Allegra Print & Imaging, Portage, Michigan

Business Type
Full service commercial printer

System Configuration
Xitron Navigator GPS workflow

Customer Profile
On December 13, 1988, an American Speedy Printing Center opened in Portage, Michigan. Bill Kaufman, a former Xerox Corporation employee decided to make the
transition from manufacturer to customer. The company began in a small rented facility with three employees. Bill was hitting the streets selling, his wife Merrie ran
the front counter and office, and a press operator did the production work. The company’s equipment consisted of a black and white copier and an Itek 975 offset duplicator with a T-head.

“We sold one black and white copy for a dime on our first day in business,” stated Bill, now President of Allegra Print & Imaging of Portage. Business was slow at first and after three days, the press operator asked Bill if it would be alright to bring in a portable television to watch since there were no jobs to print. “Fortunately, business picked up and in our first full twelve months we did $120,000 in business. “

Within three years the business added a two-color press to increase their production capabilities. A four-color Shinohara 14 x 20 press was added three and a half years ago making this location one of a select group of Allegra franchise locations with four color capabilities. Today, four presses and offset duplicators can be found in the press room including the original Itek 975 that helped to launch the business back in 1988.

Although this Allegra location has been doing direct-to-plate for nearly nine years, only since the installation of the 4-color press and the increase in the volume of jobs, did they realize that something was missing in their production capabilities – a
prepress workflow solution from Xitron.

When the Shinohara press was installed, the company also purchased an Esko Graphics DPX CtP system. The platesetter was their second direct- to-plate solution, replacing a smaller format device they had used for five years to provide plates for
the duplicators.

“We struggled for the first three years that we owned the Shinohara press,” stated Bill. “We didn’t understand how important a high-quality workflow solution was when operating a four-color press. Since installing the Navigator GPS workflow we have
been able to eliminate our plate reruns.”

Allegra installed a Navigator GPS workflow to drive their existing polyester platesetter. The workflow consists of the powerful Navigator RIP, based on Harlequin core technology and RIP Manager workflow including extensive job management, PDF creation and preflighting capabilities. The in-RIP trapping and imposition options have enhanced their production capabilities and allowed them to produce business cards 10-up on a sheet with no problem where before, due to trapping issues, they would only try for 4-up cards.

To further improve their proofing capabilities, Allegra switched to the Xitron X1 TotalProof Media for their Epson proofers. X1 media coupled with specially crafted commercial print profiles from Xitron, assure a much higher degree of match to the typical offset press sheet than other commonly used stocks on the
market.

“We had to reassure customers who received our proofs that the color on their printed job would be right and would not look like the color in the proof,” stated Steve Block, Production Manager. “Colors rarely matched before we installed the NavigatorGPS workflow and X1 media. This solution solved our proofing, trapping and workflow issues. Today we have full confidence in our proofs matching the press.”

The ease of use of the Navigator GPS workflow has reduced the production time necessary to get jobs on press. Before installing Navigator GPS, if a press change was made the graphics operators would have to go back into their source applications, make job orientation changes and resend the job for output. Navigator
GPS allows these last minute changes to be made by the production manager with just a few simple clicks, saving the graphics staff time and worry. The integrated viewer allows for a soft proof onscreen prior to output of the proof or plates, serving as a double check to the production.

Allegra purchased a Navigator GPS Bundle solution that included not only the software and hardware, but onsite training and installation and technical support via phone and WebEx. “The training provided by Xitron was great,” commented Block. “Support has been fantastic and when we do experience any type of problem, I get a call back within 15 minutes if I don’t reach someone directly to start. The ability to WebEx into our system to analyze and fix problems has been a real help. Xitron has been very professional in how they handled the sale, installation and
service of our system.”

Today, Allegra is moving toward an all PDF workflow and with the capabilities of Navigator GPS, this move is made with full confidence of success. Recently Allegra installed a Xerox DocuColor 5000 to handle some of their short-run color work.
Utilizing the ability to support third-party output devices via hot folder, jobs can be processed by Navigator and then sent to the Xerox for final output.

“We bought Navigator GPS to solve our trapping and color management problems with workflow as a byproduct. Now the workflow capabilities have become one of the biggest benefits,”commented Block.

From first day sales of a dime, Allegra today has annual revenues of over $1.5 million. “Our target is to reach $2 million,” stated Kaufman. “Our business has been hit by the overall economy of Michigan. We have seen several of our larger companies bought by other companies and then consolidated and moved to other states. We realized that in order to stay in business, we needed to move to more 4-color, digital and variable data work. Navigator GPS has helped tie our prepress and press room together and we know it will continue to get easier and better.”

For more information about Allegra Print & Imaging in Portage, Michigan visit them on the web at www.allegraportage.com or call 269-324-0040.

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Navigator RIP Manager