UI, Automation, and AI Innovations Highlighted at Connect 2024

Gaby Matsliach, CEO, eProductivity Software gives the opening keynote at Connect 2024.

At eProductivity Software’s (ePS) annual Connect 2024 event held Aug. 20-22, at the Venetian resort in Las Vegas, there were a few key trends that emerged through several days packed with educational breakout sessions, informative general sessions, and lots of opportunities to connect and network with peers. 

The first big one that stands out is the emphasis across the company’s entire suite of software on a new, more streamlined user interface (UI). Again and again the same observations were made by attendees that the rest of the industry is intimately familiar with: it is hard to find good help – and keep it – in today’s business environment. ePS heard that common lament, and decided to tackle it head on, reworking the UI for all of its products to make them far easier to use. 

In particular, noted Nick Benkovich, VP, Portfolio Management & Strategic Partnerships, Print ePS, the company reimagined the UI to be easy to jump right in for someone brand new to the industry, without the years – decades even – of knowledge and experience their counterparts of the past might have had. It’s even more welcome as more seasoned professionals, especially in the estimating side of the print business, are retiring and there is no one coming up behind them to take their place. 

As a result, the new systems – and all the ePS solutions – are designed to be accessible, with drop-down menus, templates, and built-in navigation aids all designed to be just as easy for a brand new sales manager with zero print experience to use as the experts. That said, they have also made it easy and seamless to transition between them, for example, Benkovich pointed out, a sales manager could use the templates to create all the less complicated estimates, while they can save and kick it over to the expert in the company when something more complicated does come up.  

This strategy was echoed by Gaby Matsliach, CEO, ePS, who noted, “How can we make it more intuitive for the next generation, which is less technical?” He pointed out it was less about changing the way the software systems work, or removing functionality, but more a matter of re-defining the way the system look and feel, and how users move around them. The results are impressive, with systems that are just as feature-rich and powerful as they have always been, but not as intimidating to dive into. 

There was a full room for the Women's Networking Luncheon at Connect 2024.

Another way ePS is making the software easier to use is by adding what Matsliach calls “next-level automation,” which can be seen in multiple products, including iQuote, the Productivity Workbench, and ePS Automator — of course.   

In a product roadmap press conference, Benkovich highlighted the company’s ongoing commitment to automation and AI — noting AI is not new for them or really for the printing and manufacturing industries. Nevertheless, Benkovich also noted new automation and AI capabilities, including embedded Microsoft Copilot features, have the potential to improve efficiency, reduce manual labor, and future-proof IT systems in the printing industries.  

He shared a case study where a commercial printer with 4/4, 40-in. sheetfed equipment, wide-format printers, digital presses, variable-data printing technologies, point-of-purchase capabilities, and mailing capabilities was using automation features in ePS Monarch to save 30 hours a week in their estimating and purchasing workflows.  

Benkovich also noted automated material dispatch and staging features in Monarch’s Material Director paired with PrintFlow 4D were transforming operations on the cement side of the business, with a special note on the heuristic scheduling features of the company’s software. Benkovich noted that simple algorithms based on press speeds might be good enough for rough estimates but are not optimal for real-world operations optimizations. The Heuristic scheduling features used by PrintFlow 4D allow the software to make iterative adjustments that enable decision-making based on real-time data that can be dynamic and often have interdependencies. Thus, PrintFlow 4D’s use of AI technology enables the software to handle complex scheduling needs, provide a comprehensive overview of real-time production processes, and enable proactive management of printing operations.  

PrintFlow isn’t the only ePS product to benefit from the addition of AI technologies. Benkovich also showcased SmartCanvas for MarketDirect Storefront. The mobile-friendly design tool acknowledges the challenges of designing on devices and uses AI to simplify image editing on all Internet-connected devices and by print and packaging buyers of all levels of sophistication. 

From left: Jules Van Sant, Executive Director, Two Sides North America (and vice chair of PGSF) speaks with Carrie Klepzig, VP, Global Marketing, eProductivity Software

Another major trend that threaded through the event was a focus on sustainability, with multiple speakers noting that while interest had waned a bit over the years, it has surged in recent months, and gone far beyond the demands of the past. It’s not enough to simply use recycled paper anymore – today's brands, print buyers, and consumers all want to know the full chain of custody for every product, and that includes the marketing materials and packaging.  

Jules VanSant, the executive director of TwoSides North America – as well as the vice chairman of PGSF, and founder of Bubble & Hatch, a marketing services provider – noted that “paper and paper-based packaging have a great environmental story to tell.” While one of the greatest myths that consumers have been fed is that packaging and paper harm the environment, the reality, she pointed out, is that the opposite is true. 55% of consumers, for example, believe our forests are shrinking, when we’re really planting 18 million acres per year worldwide. We only farm about 2% of the forests on any given year for paper and paper-based products, and that compares to around 3% per year of loss due to some kind of natural disaster, such as fires. “Our industry is very responsible,” she noted. 

Recycling is another myth, with 61% of consumers not realizing that to have recycled paper, you do also need some virgin fiber mixed in, or the whole thing starts to disintegrate. Keeping a sustainable, responsible program going – and there are multiple great organizations that provide certifications – will actually ensure we can continue to use recycled paper fibers well into the future. 

Greenwashing is part of the conversation however, with VanSant noting that is a big problem that many governments - local, federal, and international – have started to get more serious about. It hurts everyone when companies are allowed to get away with sustainability claims they can’t back up, not the least of which is the environment itself. 

To that end, there were a number of tips shared throughout Connect on how to be more sustainable, ranging from working with organizations to earn certifications, to getting the numbers from your recycling partners and vendors each year and publishing the actual amount of ink, paper, and other consumables recycled from your operation on an annual basis.  

Another great tip is actually a tool that is being integrated into the ePS solutions, and was garnering a lot of interest – the ability to interface carbon quota directly into an operation’s data streams. In practice, one great example was being able to include on every estimate the expected carbon footprint of a print job – be it a marketing mail campaign or a packaging run – so a customer can understand the impacts of their specific job – and even make adjustments to things like the substrate or ink technology to bring that number down. And then, on the invoice, the data can be run again to show the actual numbers of how the carbon footprint ended up falling for a job. Maybe it was delayed and had to run on a different machine. Maybe the substrate was out of stock and had to be swapped out. Maybe a change was made at the last minute to the design that had an impact. The point is that you can provide those real numbers to a customer so they can they use that to help meeting their own sustainability reporting requirements.