At Dscoop Edge 2019, HP Inc. announced the expansion of HP PrintOS Marketplace, opening an ideas store to inspire HP print service providers (PSPs) to collaborate, innovate and grow, while implementing Industry 4.0 for automated printing of thousands of jobs a day.
New apps in the marketplace from HP and solution partners can also help HP print service providers increase productivity, streamline workflow and develop new digital print applications.
“PrintOS Marketplace is an open platform designed to spread innovation and help customers adapt faster to the complexities of the changing print market,” said Alon Bar-Shany, General Manager, HP Indigo, HP Inc. “HP PrintOS is empowering PSPs to be more productive, manage higher print volume, and automate and streamline workflow.” PrintOS gives PSPs control over print operations virtually anywhere at any time, simplifies and automates print production processes, and provides a scalable architecture of production-ready tools to grow digital business. Today, the cloud-based PrintOS has grown to more than 20,000 users since launching at drupa 2016. Users include owners of HP Indigo, HP PageWide and Scitex presses and HP Latex and HP DesignJet printers.
UK-based ProCo is printing thousands of profitable jobs a day with PrintOS. “Marketplace is going to be a game changer in how people are able to produce work in a digital print environment. Access to other print providers' applications means I don't have to reinvent the wheel for every project. And fundamentally, we're going to have access to thousands of partner apps in a cost-effective and quick way,” said Jon Bailey, CEO, Proco.
Projects in a box
Resources in the new PrintOS Marketplace ideas store include projects-in-a-box for labels and packaging, commercial and photo printing.
More than 50 free projects and design tools are now available for download exclusively for HP PSPs using PrintOS. Ready-to-go projects include HP Mosaic and HP Collage packaging templates, seed patterns, sample files, and royalty-free images and icons. PrintOS members are also invited to share or sell their print ideas in the store, with the goal of housing hundreds and even thousands of items by drupa 2020.
New print production apps
An additional PrintOS Marketplace store for Applications features monthly, subscription-based apps from HP and solutions partners. The apps help HP customers win more business, increase press output, automate production, manage higher print volume, better control costs, and expand print offerings. The App store is expanding with new offerings from HP and solutions partners, including:
- Locr – a GEO services batch tool to easily generate personalised maps for adding the value of location to printed communications.
- MindFire - a marketing automation tool to help PSPs promote business with targeted campaigns.
- OneFlow - The AutoFlow solution automates manual prepress operations including artwork fetching, checking, fixing and manipulation.
- HYBRID Software - PACKZilizer is an intuitive and easy-to-use cloud-based application to prepare packaging files for production.
- PrintOS Jobs API: Enables streamlining of production-status and job-costing data such as substrate usage and time invested, from an HP Indigo digital press to a management system (MIS or ERP), to understand the true cost of completed jobs for more accurate quoting.
- PrintOS Composer: Helps printers save time by easily and efficiently composing variable data jobs, including HP Mosaic and Collage, of any size.
- PrintOS OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness): Helps PSPs uncover opportunities for improving operations, reducing overtime, and saving costs, while increasing press utilisation.
- PrintOS Colour Beat cuts colour control time down to minutes per job, helps ensure colour consistency across presses and sites, and track colour performance from anywhere.
- PrintOS Site Flow: Enables to efficiently manage hundreds and thousands of jobs per day, all the way from automated order submission to pre-press, shop-floor management and shipping integration.
PrintOS Marketplace is also now launching a new Licenses Store for easy self-service download and licensing of off-the-shelf software solutions from HP solutions partners integrated with PrintOS. Solutions licenses available for purchase include:
- HP SmartStream Designer: a powerful, easy-to-use variable data printing (VDP) tool for users of HP Indigo, HP Latex, and HP PageWide technologies.
- Esko: DeskPack Essentials and ArtPro+, powerful tools that shorten pre-press of labels and packaging jobs.
- Memador: A photo enhancement solution that optimises and automates photo book creation with algorithms for face grouping, face detection and more.
- Hybrid Software: PACKz, the powerful PDF editor and CloudFlow, Hybrid Software’s prepress workflow solution.
- Tilia Labs: includes a bundle of Phoenix & Imposition AI workflow and imposition tools for labels and packaging, available later this year.
