. Uh the difference or what we bring to the table is that for us it’s our core business.
It’s our core expertise and we have you know 37 years of experience in this, and we’ve developed a tool that’s very powerful, very scalable. It’s uh on a modern tech stack to future proof production and it’s really to help automate the tedious tasks of imposition and nesting and finishing and to so that the staff you know can focus on more valuable tasks. So, let’s automate that as much as possible. So, it’s a flexible tool and it’s applicable to different segments. So, you have commercial books, mailings, but you also have labels, wide format, digital packaging. So, you can really centralize the workflow to a variety of equipment basically.
Fantastic. And in terms of the finishing, what does that look like then? So, are you, is that getting machine data and pushing it back and forth into a workflow? How does that kind of We’re really a data driven workflow. So, it’s all about taking that data that’s you know starting the story at the customer order probably in the Infigo system and then to info strip. We’ll prepare the press ready files submit them to print. If you have cut files or embellishment files, we will route these as well.
Got it.
And then we will even do the JDF connectivity to remove the manual make ready on the finishing equipment. So, by the time the job gets to the finishing equipment, uh you can simply scan a barcode, the machine automatically sets up and starts finishing the job.
Wow. So that’s removing a lot of complexity. Removing a lot of repetitive tasks so that customers can really focus on making sure that there’s quality and they can take on more responsibility in the facility. And actually, a lot of our customers are saying that the automation is helping them keep their staff happy and hire staff because they can they know that they’ll do valuable work and not the work that nobody else wants to do.
So that’s really interesting. I was just going to ask you that. I just thought of that then. hiring new staff on boarding employees. I suppose that means that there’s less of an overhead now to get them trained and on all the process because it’s driven by tech. Right?
Exactly. So a little bit desk killing the process the software becomes kind of you know the brains of the operations and yes it really helps you being able to adapt somebody’s on vacation if somebody is sick you know it doesn’t mean that production stops and that’s what’s important and plus everybody around the world is all the customers are telling us they cannot find staff so this is a critical problem and I really do believe that technology and software like our solutions can help alleviate that.
Fantastic. Okay. Um,
Print Industry Challenges: Rising Costs and Staffing Issues
So obviously our partnership is very much in its early days. What excites you the most about what we could potentially be doing together and what we’ve started to do together this far?
Well, it’s all about connectivity. It’s all about systems that are open that that connect to each other and that work well together. And I think that’s really important for vendors such as ourselves to do that work so that the customers, you know, uh it becomes more and more plug-and-play for customers. It’s easy for them to get started and decomplexify the process a little bit, you know. A lot of customers are still thinking that software can be complicated. They have to learn it, you know, an important learning curve, but it’s actually not the case anymore. Just a couple hours of online training, they can get set up with our solution. And yours is, you know, now that we integrate, plug in play.
So, so it’s not as daunting as it seems. So, my recommendation to customers would be just get started, you know, and companies like yourselves and ourselves, we’re there to support the customers, to train, to support. So, you know, there’s no problem.
Maximizing Equipment ROI Through Software Integration
Yeah, cool. So, what the biggest some of the biggest challenges, not all of the biggest challenges, what are some of the biggest challenges you guys have been seeing this year?
Well, definitely, as customers are, you know, struggling with some rising costs in different areas, different regions for different reasons. Uh staffing is a big problem also. Uh and just looking to automate, looking to do more with the existing equipment, getting as many jobs through the shop floor as fast as possible. Those are some of the things that customers are working on.
So, what a big thing that I talk about um to our customers when they first come on board. It’s almost like the initial question is are using Infigo’s web to print to generate new revenue or to make existing revenue more profitable by trying to automate it. And it’s what we’ve seen at the moment is a real kind of push towards the latter. We need to try and make the existing revenue more hands-off operations and ultimately, we drive that profitability piece back. So, it’s obviously on both of our both of our agendas and we can contribute towards that massively there. So, uh we’re pulling the right direction I suppose.
Wide Format and Label Automation Solutions
So recently um we held our first ever think tank Ray from your side Paul from Infigo host that in London. I’ve heard nothing but good things from our my existing customers that have attended that. Um and I think that’s it’s a model that we want to try and do more of because I think it’s not a selling event. It’s an educational event. is trying to educate and let people understand what we can do, what they can achieve, not even with our technologies, but by just bringing technology together.
Same thing, you know, I think I think mutually as software companies in the print space, we really have a responsibility to create more awareness about the benefits of technology. I think the future of print is heavily invested in technology. You know, okay, we could talk about AI, but there’s also process automation, there’s also robotics, there’s everything is a tech stack in my eyes. you know, if we can show this or you know, create more awareness about this in the print space, we’re going to make the entire industry more competitive. So, this kind of think tank is really essential to creating this awareness and really important. And you know, if you want to attract younger generations in print shops, you have to have technology because they’re attracted by technology. So, that’s very important also.
Yeah, it’s an interesting one. We we’ve often we get asked all the time, can you integrate with this system and this system, this system? At times you have to be selective about it and it’s something that we’ve proud pride ourselves on as part of our growth is making sure we’re working with best-in-class partners and I think events like the think tank really prove that we choose the right partners and absolute pleasure to be doing mutual integrations and having that partnership because this there’s obviously a lot of synergy in the vision and the direction we’re both trying to go in to help our customers. So long may there be more think tanks.
That’s what we want to see more. We start doing a bit more of a global reach with them and um I know there’s plans to do uh more and get more customers involved in it. So, try and get more out of them.
Debunking Print Automation Misconceptions
I understand you’re venturing a bit more and you mentioned earlier labels and wide format. What’s that looking like?
What does the product is it a specific product for that market or is it the same product that is flexible enough? How does that look?
All right, it’s the same product but it’s modular. So, you could have our product only for wide format or only for labels or you could have it for everything. Um so and you can start in that segment with the limited feature functionality.
Uh so it’s easy to learn, easy to onboard. However, what we see especially in the label space and the wide format is there’s a lot of work done manually.
I don’t know how many customers we met here saying that they’re creating some kind of layout in InDesign, but their staff doesn’t have time to do anything else. So yes, that’s true. We’re here to alleviate this. Let’s automate. I mean, the ROI will be same day. I mean, if we can save 80% of a person’s time, the prices of software do not compete with that whatsoever. So, the ROI is quick.
Uh, it’s in my opinion a no-brainer. And I really think that, you know, a lot of these customers, if they want to generate more profit at the end of the year, automation is key. I mean no more preparing files manually please and especially if those files are coming from you know a web to print system it has to be automated and today there’s no reason why these jobs can’t be automated we have the technology the power whether it’s nesting you know step and repeat books booklet everything can be automated do you think part of that are people scared to make that adapt adaption and change or is it uh is it financially driven they just think actually we’ve done it this way forever and we understand the cost of that and maybe software costs are going to rise Guys, what do you see?
You know, I think it’s a combination of factors. I think definitely we’ve always done it that way. Has always existed a lot in our industry, but you know, now we have no choice to change. So, you’re looking for solution. I also think there’s a lack of awareness knowing that the solution exists. So, by coming to these trade shows, you can see all the technology that can help your business. And then yes, it’s change management, right? It’s introducing new technology, learning how to use it, getting the team to use it, but we can facilitate that.
Measuring Print Automation ROI and Performance Metrics
When people hear the word automation, the term, it’s bounced around every single trade show that you, I, and the rest of the teams go to.
What do you think the biggest misconception is?
The biggest misconception about automation is that it’s only for, you know, larger companies and it’s only because you have a large team internally to take care of the automation. But in fact, automation is for a company of any size and it’s actually to help you remove some work and not create work. So, you don’t need this big development team to have automation. You know, you could have some key solution that integrate with each other like ours get started, get trained and actually save time.
So that that I think is a little bit of a misconception. What do you think? It’s um we’ve seen a real cultural thing with automation. So, in certain regional markets there is more of a determination and drive to deliver it. On one of the earlier fireside chats I spoke about one of our customers here in America and not a big shop, but the owner had a vision and the determination. He was like we are going to make this happen because we’re a small shop and we’ve got to make it happen. And I think it is that mindset shift of going actually automation is going to help us. In different regional markets, we actually see no, we want to do a manual check. We want someone going in and downloading files manually because we want them to verify and there’s almost like a lack of trust of what the artwork or the output’s going to be and it’s like it’s but again it goes back to what you said earlier. It’s that “we’ve always done it like that” and there’s a fear of letting go. So, we see it both ways round. Um we’ve just I suppose our joint and all of our partners’ joint um endgame here is to build the confidence that automation is the right journey people got to go on and as you said it’s not just for the big guys in fact probably actually even more important for the smaller guys because they’re not going to be able to have the same reach of employing all the talented people. Let’s actually how can we process improve all of these other things with there’s an initiative I do with HP and we look at um a touch point challenge literally draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper and from we do order inception all the way to finished goods in the customer’s hand and we do every single touch point and then we go back and we overlay in Figos we start scribbing out with a red pen to see which ones we can actually remove from it and I’ve seen it go from having 30 touch points down to seven and it’s like trust the technology trust the process and you’re going to reap the rewards of it.
Yeah. So, it’s a difficult one. We got to continue to share that message.
But that’s what our company, your company, and others have got to keep keep pushing. So exactly.
Getting Started with Print Workflow Automation Today
Are there any specific KPIs or metrics that you would um drive towards a customer to say, look, you need to be looking at these things in the early stages so you can start to validate a purchase or the implementation. You mentioned earlier the ROI of replacing a person, you can almost see it immediately. Is there any other metrics that you look at?
I mean, definitely. I think uh people the time that people spend doing things is an enormous cost at the end of the day. You don’t always see it. It’s not always apparent, but it is really there.
But of course, you know, saving waste, saving on substrate, saving on time, faster turnaround times, shipping more jobs in a day. That means, you know, more sales at the end of the year. So, all of these things factor into the ROI.
Our customers say our software is really helping get as many jobs out the door as possible. It’s helping them have like same day printing, SLA’s, uh, etc., etc. So, all these are benefits. They can get more work and do it more profitably.
And I’m assuming based on that, like they see this quickly, right? As you said, setup’s training, education’s a couple of hours.
Yeah. And then almost go time the next day, right?
Exactly. So, the software piece is definitely not the biggest part of the investment.
And when you talk start talking about finishing automation, we can only automate as much as what the device is capable of. So obviously investing in in smart uh capable uh dynamic finishing equipment is also important but that’s also a little bit of an investment.
However, when you tie this into the workflow, you could you know have massive benefits uh through this.
Getting Started with Print Workflow Automation Today
For print shops just starting their automation journey, what’s your uh what’s your number one bit of advice that you would give them?
Start today. Yeah. You know they say the best time to automate was 10 years ago and the next best time is today. So don’t wait. Don’t wait. You we cannot wait anymore, right? So, it’s get it done.
Thank you so much, Julie. Pleasure speaking with you.
Thank you.
Enjoy the rest of the show.