Ricoh Features Agfa and arifiQ in First-of-Its-Kind Automation Demonstration

Oslo — June 6, 2017 — Unprecedented speed and cost-optimization for automated workflows was demonstrated by arifiQ, Agfa and Ricoh at Ricoh’s “Magical Days” customer event this week, here in Oslo. The three companies teamed-up to show Ricoh’s guests how the combination of each organization’s intelligent technologies dramatically reduces the wait between RFQ and press — from days; to just minutes.

Agfa Graphics Norway’s Thor Gudmundsen, Business Account Manager, explains why his company joined forces with Ricoh and arifiQ for this event: “Ricoh hosts excellent customer events, and we thought it would be a great occasion to showcase what is no doubt the world’s most automated, integrated workflow. Plus, only arifiQ lets us begin where the workflow truly starts: in the quote phase, where the wait can be the biggest enemy to turnaround time.”

A moment to describe the problems, waits, and higher costs that companies like these are eliminating:

Today, printers have trouble getting a job in the door. Obtaining quotes, requested adjustments/ requotes, and prepress operations can be laborious and subject to error. The pressure to get the job done has increased due to both the long wait for a final quote, and other jobs waiting in the queue. As a result, jobs are pushed through prepress and production using less than optimal imposition, equipment, and consumables, human mistakes in prepress may ruin the job – all ending up as higher costs than necessary at the printer. 

While generating the print quote, arifiQ calculates the optimal imposition/signature and production path required to attain the lowest cost. The finished quote holds all of this information, and can be used as the job order and job ticket whenever the customer is ready.

Requotes/adjustments take seconds, and new quotes/orders are immediately generated. Any job, including the most complex, custom design, is welcomed. No predefined templates are required.

“arifiQ’s ability to provide the best quotes as quickly as it does is made possible by the underlying arifiQ engine, ‘The Optimizer’, and its ability to determine the best production path and imposition, no matter how big an operation, and how many locations and devices it has access to,” says Stefan Karlsson, the arifiQ CTO who spent 2 days with Ricoh and Agfa customers in Oslo.

“It’s great to be able to show Ricoh visitors how efficient a workflow, starting from the quoting phase, can actually be,” Karlsson continues. “We share the vision of a fully automated workflow with Agfa and Ricoh, and are happy that we could set-up one of the world’s first looks at the technology here, in Oslo.”

 Ricoh demonstrated digital and large format print on all types of media, Agfa showcased Apogee and Storefront, and Neopost handled finishing.

Coming Soon, to a Workflow Near You

arifiQ is releasing its production optimizing technology, The Optimizer, to licensed workflow solution partners.

About arifiQ Development

arifiQ Development is a Swedish company that has, and will continue to, develop several applications, plug-ins, and modules based on its unique and powerful technology platform.

The idea that catalyzed arifiQ’s establishment was the founders’ recognition that the wait for quotes, and then approvals, was a major cause of frustration for customers and printers, both. They felt that solving the problem by making the quote process faster could have major, positive ramifications for the industry