EFI Buys Pace, Debuts Monarch

LAS VEGAS—The acquisition by EFI of MIS and e-commerce competitor Pace Systems Group for approximately $21 million in cash headlined the announcements made at EFI’s Connect 2008 users conference meeting held at the Wynn Las Vegas this week. The browser-based ePace print management solution will be renamed EFI Pace and will eventually replace EFI’s PSI and Logic platforms (which will still continue to be supported by EFI). The new solution is geared toward the mid-market segment.

Targeted toward large single and multi-plant printing operations, EFI debuted EFI Monarch, which combines Hagen OA’s MIS toolset, the capabilities of Prograph for production planning and JDF control, PrintFlow for dynamic scheduling and optimization, and Auto-Count for shop floor data collection via direct machine interface.

Existing PSI and Logic customers will also be offered an easy upgrade path to EFI Pace or EFI Monarch. EFI PrintSmith will continue to serve on-demand, copy shops, quick printers and small commercial shops.