Adobe makes business a little more personal

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 25 Jun 2007 at 11:19

Adobe has extended the document output capabilities of LiveCycle Enterprise Suite to enable companies to personalise everything from shipping labels to welcome packs, all courtesy of new printing modules for the data-processing platform.

Production Print ES and Output ES merge LiveCycle data with Designer ES templates to create custom and, if required, personalised, printed materials. Production Print ES addresses high-volume and production output requirements, while Output ES is designed for on-demand or medium-volume applications.

Production Print can deliver high volumes for both single jobs and complex document packages, with support for AFP, PostScript, PCL, and PDF files plus post-processing capabilities such as document collection, document sorting, and imposition with e-stapling.

Output ES, on the other hand, is tailored to the production of personalised documents such as contracts, welcome packages or shipping labels. Print jobs can be customised by combining newly generated PDF files with existing files from document repositories and the software will convert PDF to PostScript or image file formats, automatically routing them for unattended printing or archiving.

The end result, Adobe explains, is to integrate document generation with electronic forms, process management and document security from the initial request to the final archived document.

Riley McNulty, a research manager with market analyst IDC's Document Solutions service, says that this reflects an increasing desire in enterprises for personalised communications based on a single view of the customer.

"Companies can benefit from a toolset that automates the document workflow from creation and production to delivery," he said. "By combining interactive tools with production output, Adobe's solution provides a unified workflow infrastructure - rare in today's world - that will enable companies to take advantage of personalised customer communications and transaction-based marketing opportunities."

LiveCycle Production Print ES is available in limited release today, with general availability expected in the autumn; Output ES is expected to be available next month. The LiveCycle Enterprise Suite was introduced earlier this month.