CIP4 and CloudLab established the Print Procurement Workgroup

 

The goal is to develop a standard interface for print procurement

 

The CIP4 Organisation has set up a new workgroup: the “Print Procurement Workgroup”. In April 2018 it started its work and met for the second time in Berlin last week. Andreas Storms, co-founder of CloudLab and our Chief Operating Officer, is a member of this working group. As expected, Stefan Meissner of Flyeralarm was appointed interim chairman.

The goals set are the standardization of automated interactions in online printing, the definition of a “print procurement ICS” (Interoperability Conformance Specification) and the establishment of this as a standard interface – an ambitious task!

 

By the end of this year, a first version of this universally valid interface specification will be available, which in future will define all relevant interfaces in online printing for automatic print procurement as a standard document, thus ensuring a significantly simplified networking of print shops. The focus here is on the JDF successor XJDF. XJDF (Exchange Job Definition Format) is a further development of JDF (Job Definition Format) and can be used to network companies and online platforms. The task of the working group is to find out whether and how the interactions around online printing can be standardized using XJDF. All this sounds like an exciting project.

 

We from CloudLab are pleased to be part of this exciting journey and to be one of the first providers to enable our customers to submit orders using XJDF. We are eager to see what happens next and wish Andreas and the rest of the Print Procurement Workgroup good ideas, clear minds and successful implementation.