arifiQ news
King of estimating – new Large Scale Estimating app does 500 in a few minutes
arifiQ, the technology that provides estimates and optimized workflows in seconds; today announces a powerful addition to its front-end estimating product family: the Large Scale Estimating module, capable of delivering hundreds of estimates in only a few minutes. Working in real time with PSPs’ actual device availability and inventories across any number of sites, the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module makes it possible for print buyers and print service providers to answer extensive RFQs immediately, and then execute orders – including recurring procurements – as fast as clients say “yes”.
“This new arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module eliminates the days and weeks needed to prepare and then calculate hundreds or thousands of entries at print buyer and print provider sites,” says Carina Karlsson, CEO, arifiQ Development. The Module will also prove especially beneficial to procurement staff at enterprises and organization sectors such as retail, real estate, financial, and insurance; where timing is critical to profit potential or compliance.
“arifiQ technology completely removes the greatest bottleneck in print production; which is the amount of time needed to calculate estimates,” Karlsson continues, citing the North American MIS/ERP Adoption in Commercial Printing report[1] issued last month.
How the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module works:
- The product specifications (any number of products) are easily entered, in Excel sheets – connected to the arifiQ optimizing engine.
- The pricing for each product, as well as the total of all estimates, is presented instantly.
- The order placement is done in the Excel sheet or by submitting the data to arifiQ PRO (or other MIS).
- The order is saved and managed in arifiQ PRO (or other MIS).
- The Gang-Run option in arifiQ PRO combines jobs that can run at the same time.
“Printers and buyers who use the Large Scale Estimating module can get orders on press before RFQs are even opened by their competitors,” says Karlsson.
arifiQ’s Most Recent Procurement Request:
A procurement officer at a large enterprise needed pricing on 2000 products. The estimator complained, saying, “It will take forever, and we might not even get the print order!”
Karlsson went over the job with the customer, and found that if they used a typical MIS to calculate estimates for all 2000 products, it would take 4 weeks at 5 minutes per. The other option that estimating personnel often employ is to take a “smart guess,” which includes few-to-no real calculations. In these cases, the PSPs have no idea if they will take a great loss on the extensive order.
Also consider that simple RFQs for one piece often demand many different estimates, such as numerous sizes and pages. For example, a customer can easily ask for 3 sizes and 3 different numbers of pages; which equals 9 estimates for only one quote. Imagine the number of estimates requested when a large procurement is sent out to numerous printers!
With the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module, the PSP provides the arifiQ Excel document to the print customer, who easily fills in product specs and sends it back upon receipt. The buyer can also get pricing in real time, while they fill in the sheet.
The Large Scale Estimating module is the newest addition to the arifiQ line of front-end estimating applications. The product family now includes:
- arifiQ PRO – this highly advanced estimating tool for professional print buyers and sales teams is arifiQ’s flagship product
- Plugin for Adobe InDesign – for designers; allows creation of jobs while simultaneously staying within budget or other parameters
- deQuote – for quick print jobs and Inplants
- Customized Web forms created with arifiQ API – for a regular print customer and key accounts
- Large Scale Estimating – for calculating estimates on any number of jobs, and each job estimated unlimited times, according to any number of options, for print buyers and any size PSP or organization, including large enterprises with extended RFQs
[1] The North American MIS/ERP Adoption in Commercial Printing report was produced by industry consultant David Zwang for PRIMIR, the market research arm of NPES. Included in the report was quantitative research extracted from a Keypoint Intelligence (formerly InfoTrends) 2016 survey on North American Software trends in Commercial Printing.
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
King of estimating – new Large Scale Estimating app does 500 in a few minutes
arifiQ, the technology that provides estimates and optimized workflows in seconds; today announces a powerful addition to its front-end estimating product family: the Large Scale Estimating module, capable of delivering hundreds of estimates in only a few minutes. Working in real time with PSPs’ actual device availability and inventories across any number of sites, the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module makes it possible for print buyers and print service providers to answer extensive RFQs immediately, and then execute orders – including recurring procurements – as fast as clients say “yes”.
“This new arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module eliminates the days and weeks needed to prepare and then calculate hundreds or thousands of entries at print buyer and print provider sites,” says Carina Karlsson, CEO, arifiQ Development. The Module will also prove especially beneficial to procurement staff at enterprises and organization sectors such as retail, real estate, financial, and insurance; where timing is critical to profit potential or compliance.
“arifiQ technology completely removes the greatest bottleneck in print production; which is the amount of time needed to calculate estimates,” Karlsson continues, citing the North American MIS/ERP Adoption in Commercial Printing report[1] issued last month.
How the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module works:
- The product specifications (any number of products) are easily entered, in Excel sheets – connected to the arifiQ optimizing engine.
- The pricing for each product, as well as the total of all estimates, is presented instantly.
- The order placement is done in the Excel sheet or by submitting the data to arifiQ PRO (or other MIS).
- The order is saved and managed in arifiQ PRO (or other MIS).
- The Gang-Run option in arifiQ PRO combines jobs that can run at the same time.
“Printers and buyers who use the Large Scale Estimating module can get orders on press before RFQs are even opened by their competitors,” says Karlsson.
arifiQ’s Most Recent Procurement Request:
A procurement officer at a large enterprise needed pricing on 2000 products. The estimator complained, saying, “It will take forever, and we might not even get the print order!”
Karlsson went over the job with the customer, and found that if they used a typical MIS to calculate estimates for all 2000 products, it would take 4 weeks at 5 minutes per. The other option that estimating personnel often employ is to take a “smart guess,” which includes few-to-no real calculations. In these cases, the PSPs have no idea if they will take a great loss on the extensive order.
Also consider that simple RFQs for one piece often demand many different estimates, such as numerous sizes and pages. For example, a customer can easily ask for 3 sizes and 3 different numbers of pages; which equals 9 estimates for only one quote. Imagine the number of estimates requested when a large procurement is sent out to numerous printers!
With the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module, the PSP provides the arifiQ Excel document to the print customer, who easily fills in product specs and sends it back upon receipt. The buyer can also get pricing in real time, while they fill in the sheet.
The Large Scale Estimating module is the newest addition to the arifiQ line of front-end estimating applications. The product family now includes:
- arifiQ PRO – this highly advanced estimating tool for professional print buyers and sales teams is arifiQ’s flagship product
- Plugin for Adobe InDesign – for designers; allows creation of jobs while simultaneously staying within budget or other parameters
- deQuote – for quick print jobs and Inplants
- Customized Web forms created with arifiQ API – for a regular print customer and key accounts
- Large Scale Estimating – for calculating estimates on any number of jobs, and each job estimated unlimited times, according to any number of options, for print buyers and any size PSP or organization, including large enterprises with extended RFQs
[1] The North American MIS/ERP Adoption in Commercial Printing report was produced by industry consultant David Zwang for PRIMIR, the market research arm of NPES. Included in the report was quantitative research extracted from a Keypoint Intelligence (formerly InfoTrends) 2016 survey on North American Software trends in Commercial Printing.
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