Suomeksi
In EnglishFLOWMAN EMBARKS ON WORLD-WIDE EXPANSION PROGRAMME
Date 02/04/2008
The successful implementation at several major Scandinavian newspapers of the ‘Software as a Service’ - SaaS - technology developed by Flowman Oy has resulted in the Finnish software house expanding its international operations. As part of this move into global markets, Flowman has taken on Bill Geller and Les Henderson. Both men, who are based in London, have long and successful track records within the newspaper industry, and for many years held senior positions with Autologic. In their new roles they will help to raise Flowman’s international presence and establish worldwide sales channels.
“Today, the market is awash with mature pre-press workflow products, which provide some distinctive abilities in certain parts of the production cycle,” says Les Henderson. “However, what attracted us to Flowman is that, whilst most suppliers concentrate on offering refined versions of their current products, Flowman’s SaaS outsourcing solution represents a significant evolution of pre-press and new media management for newspaper and magazine publishers as well as print houses.
“The core of the scheme is ‘Software as a Service’. No investment is required in areas such as computer hardware, IT skills, maintenance contracts and software updates. Users access the service via the Internet and the Flowman software processes all the requested pre-press tasks such as imposition, pre-flighting, validating, approval of proofs, colour corrections/calibration, fan-out compensation and even outputting to a CtP or film setter at multiple selected print sites.
“All of this is carried out quickly and accurately by the Flowman service solution. With no capital investment, contract printers can create a simple ‘PDF page web upload service’ that matches their printing press capabilities and offer it to publishing houses anywhere in the world,” says Les Henderson.
Flowman will also incorporate areas outside the traditional pre-press workflow, and can include processing advertisement copy, integration with press controls and advertisement booking systems etc. The package is tailored to suit the customer requirements and allows them to focus on what they are best at,” says Bill Geller
“The advantages of Flowman’s ‘Software as a Service’ to the end user are huge in terms of eliminating large chunks of investment and on-going pre-press IT related costs and removing the need for on-site disaster recovery systems or replication of work. The choice of payment options is extremely flexible and could be based around a click per item charge (with an item being, for instance, a page), a monthly licence fee or a fee per publication.
“The Flowman concept has been well received in the Finnish and Swedish newspaper markets and within a relatively short period it has been taken up by more than 500 titles, including regional and national papers. Flowman’s ‘Software as a Service’ is suitable for any high volume pagination application and so we expect magazine publishers and printers to be interested in the system, as well as newspapers.”
NOTE FOR EDITORS
Flowman Oy is a Finnish high-tech company dedicated to streamlining business processes in the print media industry. The company has successfully combined Finnish industry automation and software competence with its pre-press production background. Flowman's aim is to bring best practices from different industry sectors to the print media industry, enabling a new way to think business processes. Flowman has its headquarters in Oulu, Finland, and operations in Sweden and the UK.
For further information please contact:
BILL GELLER
Direct +44 20 7435 1920
Mobile +44
7922 011 221
E-mail bill.geller@flowman.fi
LES HENDERSON
+44 15 8287 2643
+44 770 414 5806
E-mail
les.henderson@flowman.fi