New EskoArtwork Is Poised To Offer End-to-End Solutions

By Ron Romanik

Before two became one, Esko was the leading global system integrator to the packaging preproduction industry, and Artwork Systems was a leader in integrated software solutions for prepress. The EskoArtwork merger announced this summer intends to consolidate the market leadership of both companies in packaging and printing preproduction products and services.

The physical integration of the companies will include moving the Artwork Systems personnel from their Ghent, Belgium, office into Esko's headquarters, which is only three miles away in Ghent. The strategic rationale for the transaction stems from a desire to better utilize each company's complementary strengths, expert sales and support channels, and global customer bases in the packaging and commercial printing market segments. The foreseeable future will include gradual integration of the company's internal structure and gradual integration of the company's products and services.

Familiar faces remain

However, there is a new EskoArtwork logo, and new job titles have been handed out. Carsten Knudsen, formerly CEO of Esko-Graphics A/S, is now CEO of EskoArtwork, and Guido Van der Schueren, formerly chairman of the board of directors of Artwork Systems Group NV, is now the chief commercial officer of EskoArtwork. Knudsen and Van der Schueren now form the Executive Management Board, and both serve as executive directors on the Supervisory Board of EskoArtwork.

"From a cultural perspective, we do not see too many challenges in integrating the business," says Knudsen, noting that the two companies were certainly not strangers to one another before. Van der Schueren agrees that the integration will be largely amenable, noting: "In more than 70% of Artwork Systems' customer base, there was no overlap with Esko." One reason the three founders of Artwork Systems favored the merger is that they believed joining forces with Esko would provide the optimal basis for securing future growth and development of Artwork Systems products.

Another reason for the merger is to offer one-stop solutions for end-to-end product development, package design, asset management, and production efficiency. "We are completing these product offerings to our customers," says Knudsen, "enabling them to take control of the entire process." Knudsen believes that both companies were already on the same page in terms of the high value they place on customer service and how they listen to customers' needs. Knudsen says there are no immediate plans for new products or services associated with the merger, aside from the streamlining of their business and sales processes.

René Delbar, senior v.p. business development at EskoArwork, also stresses that no products will be lost in the transition to the new company. As they have in the past, designers and prepress professionals can choose to use products from the two "sources" side-by-side. What they can look forward to, however, is a gradual integration and refinement of the products that will help them work together in a more productive and seamless fashion.

New efficiencies and open systems

EskoArtwork hopes to supply end-to-end solutions that make common tasks automated and intuitive, like trapping troubleshooting (top), secondary packaging structure design (middle), and web-enabled review processes (bottom).

Delbar explains that the corporate philosophy of process integration at EskoArtwork will continue as it had at the separate companies to address the current trends in production processes. Instead of "islands" of organizations or preproduction workers each having different, isolated tasks, the goal is to have a continuum of processes. "All these roles and expertise will continue to exist, but it's more of a collaborative process today," says Delbar. "It's not a one-way street anymore."

Delbar observes that the underlying current of recent years is that during product and package development, there are more parties who want to be involved in the process. The challenge is to make useful information available to all who want or need it, as successful workflows today must operate as open, integrated systems. To this end, EskoArtwork will continue to improve processes that are fully network- and web-enabled and capable of managing multi-site, distributed design and production workflows.

EskoArtwork solutions will also improve the interconnection and data interchange between multiple functions through the use of broadly accepted industry data standards, including PDF, XMP, and JDF. EskoArtwork tools let users work virtually, in real-time, with internal creative, marketing, package designer, engineering groups, external vendors and suppliers, and internal personnel. Other goals on the software product side of EskoArtwork's business include refining products to look and behave similarly, to combine functions, to remove repeated steps, to allow for simultaneous graphic and structure development, and to add more automated software tools.

No need to be an expert

In creating software with greater functionality, EskoArwork hopes to empower novice and experienced designers alike. They believe some design or process functions can be nearly automatic, as they already are in their current plug-in offerings. For example, by importing the CAD drawing of a product, Esko ArtiosCAD can create custom secondary packaging for a product without the designer needing to perform the measurements. An Esko DeskPack plug-in for Adobe Illustrator can troubleshoot trapping issues in a file and fix them without the designer taking the time to make graphic changes manually.

"We are giving designers the capabilities to work more closely with the production environment without being experts," Delbar says. He likens it to being a master chef who no longer needs a precise recipe to finish a dish. "Why not give the designer the ability to execute, judge, and tweak for aesthetic design without having to understand every step?" Delbar asks rhetorically.

The Esko Visualizer software empowers designers with 3D views but, more importantly, demonstrates the appearance of special effects such as embossing or metallic inks under different lighting conditions–all in a live interactive interface, with even the ability to create a QuickTime movie for sharing with other project participants. This allows "virtual" design ideas to be communicated quickly back and forth between different parties in the production process. Tools like this save manufacturing and prototyping costs and decision-making time both early on and in the final approval stages.

"The software should come with the intelligence to know how the user thinks and works," says Delbar. "If a designer doesn't immediately understand how to use it, then we've done something wrong." Delbar notes that today's designers and production professionals come to their jobs with a high-level of familiarity and competence with core design software interfaces. EskoArtwork wants to play to the strengths of common interfaces (like Adobe's Creative Suite, for instance) and make their own software look more consistent across their product lines.

The ultimate goal is an overall richer experience that allows design professionals to be better prepared and more responsible in their day-to-day work. However, Delbar says that EskoArtwork does not intend to reinvent the wheel, and the tools and software that designers are familiar with today will remain available. "We won't ask anyone to switch from Esko to Artwork products or vice versa," Delbar reassures. "And it is not our intention to have a master application that would be the Swiss army knife of design."