In this film, Robert Zegwaard explains how they use Enfocus Switch as the totally indispensable tool for managing more than 1,000 daily orders. Requirements from customers, combined with the requirements for efficient production, are handled by Switch. Wihabo has used Switch for a long time, but with more than a hundred flows, and an increasing need for automation, Switch is an essential tool enabling its growth!

Enjoy!

My name is Robert Zegwaard. I’m living in the Netherlands. And we are working at Wihabo, a printing company in the southern part of the Netherlands. We’re doing many digital projects. Printing for all kinds of customers. Mostly in between the web shops or that kind of companies. I’ve got some HP Indigo presses, flatbeds, Indigo HP press.

Receiving orders from other printing companies – how do you manage that?

Every company has its own kind of products. And there are own ways of delivering the orders to you. The metadata about the orders is always a little different. So that’s the challenge. And I guess that’s where Switch comes in.

Why is Enfocus Switch important to Wihabo?

Switch is about the backbone of our company I guess. The digital backbone. We process an average of thousand jobs a day. We have to get it right. We are in need of good automation and Switch helps us with that. We daily work with Switch in that case.

How is Enfocus Switch used to help you managing the orders?

We’re using it to intake files, pre flighting, making it. All jobs meet our standards, connection to our ERP system, and from there on to the presses. If possible, without any human intervention. And after the jobs have been completed, we also give feedback to our customers about shipments, etc..

Sounds like you wouldn”t be able to manage your business without Switch?

It is impossible. It couldn’t be done manually or not to a good price. So automation is absolutely necessary today.

Do you initiate Switch flows in-house?

That’s one scenario. But also our customers ask for features. And there are always ways to improve our workflow. So we can always continue working on that end.

How do you accomodate the needed changes?

It differs. Some customers come with a global ID and ask us to see where it goes and what the possibilities are. Other customers say, I have this kind of product and can you produce it? It has to be this and this. So both ways.

Most companies get into workflow/automation doing simple tasks and then develop from there.  Is that also the case for Wihabo?

We started or I started with small workflows. And they grew and grew. And now there are well over 100 small workflows in Switch which work together to process all files. And it went from a very simple workflow, getting files in to a very complex workflows with scripting and everything that’s possible with Switch. Database connections, everything.

You mention database connection. Can you explain how you use that connection?

Getting a job, you receive a job, there’s a lot of metadata with it. We form that to our standards and then that is pushed to our MIS system. Which will be used for invoicing, et cetera. And we get information out of the MIS system back to Switch with information on how to produce certain products.

So also using it to convert metadata to fit your requirements, right?

In that case, we will take their data and we’ll have to modify it to our standards. And then we’ll have to process the job. And in other cases, we can ask the customer to make their orders to our standards.

How is your relationship with Enfocus?

Well, it’s a good relationship. They are usually quite fast with answering questions. So that’s very nice and very helpful.