"When automation is driving your business, it is essential that you have a solution that provides full control and transparency of your production."
Production transparency is the key theme for Enfocus Switch in 2018.
Enfocus, an Esko company, is proud to announce the release of Switch 2018, the latest version of its automation solution for the professional print market.
Switch 2018 reflects the changing needs of the market, where limitations within a workflow are now a thing of the past and diversification is key to the survival of print service providers.
As Switch Product Manager, Toon Van Rossum explains, the power of automation relies on three main characteristics – agility, transparency and openness:
"When automation is driving your business, it is essential that you have a solution that provides full control and transparency of your production."
“When automation is driving your business, it is essential that you have a solution that provides full control and transparency of your production. It needs to be agile in order to scale with your business as you diversify, and it needs to be open so that all disparate – multi-vendor – systems, both old and new, connect to each other. It’s what I refer to as ‘True Automation’ and this is our mission with Switch.”
Switch 2018 ships with significant new features – Job Finder, Webhooks and Private Data for All. Another new feature – the online intel dashboard – will come later, in update 1 for maintenance customers. Switch 2018 users will also be able to benefit from a new Reporting Module, available separately and due for release before summer 2018.
The Job Finder is the result of extensive feedback from users and is a significant first step in achieving production transparency. It is for everyone who needs to quickly find the status of a job, based on where the job is located within the Switch flows.
Customizable boards within the Job Finder give a complete view of all jobs, making it easy to locate specific jobs in the Switch flows – a task that typically takes a significant amount of time to complete.
Connectivity with external services is now possible through Webhooks. Aimed at script-writers, App creators and integrators, this essential new tool will transform the way Switch flows and scripts connect to external services. Simply put, Webhooks allow external applications or services to send notifications to Switch. For example, the notification could contain the status of a job or trigger an update when a new order comes in via the MIS system. Webhooks open up a whole new world of possibilities for script writers, App creators and integrators – and will ultimately simplify your automated workflow.
Private Data is a powerful new feature for flow managers. Previously only possible through scripting, the new Private Data feature in Switch 2018 enables the user to store, customize and manage specifc data within Switch. The main benefit here is that data handling is much easier and accessible to all users.
Building a flow is faster than ever in Switch 2018! Some of the most frequently used actions can now be triggered by just one click!
There’s a one-click action to access the sample job variables and metadata, and a one-click action to release all connections that are currently set on hold.
By popular demand, the web-based Job Client has been enhanced with easy-to-use functions to:
