The first implementation of Kodak’s Prinergy On Demand Business Solutions AI-based software is to take place at Missouri, US-based commercial printer Modern Litho, in order to provide joined-up software automation across all aspects of the business.
Modern Litho operates five production sites in Missouri and produces magazines, catalogues, direct mail and other commercial print and despite its name, has a significant fleet of digital presses including a Kodak Nexpress and nine Ricoh machines, as well as Kodak CTP equipment and plates for its litho operations.
The company had recently switched to Kodak’s cloud-based Prinergy On Demand platform but had not been able to achieve the desired end-to-end integration of business and production systems using existing ERP and web-to-print software from other suppliers.
‘We weren’t getting the support we needed from our legacy provider to integrate email, CRM and MIS functionality with Prinergy. In addition, they have been slow to adapt software to keep pace with changing financial, tax and logistics regulations,’ explained Jim Tomblinson, VP of operations at Modern Litho.
‘By contrast, Kodak and Microsoft will contribute key Office and Business functionality to Prinergy On Demand Business Solutions. Microsoft is responsive and drives continuous investments to accelerate connectivity. In view of the challenges confronting us, that’s an enormous advantage and one we’re excited to leverage.’
The Kodak offering, launched in December 2020, combines ERP/MIS functionality with collaboration tools, web-to-print, CRM and Microsoft Office and the Prinergy On Demand production workflow. The software also includes print-specific analytics and AI capabilities and is supported by real-time Managed Services.
‘In the past, we’ve always had to contend with various software providers to meet our integration and connectivity requirements. That cost us a great deal of time, effort and money – often without delivering the desired results,’ Mr Tomblinson added. ‘Aligning our pre-production workflow to match the industry-leading production and manufacturing workflows Modern Litho is known for is a key component of our strategic plan going forward. We believe this innovative product from Kodak and its partners is the solution that will achieve this for Modern Litho. Kodak’s Prinergy On Demand Business Solutions will now finally give us what we’ve been looking for: a complete, single-vendor solution that lives up to our integration and connectivity expectations in every respect.’
‘Modern Litho shares our vision of a fully connected system that drives automation, AI and actionable analytics. All of these are hallmarks of Prinergy On Demand Business Solutions which deliver significant efficiency, productivity and profitability benefits for our customers,’ commented Todd Bigger, vice president, Print, Kodak.
The software implementation is currently underway and is expected to go live across all of the Modern Litho’s sites in October 2021.
