arifiQ news

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

Print Service Providers wish for Instant Quotes

February 8, 2017

Workflows may be automated, but getting quotes on jobs can take so long that new and even existing customers will take their work elsewhere to meet deadlines.

This is just one of the major findings in a new report on estimating systems, released by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) School of Media Sciences. In addition to reduced quotation cycles, mobility and compatibility with standards are also missing from many print service provider’s current estimating solutions.

Gannett Professor Chris Bondy and Media Arts and Technology student Wesley Odell identified and reviewed a variety of estimating systems, and interviewed print service provider participants representing various positions in their respective companies. Positions ranged from estimating and operations, to company leadership. 

At the top of Print Service Providers’ Wish Lists: Faster Quotes

The length of time spent waiting for a quote heads the list of frustrations. The researchers found that those sampled spent an average of 2 hours and 10 minutes on administrative tasks related to the quote process, including job planning, for every order.

This frustration is a big reason why arifiQ’s estimating application is now in use at several, major, North American print production companies. arifiQ utilizes a unique algorithm that can process septillions of combinations of print devices, substrates and other production variables to find a quote or quotes – on even complex jobs – that salespersons or their customers can review, or submit, within seconds.

“arifiQ is quite a bit further down the road than several other suppliers, in terms of turning around a quote quickly, whether the job be simple or complex, “says Bondy. “arifiQ is cutting that 2 hour plus wait into a minute or two, at most. They’ve raised the bar for the category.”

Another Ask: Easy-to-Use Interface and Mobility

Owned and run by executives who grew up in the print industry, arifiQ also offers one of the easiest to use interfaces. This makes it possible for wider groups of people to obtain quotes, keep jobs on schedule, and submit jobs for production.  Salespeople can utilize arifiQ’s mobile features while on-site at customer locations. Customers can directly use arifiQ as well, as it is available via the cloud for anyone — from anywhere – 24/7.

More Power for Those Who Want It

The arifiQ estimating engine brings even more value in terms of scalability and openness, especially as it is one of the only estimating solutions to offer an Open API for simple integration with other applications and workflows.

Today, versions of arifiQ with add-on modules have made it a full-scale MIS. A few customers see it as the platform for their entire Business Information System, in the not-too-distant future!

Read the RIT Press Release HERE

Read the Estimating Research Study Executive Summery HERE

For a complete copy of the research report, contact Prof. Chris Bondy at cxbppr@rit.edu, © 2017.

Introducing arifiQ Entry: The Industry’s Fastest Online Quoting Tool is Designed to Increase Print Sales

Introducing arifiQ Entry: The Industry’s Fastest Online Quoting Tool is Designed to Increase Print Sales

  • arifiQ Entry is the fastest way to quote and submit custom print jobs.
  • Printers and customers can view quotes, try numerous iterations, and submit online job orders that are instantly accepted for production.
  • Connects seamlessly with printers’ existing MIS, ERP or other systems.
December 6, 2016 – arifiQ Development introduces arifiQ Entry, designed to give anyone — such as CSRs, print buyers, and print sales teams — the ability to instantly and easily obtain quotes and place orders for custom print jobs, from anywhere. arifiQ Entry relieves the bottleneck – from several hours to many days — between the time a customer approves a job, and when he or she gets an estimate/quote back from a printer[1]. In contrast, arifiQ Entry and the full family of arifiQ solutions return accurate quotes in a minute or less.
Eliminating the long wait for print quotes has been at the top of “wish list” features requested of technology developers, by printers. As customer satisfaction (aka “the customer experience”) is now accepted as primary insurance for business success, arifiQ’s existing customers have found that eliminating the wait has generated dramatic, positive response by employees and customers.
Available immediately at a flat monthly rate, arifiQ Entry uses the company’s powerful arifiQ core engine to give users the unique quotation and optimized production benefits in all arifiQ products. arifiQ Entry also exports to, or integrates with, any MIS, ERP, prepress, or other order management system; and offers 12 of the 14 major benefits available in arifiQ’s high-end solution, arifiQ PRO.
“Customers usually have an approved version of a job when the salesperson calls or comes to see them; and they should not have to wait days to get the first quote,” says Eva Rosén, who is not only President and CMO of arifiQ Development; but is, along with her two co-founders, a print shop owner of many years.
“Print service providers will give their sales reps arifiQ Entry so they can place orders while with their customers, rather than bringing back those laborious RFQ’s,” Rosén says. With a mobile phone, tablet, or laptop, she says, the rep can access the PSP’s server to get custom quotes instantly, and 24/7, while they are on the phone or sitting with customers.
How arifiQ Entry works

The salesperson or other professional uses arifiQ Entry to access the printer’s estimating server from anywhere, at anytime, using any internet connection.  (Editorial note: No one’s – No One’s – estimating solution can do the following.) In only seconds, arifiQ’s proprietary algorithms generate up to one septillion 1024 (or more)combinations based on the printer’s resources and cost variables, to arrive at a quote.  Resources include printing presses, paper stock, and post-press machinery; while cost variables include hourly rates, discounts, and profit margins.

Campaign feature: Pieces are imposed together
Using this feature, reps can obtain estimates on many print jobs at one time, and get not only pricing, but also optimized imposition and media decisions[2]. Campaign functionality is one of the features available in both arifiQ PRO and arifiQ Entry.
Versions for PSPs, Designers, and In-Plants
In addition to arifiQ PRO and new arifiQ Entry, arifiQ Development offers a plugin for Adobe InDesign, as well as an in-plant solution, arifiQ deQuote, which provides quotes via the “print” function on any conventional computer.
Price, Availability and On-Demand Demonstrations
arifiQ Entry is immediately available at a flat monthly rate, with no setup fee. Any number of users are included, free of charge. There is also no long-term agreement: If users decide to stop using arifiQ Entry, there is a one month cancellation period.
Sample pricing is as follows. arifiQ has also provided a price calculator at arifiq.com/pricing.
Small Print-shop: arifiQ Entry per mo. $118
Medium printer with Hybrid Production: arifiQ Entry per mo. $616
Large offset printer: arifiQ Entry per mo. $1792
Interested parties can obtain a demonstration on-demand, at info@arifiq.com.
“Increasing revenue and customer experience is number one on every CEO’s to-do list, says Carina Karlsson, arifiQ Development CEO. “The huge potential for these opportunities can begin to be realized with arifiQ products.”
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 the company’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 outcomes for the industry.
arifiQ Development’s ROI calculator allows interested parties to review savings/profits that result from using arifiQ products. Additional profits (or savings) are realized because studies show that 30% of jobs go to the first quote.

[1]In a focus group arranged by arifiQ Development in 2015, the average wait time for the first quote on a custom job was found to be 3 days, within a range of 3 hours and 8 days.

[2]If the PSP needs to gang-run jobs from different clients, arifiQ PRO is required together with the Gang Run module.

Media contact:
Helene Smith
HSPR
+1 321 388 6511

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

Print Service Providers wish for Instant Quotes

February 8, 2017

Workflows may be automated, but getting quotes on jobs can take so long that new and even existing customers will take their work elsewhere to meet deadlines.

This is just one of the major findings in a new report on estimating systems, released by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) School of Media Sciences. In addition to reduced quotation cycles, mobility and compatibility with standards are also missing from many print service provider’s current estimating solutions.

Gannett Professor Chris Bondy and Media Arts and Technology student Wesley Odell identified and reviewed a variety of estimating systems, and interviewed print service provider participants representing various positions in their respective companies. Positions ranged from estimating and operations, to company leadership. 

At the top of Print Service Providers’ Wish Lists: Faster Quotes

The length of time spent waiting for a quote heads the list of frustrations. The researchers found that those sampled spent an average of 2 hours and 10 minutes on administrative tasks related to the quote process, including job planning, for every order.

This frustration is a big reason why arifiQ’s estimating application is now in use at several, major, North American print production companies. arifiQ utilizes a unique algorithm that can process septillions of combinations of print devices, substrates and other production variables to find a quote or quotes – on even complex jobs – that salespersons or their customers can review, or submit, within seconds.

“arifiQ is quite a bit further down the road than several other suppliers, in terms of turning around a quote quickly, whether the job be simple or complex, “says Bondy. “arifiQ is cutting that 2 hour plus wait into a minute or two, at most. They’ve raised the bar for the category.”

Another Ask: Easy-to-Use Interface and Mobility

Owned and run by executives who grew up in the print industry, arifiQ also offers one of the easiest to use interfaces. This makes it possible for wider groups of people to obtain quotes, keep jobs on schedule, and submit jobs for production.  Salespeople can utilize arifiQ’s mobile features while on-site at customer locations. Customers can directly use arifiQ as well, as it is available via the cloud for anyone — from anywhere – 24/7.

More Power for Those Who Want It

The arifiQ estimating engine brings even more value in terms of scalability and openness, especially as it is one of the only estimating solutions to offer an Open API for simple integration with other applications and workflows.

Today, versions of arifiQ with add-on modules have made it a full-scale MIS. A few customers see it as the platform for their entire Business Information System, in the not-too-distant future!

Read the RIT Press Release HERE

Read the Estimating Research Study Executive Summery HERE

For a complete copy of the research report, contact Prof. Chris Bondy at cxbppr@rit.edu, © 2017.

Introducing arifiQ Entry: The Industry’s Fastest Online Quoting Tool is Designed to Increase Print Sales

Introducing arifiQ Entry: The Industry’s Fastest Online Quoting Tool is Designed to Increase Print Sales

  • arifiQ Entry is the fastest way to quote and submit custom print jobs.
  • Printers and customers can view quotes, try numerous iterations, and submit online job orders that are instantly accepted for production.
  • Connects seamlessly with printers’ existing MIS, ERP or other systems.
December 6, 2016 – arifiQ Development introduces arifiQ Entry, designed to give anyone — such as CSRs, print buyers, and print sales teams — the ability to instantly and easily obtain quotes and place orders for custom print jobs, from anywhere. arifiQ Entry relieves the bottleneck – from several hours to many days — between the time a customer approves a job, and when he or she gets an estimate/quote back from a printer[1]. In contrast, arifiQ Entry and the full family of arifiQ solutions return accurate quotes in a minute or less.
Eliminating the long wait for print quotes has been at the top of “wish list” features requested of technology developers, by printers. As customer satisfaction (aka “the customer experience”) is now accepted as primary insurance for business success, arifiQ’s existing customers have found that eliminating the wait has generated dramatic, positive response by employees and customers.
Available immediately at a flat monthly rate, arifiQ Entry uses the company’s powerful arifiQ core engine to give users the unique quotation and optimized production benefits in all arifiQ products. arifiQ Entry also exports to, or integrates with, any MIS, ERP, prepress, or other order management system; and offers 12 of the 14 major benefits available in arifiQ’s high-end solution, arifiQ PRO.
“Customers usually have an approved version of a job when the salesperson calls or comes to see them; and they should not have to wait days to get the first quote,” says Eva Rosén, who is not only President and CMO of arifiQ Development; but is, along with her two co-founders, a print shop owner of many years.
“Print service providers will give their sales reps arifiQ Entry so they can place orders while with their customers, rather than bringing back those laborious RFQ’s,” Rosén says. With a mobile phone, tablet, or laptop, she says, the rep can access the PSP’s server to get custom quotes instantly, and 24/7, while they are on the phone or sitting with customers.
How arifiQ Entry works

The salesperson or other professional uses arifiQ Entry to access the printer’s estimating server from anywhere, at anytime, using any internet connection.  (Editorial note: No one’s – No One’s – estimating solution can do the following.) In only seconds, arifiQ’s proprietary algorithms generate up to one septillion 1024 (or more)combinations based on the printer’s resources and cost variables, to arrive at a quote.  Resources include printing presses, paper stock, and post-press machinery; while cost variables include hourly rates, discounts, and profit margins.

Campaign feature: Pieces are imposed together
Using this feature, reps can obtain estimates on many print jobs at one time, and get not only pricing, but also optimized imposition and media decisions[2]. Campaign functionality is one of the features available in both arifiQ PRO and arifiQ Entry.
Versions for PSPs, Designers, and In-Plants
In addition to arifiQ PRO and new arifiQ Entry, arifiQ Development offers a plugin for Adobe InDesign, as well as an in-plant solution, arifiQ deQuote, which provides quotes via the “print” function on any conventional computer.
Price, Availability and On-Demand Demonstrations
arifiQ Entry is immediately available at a flat monthly rate, with no setup fee. Any number of users are included, free of charge. There is also no long-term agreement: If users decide to stop using arifiQ Entry, there is a one month cancellation period.
Sample pricing is as follows. arifiQ has also provided a price calculator at arifiq.com/pricing.
Small Print-shop: arifiQ Entry per mo. $118
Medium printer with Hybrid Production: arifiQ Entry per mo. $616
Large offset printer: arifiQ Entry per mo. $1792
Interested parties can obtain a demonstration on-demand, at info@arifiq.com.
“Increasing revenue and customer experience is number one on every CEO’s to-do list, says Carina Karlsson, arifiQ Development CEO. “The huge potential for these opportunities can begin to be realized with arifiQ products.”
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 the company’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 outcomes for the industry.
arifiQ Development’s ROI calculator allows interested parties to review savings/profits that result from using arifiQ products. Additional profits (or savings) are realized because studies show that 30% of jobs go to the first quote.

[1]In a focus group arranged by arifiQ Development in 2015, the average wait time for the first quote on a custom job was found to be 3 days, within a range of 3 hours and 8 days.

[2]If the PSP needs to gang-run jobs from different clients, arifiQ PRO is required together with the Gang Run module.

Media contact:
Helene Smith
HSPR
+1 321 388 6511