By: Erik Vlietinck
Fri, August 31, 2007 - 4:26:00

crossroads.gradual.com
Score:

Gradual Software, a European specialist in publishing automation solutions, announced the launch of Crossroads. Based on the SWITCH automation technology, Crossroads is a communication platform that draws together a large ecosystem of software vendors offering automation products for publishing workflows.

The objective of Crossroads is to present users with solid information on solutions that combine products from various vendors, in cooperation with those vendors and with the user community at large. Crossroads will take a concrete presence in a variety of ways, such as a web site and a user forum, and it will also be present at selected trade shows and industry events. 

“It is no longer possible to automate workflows from end-to-end by installing software from a single vendor,” states Peter Camps, Chairman of the Board and Gradual Software CEO. “Combining products from multiple vendors allows selecting best-of-breed technology, yet also raises concerns about interoperability. Crossroads offers a more unified view of the final solution and addresses those concerns. Responsibility for each of the products—and for their innovation—remains with the participating vendors.”

At the launch event ten software vendors joined Gradual Software to kick-off the Crossroads communication platform. “When we started to approach vendor partners about Crossroads, the enthusiasm for the initiative was overwhelming,” comments David van Driessche, COO at Gradual Software. “Everyone agreed that better communication about automation is paramount. Not just between the different vendors to make sure the solutions work together well, but also between the software vendors and the user community, and between the people responsible for workflow automation in the various publishing companies.”

Seamless automation of partner products

SWITCH 07, the new version of Gradual Software’s automation product suite, which we reviewed earlier, includes more than 20 configurators; these provide configuration and automation of key third-party applications directly from within SWITCH and can be added to a flow using simple drag-and-drop. The many configurators in SWITCH 07 are easy to chain together, but users apparently aren’t always sure if their use of a configrator is the best possible one. Crossroads offers the platform that will enable users to know how to best use a configurator in a real solution for specific problems.

Crossroads targets the complete publishing workflow: it delivers solutions for job reception, PDF creation and preflight, colour correction, proofing, image manipulation, and more. In most cases, Crossroads offers more than one solution for a problem, giving the customer the freedom to select the solution most suitable to their environment.

The Crossroads site contains information on more than 30 products from over a dozen different vendors active in the publishing space.

The Crossroads platform isn’t confined to just the website; the initiative will reach the end-users through participation in a number of industry events, starting with IfraExpo Vienna 2007. On booth A 765, several Crossroads partners will showcase their solutions and demonstrate how they can work together to create an expanded and more robust automated workflow.