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Midmarket Print Suite

A suite of applications “decades in the making” aimed at optimising production processes
How does it work?

The Midmarket Print Suite is based
around ePS’ core Pace MIS with optional
modules that include the MarketDirect
storefront for e-commerce and cross-
media, and online fulfilment; Pace schedul-
ing or PrintFlow dynamic scheduling;
Metrix for job ganging; Auto-Count real-
time shop floor data collection; and Process
Shipper for single source multi-carrier
shipping integration. The solutions can be
run locally at the user’s site or hosted by ePS
as a cloud service.
There are also some certified links to
third party Rip-workflow production sys-
tems including EFI Fiery and HP Print OS
for digital printing, EFI Fiery and Caldera
for wide format presses and other prepress
What does it do? What are the target markets?
Specifications systems including Agfa Apogee, Heidelberg
It’s a modular solution of a core MIS/ Essentially mid-to-large sized commer- Prinect, Esko Automation Engine and
ERP application set (called Pace) with a Modules: cial printers, as the name suggests.
range of certified workflows including Estimating, plan- ePS has two other general-purpose Kodak Prinergy. Pace has integrated
e-commerce, ganging, scheduling, data ning, purchasing, print MIS offerings: the Quick Print accounting, but customers can link to third
collection and shipping optimisation. invoicing, inven- Suite, for smaller printers; and the party accounting systems. Connectivity
tory management, options to other systems can use JDF, ePS’s
When was it announced? shop floor data col- Enterprise Suite for large multi-site,
lection, scheduling, multi-national firms. There are also more Integration Toolkit or a full SOAP or JSON
The Midmarket Print Suite is the cur- and reporting specialised variants for publications and
rent name for an ongoing development of engine direct mail work. ePS also recently based API.
MIS modules that was started by EFI and What’s the USP?
continued when EFI’s production soft- Contact ePS 07969 acquired UK MIS developer Tharstern.
ware operations were spun off last year as 171675 (Dean The Midmarket Print Suite is targeted According to Benkovich the Midmarket
eProductivity Software. Its core is the Anderson, UK in between these, for commercial print- Print Suite is unique due to “the breadth of
Pace MIS, which uses some elements sales), www. ers with up to about £15m turnover, the ePS solution and the certified work-
developed out of EFI’s many MIS devel- epssw.com although ePS emphasises it’s more about
oper acquisitions over the past two dec- 30mm 210x297mm/600x400mm workflows than precise revenues. flows, allowing a single-vendor approach
ades, and before that to the acquisitive “The workflows are many and varied and removing the need for the customer to
PrintCafé that launched in 2000 and was Feed capacity 30mm and that is why we spend so much time be the integrator for their workflow”. He
itself acquired by EFI in 2003. on certification of workflows for offset, also claims it offers users “unlimited flexi-
So it’s hard to put a precise date on it. digital and wide-format printers,” says
According to Nick Benkovich, VP portfo- Benkovich. “Add to this the complexity of bility in their growth and scale, to add mod-
lio product management at ePS, “the how they receive jobs via e-commerce, ules and workflows as their business grows
Midmarket Suite has really been decades email, spreadsheet or even a phone call – and evolves”.
in the making given the history of many it’s all about delivering a workflow that “Many of our consultants that imple-
of the market-leading and award-win- optimises data entry, reduces production ment the Midmarket Suite are former con-
ning components. However the Suite
solution approach launched a little over costs, minimises employee fatigue and sultants on our legacy platforms, so they are
eight years ago during our Connect user lets businesses get on with the profitable adept at helping customers transition to the
event in Las Vegas”. production of print and fulfilment jobs.” new solution,” says Benkovich.
Midmarket Print Suite is unique due to “the breadth of the ePS solution and the certified workflows.”

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