Xerox Corporation and Electronics For Imaging entered a new strategic partnership to develop what the company’s describe as a next generation digital front end (DFE) to drive Xerox production presses. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The agreement includes the sale of Xerox’s FreeFlow Print Server (FFPS) DFE business to EFI. Under the terms of the deal, EFI will continue to produce and support FFPS to avoid interruptions for current software customers.
“Customers will gain a powerful solution with more efficiencies, performance and quality to meet the most demanding production requirements,” said Andrew Copley, President, Graphic Communications Solutions, Xerox.
Xerox functionality from FFPS is to be integrated with EFI’s Fiery product. The companies explain that EFI sales and technical field resources will work side-by-side with Xerox equipment sales reps, in regard to FFPS installations.
“This next step in our strategic alliance will give customers the industry’s highest performing DFE with unparalleled imaging and colour management,” said Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI. “EFI integration among the DFE, workflow software, and management information systems products deliver the higher levels of automation and productivity that are key to print businesses taking full advantage of the opportunities with digital printing.”
Xerox and EFI have a long-standing partnership in terms of integrating technologies. Most recently, Xerox collaborated with EFI to develop a new print server, the Xerox IJ Print Server powered by Fiery, to drive the recently introduced Xerox Trivor 2400 inkjet press. The DFE handles a range of data streams, while enabling integration, colour management and integration with existing workflows.
The next generation DFE coming from this new partnership will be integrated with EFI’s Productivity Suites, which includes management information systems like PACE, PrintSmith Vision, Monarch, and Radius ERP. Additionally, the DFE will integrate with Xerox FreeFlow Core and XMPie workflows, as well as third-party prepress software like Agfa Apogee, Heidelberg Prinect and Kodak Prinergy.
The agreement, explains the company, is for FFPS only and does not impact the Xerox workflow solutions that carry a FreeFlow sub-brand name (FreeFlow Core, FreeFlow VI Suite, FreeFlow Makeready and FreeFlow Digital Publisher).
Print this page
