EFI IQ, a new suite of free and paid cloud applications that includes EFI IQ Dashboard, EFI Insight and EFI Notify, is designed to operate with Fiery Driven cut-sheet digital printers to minimize bottlenecks and boost equipment utilization.
To access IQ’s free applications, businesses can open an EFI IQ account online. Additional paid applications in the suite, including EFI ColorGuard and the new EFI Manage, extend users’ capabilities.
“Print operations generate an overwhelming amount of data, and it can be difficult to transform that volume of data into actionable business insights,” said Toby Weiss, senior vice president and general manager, EFI Fiery. “Our objective with the EFI IQ suite is to make data readily available in a form that makes it easy for users to take action. That way, customers can optimize production in real time with a goal of creating the most efficient and effective digital printing operation possible.”
One early EFI IQ user, Vancouver, Canada-based BOND Reproductions, is seeing greater data insights that drive productivity. “With EFI IQ applications, we can improve our production performance,” said BOND Reproductions production manager Kara Marcal. “Because we can see our data, we can identify inefficiencies, make process improvements to be more productive, and make better all-around decisions.”
EFI IQ Dashboard provides a personalized view of a user’s digital printing operation and is the launching pad for all EFI IQ applications, says a press release. Users can monitor the status of any printers, consumables and job status on their Fiery Driven printers. Printer groups as well as role-based permissions allow for managing more sophisticated environments with many printers or users.
EFI Insight provides users with historical data in an interactive environment to help users transform print production data into actionable analytics that drive business improvement. Insight displays trend analytics, including shift and other comparisons. Print users can use this intelligence to make data-driven decisions to increase shop floor productivity, or import a job log to perform extensive analysis.
EFI Notify allows users to get production-blocking alerts, as well as establish timing for automatic distribution of production reports.
Customers can also get IQ capabilities such as dashboard metrics, notifications and more on their mobile phones via the EFI Go app.
Extended capabilities for quality and production control
The EFI IQ suite’s paid applications include EFI ColorGuard – winner of a 2019 SGIA Product of the Year Award for colour enhancement software. This cloud-based software helps automate and standardize colour verification and calibration processes to help ensure printers get the best colour output. By ensuring consistently accurate colour, users can win more business, reduce waste and eliminate rejected jobs.
Sites with many Fiery digital front ends will benefit from subscribing to the EFI Manage application, which remotely monitors Fiery DFEs to keep production running at its best, syncing print devices and setting compliance targets for the best print production outcomes.
Fiery Users can create an EFI IQ account or find more information at https://iq.efi.com
