Ironsides Nor’Star combines automated production tracking, productivity reporting and cost analytics in one platform helping commercial printers maximize efficiencies and drive profitability.

Westford, MA. February 25, 2019 –  Ironsides Technology, a leading provider of automated production business intelligence for the printing, mailing, fulfillment, and packaging industries, today announced the release of the Ironsides Nor’Star System, a business intelligence offering designed to provide commercial printers and document manufacturers with valuable insights into their business and print production costs for improved decision making. Ironsides Nor’Star combines real-time data collection with automated production monitoring, reporting and cost analytics in one central command and control dashboard. Document professionals, printing, mailing and fulfillment centers are able to understand true production costs of each job, from prepress through production, finishing, bindery, sorting, packaging, shipping and mailing. Ironsides Technology is launching the Nor’Star System at Hunkeler Innovationdays 2019, February 25-28 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

“Commercial printers operate in a just-in-time manufacturing environment,” said Bill Riley, CEO and Founder of Ironsides Technology. “Increased short runs and tight turnaround times mean that production floor conditions are always changing and jobs are not always run on the most efficient equipment or split across multiple devices. This makes it impossible for managers to plan each job for maximum efficiency and profitability. The Nor’Star System is designed to adapt to any production print environment providing data in real-time across all systems and devices. This, combined with powerful business analytics and reporting, allows management and production supervisors to track actual costs compared to estimates in order to better understand margins and improve facility profitability and efficiency.”

The Nor’Star System builds on Ironsides Technology’s strength in connecting and collecting data across multiple systems and production technology. The Nor’Star System includes Ironsides APT™ (Automated Production Tracking) and adds two new platforms, Ironsides AOT (Automated Order Tracking) that monitors and reports on the prepress process and Ironsides ACA (Automated Cost Analytics) that provides real-time cost analysis.  In one centralized command and control dashboard, the Nor’Star System provides the insights required to track job performance and compliance as well as actual costs and profitability, which are key concerns for business executives.

The Nor’Star System consists of three software platforms and are device agnostic.  

NEW – Ironsides AOT (Automated Order Tracking) provides real-time visibility to all prepress activity. Track each customer, project type, quantity, due date, approval and other data points throughout the prepress workflow. Detailed reporting helps prepress managers identify potential bottlenecks and understand where and why rework was required. Ironsides AOT’s auditing capabilities help ensure that customer SLA, compliance and regulatory requirements are met through the prepress process.

Ironsides APT (Automated Production Tracking) monitors and reports on individual pieces and complete jobs being printed, finished, mailed and shipped across all brands of continuous and cut sheet printers, ink jet printers, inserters, finishing and bindery equipment. Ironsides APT tracks job performance, pieces and productivity by device, operator and job, providing the information necessary to optimize production schedules and delivery performance. Ironsides APT allows for 100 percent distribution compliance, providing assurance that all jobs down to the piece-level have been assembled correctly, accounted for, and are fully compliant with industry required rules and regulations.

NEW – Ironsides ACA (Automated Cost Analytics) is a real-time cost analytics tool that helps document factories understand the true costs of each job from the time an order is placed. Using automated data collection and cost analytics, Ironsides ACA is able to calculate the cost of manufacturing for each job, contract and client. Automatically compare estimates with actual costs to identify the types of jobs, customers or shifts that are more efficient and profitable. Commercial printers and document factories have greater insight into their margins allowing them to make more informed business decisions to drive growth and better serve customers. 

For more information about Ironsides Nor’Star System visit http://www.ironsidestech.com

About Ironsides Technology

Ironsides Technology is a software development and integration company, providing business intelligence and end-to-end integrity tracking solutions to document factories, commercial printers, mail fulfillment and packaging industries. Ironsides Nor’Star System combines real-time data collection with automated production monitoring, reporting and cost analytics to provide for real-time tracking, visibility and cost analysis for all work in process as it moves through a production workflow, from prepress, production, finishing, sorting, mailing and shipping. The Nor’Star System ensures 100 percent distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation, and provides robust operational reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed and cut sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. 

Based on an open and scalable architecture, Ironsides Technology easily integrates with web inspection systems and post print in line and off-line bindery devices. Ironsides Technology also supports appropriate camera technology and tracking solutions in the finishing and insertion environment. The end result is a best-of-breed automated document factory (ADF) tracking strategy to ensure personalized client packages are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance. 

For additional information please call us at + 1 (978) 589-8299 or email Info@ironsidestech.com

Ironsides Technology Experienced 33 Percent Growth in 2018; Xerox Veterans Rob Coate and James Hansen Join the Ironsides’ Team

Westford, MA. January 21, 2019. –  Ironsides Technology, a leading provider of automated production tracking software for the printing, mailing, fulfillment, and packaging industries, announced it had a strong year with 33 percent growth driven by the high demand for automated production technology in the offset and inkjet printing markets. To meet the increased demand and ensure continued customer success, the company has expanded its sales and product team with the addition of two Xerox industry veterans, Rob Coate and James Hansen.

“2018 was a great year for Ironsides with significant new customer growth through both our direct and channel sales,” said Bill Riley, CEO and Founder of Ironsides Technology. “With the number of short print runs increasing, inkjet and offset printers are running thousands of jobs every week making it impossible to manually track each job down to the piece level. Ironsides APT software allows printers to integrate all aspects of the production workflow from pre-press, printing, inserting and mailing in order to track each item in real-time through the production workflow. This improves operational efficiency while ensuring 100 percent document integrity that every job is assembled correctly and meets the customer’s SLA requirements.” 

Ironsides Technology Expands European Management

Digital printing and automated document factory (ADF) expert, Rob Coate will consult and advise on Ironsides’ product strategy for Nor’Star, a new production software suite that provides end-to-end traceability of individual jobs through the entire workflow process. While at Xerox, Coate was instrumental in driving their European transition to a services-led organization, establishing a network of Transactional Print and Mail Service Centers that managed national accounts. As part of this group, Coate designed and built an operating platform to rapidly transform legacy print jobs into full-color, transpromotional communications, leveraging the latest production inkjet systems, advanced document composition software and Ironsides APT™ (Automated Production Tracking) for print job and mail piece tracking. 

Ironsides Technology named James Hansen, vice president of sales for Europe responsible for leading the company’s aggressive growth strategy in the region. Hansen has more than two decades of success in the production print industry selling Xerox DocuPrint and Docutech, continuous feed and inkjet technology.  At Xerox, Hansen was the Industrial Inkjet Specialist for Central Europe, Israel, Turkey and Greece. He also led the largest installation of Xerox Inkjet technologies and Ironsides APT software at Capita plc, UK’s leading provider of business process outsourcing. 

“We are extremely excited to have both Rob Coate and James Hansen join the Ironsides’ team,” continued Riley. “They have a depth and breadth of knowledge that is unmatched in the industry. This will benefit our customers as they look to optimize their production processes. As a former customer, Coate’s decision to join the company speaks to the product’s strength. He will be instrumental helping us grow the Nor’Star suite and Ironsides APT platform to meet to needs of customers today and in the future.”

About Ironsides Technology

Ironsides Technology is a software development and integration company, providing workflow automation and enterprise-wide integrity tracking solutions supporting all production devices and processes. Ironsides Automated Production Tracking (APT) is designed to automate manual and recurring operational processes. Based on an open and scalable architecture, Ironsides APT provides real time end-to-end job and piece level tracking, visibility and accountability through all production steps to ensure 100% distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation, and robust operational reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed and cut sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. 

Ironsides Technology easily integrates with web inspection systems and post print in line and off line bindery devices. Ironsides Technology also supports appropriate camera technology and tracking solutions in the finishing and insertion environment. The end result is a best-of-breed automated document factory (ADF) tracking strategy to ensure personalized client packages are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance. 

For additional information please call us at + 1 (978) 589-8299 or email Info@ironsidestech.com

The Next Wave of Software Innovation

“We’re seeing that the need to automate is driven by an increase in shorter, more complicated print jobs.”
-Bill Riley, CEO, Ironsides Technology

To run a successful production inkjet business, a print service provider (PSP) needs more than just great equipment, or even the best media. To be successful, a PSP also needs to have the right suite of software to help ensure the entire operation runs efficiently.

Software, though, is changing at blazing speeds, so PSPs can’t just invest in a solution and then sit back and hope for the best. Rather, they need to stay constantly aware of the changing innovations.

Read More

Joint Press Release

Ironsides Technology and BÖWE SYSTEC UK and Ireland Agree to Strategic Partnership

With immediate effect, BÖWE SYSTEC UK and Ireland will partner with Ironsides Technology to resell Ironsides APT™ (Automated Production Tracking) software into Transactional, Direct Mail and Secure Print operations in the UK and Ireland.

BÖWE SYSTEC’s broad technology portfolio spans printing, finishing, inserting and sortation solutions, as well as camera technology to monitor quality and compliance of printed documents to industry regulations.

Ironsides APT software provides production automation by collecting and reporting data for these discrete production steps to provide a single dashboard view of operations from print to despatch. The software pulls real-time production data from any device making it easy to track hundreds of jobs to the piece-level. Automate reprints and other exceptions, integrate with CRM and ERP systems, monitor SLAs, automate real-time alerts, create productivity and performance metrics and customisable web reports – all available with a single dashboard.

BÖWE SYSTEC is a leading supplier to direct mail, transactional and security print operations in the UK and Ireland. Ironsides Technology UK will support BÖWE SYSTEC to provide a packaged offering for a Management Information System for not only inserting and sortation equipment, but also for the other key elements in the customer’s production workflow, such as presses, bindery and production mail centre operations.

Ironsides Technology has been expanding their sales into the UK and Europe for the past four years. Their “open architecture” software can connect to any production device and is used in many large transactional production centres in the UK and Europe.

Bill Riley, CEO and Founder for Ironsides Technology is enthusiastic about the new partnership: “We are delighted that BÖWE SYSTEC UK and Ireland have decided to bundle the Ironsides APT solution with their technology offering. We are excited to formalize and launch our partnership in the UK and Ireland to help empower digital print providers with accurate tracking and reporting for continuous feed and cut sheet digital print through finishing.”

”BÖWE SYSTEC UK and Ireland provide high quality, high-speed roll and sheet fed inserting solutions, including the market leading Fusion Cross, and a range of sortation solutions for letters, flats, packet and parcel sorting,” adds Philippe Dugougeat, Managing Director for BÖWE SYSTEC UK and Ireland. “We are delighted to be working with Ironsides. This partnership is founded on the initial experience gained in the implementation of a new Fusion Cross inserter into a customer who already used Ironsides. Both parties – and most importantly, the customer – were pleased with the speed and ease of the integration, and the benefits that the solution delivers. We very much look forward to further implementations in our customer base in the UK and Ireland.”

Company profiles

BÖWE SYSTEC GmbH
BÖWE SYSTEC is one of the world’s leading suppliers of smart automation solutions. For over 70 years, the technology company’s products have streamlined and optimized work and production flows across a wide range of very different industries. Whether it be inserting systems for classic transactional applications or mailings, card processing solutions, letter or parcel sorting systems for modern post processing centers, automation solutions for intralogistics or pharma serialization, BÖWE technologies play an important role in numerous industries. Headquartered at its production and development facility in Augsburg, the company serves its customers around the world through some 20 subsidiaries and over 50 general agencies. Since 2010 BÖWE SYSTEC GmbH has been owned by the Possehl Group, which generated annual sales of around €3.8 billion with a global workforce of approximately 12,500 in 2017. The sole shareholder of L. Possehl & Co. mbH is the charitable Possehl Foundation in the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. More information is available at www.boewe-systec.com and www.possehl.de.

Ironsides Technology
Ironsides Technology is a leading software development and integration company, providing production automation and enterprise-wide integrity tracking solutions for the printing, mailing, fulfillment and packaging industries. Ironsides APT (Automated Production Tracking) is an open and scalable architecture that is device neutral and provides real-time end-to-end job and piece level tracking, visibility and accountability through all production steps. Our solutions ensure 100% distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation and robust operational reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed and cut sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. 

Ironsides Technology easily integrates with web inspection systems and post print in line and off line bindery devices. We support appropriate camera technology and tracking solutions in the finishing and insertion environment. The end result, our customers can ensure personalized client packages are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance. 

For additional information please email us at info@ironsidestech.com

Ironsides Technology Partners with Virtual Systems to Help Print and Mailing Companies Better Manage and Track Operational Activity and Performance

Ironsides APT now integrates with Midnight Print MIS software providing customers with an end-to-end management and automated tracking solution.

Westford, MA. January 30, 2018. –  Ironsides Technology, a leading provider of automated production tracking software for the printing, mailing, fulfillment, and packaging industries, announced an integration partnership with Virtual Systems, a leading provider of Print MIS software. As a result of the partnership, Ironsides APT™ (Automated Production Tracking) software now integrates directly with the award-winning Midnight MIS software to provide print and mailing companies with an end-to-end solution for managing and tracking operational performance on the production floor.

Midnight is one of the most robust Print MIS tools available in the industry to control all facets of a print business from order creation and estimating through invoicing. Integrating with Ironsides APT enables Midnight customers to automatically track both the job-and piece-level across the production workflow and view the information directly in the Midnight dashboard. Ironsides APT’s open architecture makes it easy to collect data from printing, bindery, insertion, finishing, and fulfillment systems which can be used in conjunction with Midnight’s job creation and costing tools to manage staff and machine throughput, reduce bottlenecks as well as eliminate errors. Automated tracking also helps print shops improve risk management by ensuring compliance with end-customer SLA requirements.   

“We are excited to formalize our longstanding relationship with Virtual Systems,” said TJ Forsythe, Business Solutions Executive, Ironsides Technology. “Ironsides APT is a perfect extension to the Midnight MIS software providing customers one comprehensive command and control center for understanding what’s happening in real-time on the production floor. This integrated offering allows companies to make informed business decisions that improve automation, production, and overall operational efficiency.”

“Our two organizations share a commitment to solving operational and information based challenges in print, mail, fulfillment, and marketing service industries and we share many of the same customers,” said Chris Huber, President and founder, Virtual Systems. “Ironsides APT integration provides our customers with real-time job tracking and ability to see what is happening on any device at any time. By integrating this data into the Midnight software, our customers have one centralized dashboard for managing all their operations.”

About Virtual Systems

Virtual Systems’ award-winning Midnight is a cloud-based print MIS software for print, mail, and fulfillment operations. With powerful dashboards and rich APIs, companies can easily control all facets of the business.  The revolutionary technology allows companies to leverage all their investments to gain a competitive edge and ultimately please customers.

About Ironsides Technology

Ironsides Technology is a software development and integration company, providing workflow automation and enterprise-wide integrity tracking solutions supporting all production devices and processes. Ironsides Automated Production Tracking (APT) is designed to automate manual and recurring operational processes. Based on an open and scalable architecture, Ironsides APT provides real time end-to-end job and piece level tracking, visibility and accountability through all production steps to ensure 100% distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation, and robust operational reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed and cut sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. 

Ironsides Technology easily integrates with web inspection systems and post print in line and off line bindery devices. Ironsides Technology also supports appropriate camera technology and tracking solutions in the finishing and insertion environment. The end result is a best-of-breed automated document factory (ADF) tracking strategy to ensure personalized client packages are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance. 

For additional information please call us at + 1 (978) 589-8299 or email Info@ironsidestech.com

DMM, Inc. Selects Ironsides APT to Provide Document Integrity Across Print and Fulfillment Operations

Leading document solutions company in North America adopts automated production tracking software to eliminate inserting errors and meet strict document compliance guidelines.

Westford, MA. November 28, 2017. – Ironsides Technology, a leading provider of automated production tracking software for the printing, mailing, fulfillment, and packaging industries, today announced that DMM, Inc., a leading document solutions company headquartered in Maine, has selected Ironsides APT™ (Automated Production Tracking) software to ensure 100 percent document integrity of printed communications across multiple production lines, equipment and locations.  

“More than ninety percent of the work we produce is mission critical communications for healthcare, insurance or financial services customers that requires strict adherence to regulatory and compliance guidelines,” said John V. Cloutier, CEO and President of DMM, Inc. “In today’s market, anything less than 100 percent end-to-end document integrity puts our business and our customers at risk. Our investment in Ironsides APT will allow us to operate more efficiently and provide our customers with the assurance that all of their jobs have been assembled correctly and are fully compliant with industry regulations. We see this as a competitive differentiator that will help us retain, as well as, win new business.”

DMM’s automated mail insertion process utilizes a combination of 2D and Intelligent Mail Barcodes (IMB) to uniquely identify customer documents. The company plans to incorporate Ironsides APT software and camera technology into their workflow to eliminate any possible insertion errors and provide full document integrity for each individual mail piece, including implementation of an automated reprint process. DMM will install Ironsides APT and cameras on nine inserters and three hand fulfillment stations. This enables DMM to extend the life of its existing equipment and focus on its recent acquisition of Canon Océ VarioPrint i300 inkjet color digital press without having to incur additional capital expenditures.

“It was clear from the start that Ironsides Technology was the best partner for DMM – the team truly understands our market, business and challenges,” Cloutier continued. “The Ironsides APT solution is unique in that it verifies output integrity, which is what our customers want. Plus, Ironsides APT offers robust real-time reporting and data analytics to help with job tracking and costing. This will allow us to understand our throughput per line so we can improve processes, reduce costs and add to our profitability.”

“We are excited to work with DMM and help them meet 100 percent distribution compliance,” said Bill Riley, President of Ironsides Technology. “In the highly competitive print service provider market, it’s a pleasure to work with companies like DMM who are embracing the benefits of inkjet technology and output management systems like Ironsides APT in order to meet demanding customer requirements and grow their business. We look forward to helping DMM get the most out of their investment in Ironsides APT.”

For more information about Ironsides APT visit www.IronsidesTech.com.   

About DMM
DMM, Inc. is a leading document solutions company in North America specializing in mission-critical document output production. The company uses the latest technologies to create relevancy of message that enhance document delivery across communication platforms. Whether it is a regulatory communication or a marketing campaign, DMM helps its customers create stronger customer relationships that increase lifetime customer value and deliver on bottom line results. Services include database development, transactional print, digital print on demand, direct mail production, marketing collateral programs, fulfillment distribution services, commingling and digital delivery. DMM brings innovative cutting-edge solutions with best-in-class technology to the financial, insurance, health care and communication industries.

About Ironsides Technology

Ironsides Technology is a software development and integration company, providing workflow automation and enterprise-wide integrity tracking solutions supporting all production devices and processes. The Ironsides Automated Production Tracking (APT) workflow is designed to automate manual and recurring operational processes. Based on an open and scalable architecture, Ironsides APT provides real time end-to-end job and piece level tracking, visibility and accountability through all production steps to ensure 100% distribution, SLA compliance, reprint automation, and robust operational reporting to help inkjet, continuous-feed and cut sheet printing customers better manage their businesses. 

Ironsides Technology easily integrates with web inspection systems and post print in line and offline bindery devices. Ironsides Technology also supports appropriate camera technology and tracking solutions in the finishing and insertion environment. The end result is a best-of-breed automated document factory (ADF) tracking strategy to ensure personalized client packages are processed efficiently and with the highest level of accuracy and compliance. 

For additional information please call us at + 1 (978) 589-8299 or email Info@ironsidestech.com