At drupa, Prism was in two areas, in the NGP partners area and on the JDF Innovation Parc, showing its commitment to the standard that everybody was talking about at drupa.

And it was provoking plenty of interest on the stand. David Sparling, Prism chief
technology officer, says, “People are talking to us as much about connectivity as about our own products. They are asking where we are in the JDF story and where we are going with it.”

The answer was there for all to see on the stand at drupa. The Prism MIS was linking in real time with Heidelberg’s Prinect system, sending and receiving information via JDF and JMF standards.

Prism is testing JDF compatibility with eight or nine partners, according to Sparling, and is well down the road on JDF development.

But the show wasn’t all about connectivity for the company. It showed the latest version of its MIS at the show, a development that Sparling describes as evolutionary, rather than revolutionary.

There have been some changes, for instance, to the integrated accounting module. There is a very sophisticated pricing matrix that allows for specific pricing according to quantity, customer or market.

The new version has also introduced estimating wizards to allow smoother and faster data entry, without having to go into the full blown data-entry process for estimation. It means that non-experts can populate the forms as if they are experts, saving time before the final result is checked by an expert.

As with all the changes to Prism software, it is a question of doing it quicker with fewer people and fewer mistakes, Sparling says.

Another new product is IQ, which has already been installed in several sites in the UK. Designed to “sit right on top of JDF”, Sparling describes IQ as an exciting new product.

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