DATA INTEGRATION -- Tooling Up for CIM

One of the things JDF currently is lacking is some specific functionality around prepress messaging, Daisy points out. Vendors have to implement extensions to get around those issues. One example is the integration work Printcafe has done with Creo Inc., he says.

"In the real world, operators can be working on a file in prepress before the job even exists in the management system. In JDF, the concept of beginning work before the job exists, as such, is foreign. We've had to create extensions that allow Prinergy to start working on a job as it's sending the information to the management system so, when the job is opened in the management system, all the data associations are automatically made," Daisy explains.