History and development of Delano

AGFA DELANO is the result of a special business relationship between Agfa and Quebecor World. The world's largest print media services company approached Agfa, the leading supplier of pre-press solutions about creating a web enabled, server based software suite to facilitate communication and process management between pre-press and print professionals, creatives and customer support personnel. The AGFA DELANO suite of products was developed by combining Quebecor World’s leading business know-how and the breadth and depth of Agfa's software development expertise to address the wide ranging needs of Quebecor World’s global operations.
The initial design and development started under the leadership of Image Building NV of Antwerp, an advanced design, prepress and digital services company, with which Agfa has been doing business since 1995. In the summer of 2001 Agfa acquired a 70% share in the company.
DELANO provides real time information on the status of all projects at every stage – first customer contact, prepress, printing, post-press activity - and workflow analysis. AGFA DELANO is designed to further reduce costs and streamline the entire publishing and print production processes, regardless of the brand of the workflow systems in use.
Delano will further enhance Quebecor World’s competitive leadership by strengthening relations with publishers and print buyers. Customers will benefit from this new class of business tools that dramatically improve workflow and production management. Through active collaboration, improved communications and active partnership with its customers Quebecor World will be able to optimize its services to its customers resulting in increasingly faster response times.
“Quebecor World is delighted to have reached this stage with Agfa. We have identified significant potential for the streamlining of our operations with the deployment of Agfa's solution. We developed a novel relationship with the Agfa team. Their willingness to immerse themselves in our thinking and in our operations made Delano possible,” said David Blair, Quebecor World's Corporate Vice President Manufacturing, Technology and Environment.
“We worked hard in understanding and meeting the needs of a leader like Quebecor World. It has been a rewarding journey for Agfa, as it enabled us to jointly analyse the inner working in the relationship between publishing, prepress and printing in the making of print products and print communications. The relationship with Quebecor World in North America, Europe and Latin America has been extremely valuable. It's amazing what creative minds with a vision from Quebecor World, Image Building and Agfa could produce”, said Etienne Van Damme Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Marketing at Agfa.
About Quebecor World Inc.
Quebecor World Inc. (NYSE; TSX: IQW) is the largest commercial printer in the world. It is a market leader in most of its major product categories which include magazines, inserts and circulars, books, catalogs, specialty printing, and direct mail, directories, digital pre-media, logistics, mail list technologies and other value added services. Quebecor World Inc. has approximately 40,000 employees working in more than 160 printing and related facilities in the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Mexico and India.
Web address: www.quebecorworld.com
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading imaging companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems, intended mainly for the graphics industry, healthcare, non-destructive testing, micrographics, motion picture and photography markets. Agfa’s headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is active in 40 countries and has 120 agents throughout the world. Together they achieved a turnover of 4,911 million Euros in 2001. Product and company information can be found on Agfa’s home page on the World Wide Web at: www.agfa.com

How :Delano Works
Delano consists of the Delano server and advanced project management software. Users can Logon to Delano from a Macintosh or a PC via their Internet browser. That makes accessing project information as easy as checking your e-mail. When members of the project team access their Delano account, via a standard web browser they see:

•A project schedule with milestones - and an automatic message alert to identify upcoming deadlines
•A graphic depiction of the current status of the project
•A TaskChain clearly identifying team members' roles, responsibilities, and deadlines
•A Project Team Directory that identifies all participants, their expertise, and contact data.
•The :Delano Forum, where a single communications forum contains all project discussions, agreements, and revisions.

Delano Consultancy Improves your Business
Due to the open and integrated nature of the Delano solution, Agfa recommends that each customer meet with a specialised Delano Consulting team prior to implementation. Our team of highly trained workflow experts will perform a thorough on-site audit, analyse your current production process and generate a comprehensive installation plan tailored to your shop. We find this phase to be the key to achieving optimum synergy between Delano and your current production environment. Let our Delano Consulting team help you to reach - and exceed - your graphic enterprise goals.

Delano helps print providers achieve the right organization for Internet production. It provides tools for defining the environment, resources, infrastructure, and practices for managing customer relationships and production tasks.
Delano keeps everybody informed, wherever they are, and whatever their role in the process, by establishing a digital messaging system that links workcenters together. The :Delano user interface provides a common window, visualization of processes, nomenclature, and method for direct customer communication as well as entry of job-related information and digital content. Every user has a message box and can receive messages online or via email. Language is user selectable.
Delano helps to automate the workflow even more and improve overall efficiency. Workflow automation is key to improved efficiency, cycle time reduction, and greater productivity.
Delano serves to integrate a broad range of functions and processes. It is a system that links the administration and business processes (customer service, estimation, order entry, supply chain) with the production processes (prepress, press, postpress). Every integration reduces overhead, eliminates duplication of effort, speeds up work, and reduces the cost to complete a function.
Inside the Delano World, project teams and customers share a common virtual workspace where they inspect, track, preview, review, proof (remote or on-site) and approve all project-related information in real time. Data is gathered in an intelligent JDF-enabled Digital Job Bag, which can be used to streamline production, analyse ‘best in class’ workflows, provide full job descriptions and automate re-runs.
Using graphic icons and an intuitive user interface, :Delano helps customer service representatives (CSRs) or production managers create and fine-tune best-practice workflows – resulting in fewer errors, increased productivity, stronger business relationships, and faster project turnaround. Built on the concept of open digital workflows and driven by industry standards such as PDF, JDF and XML, :Delano is the right job management solution for today’s fast-paced, cost-conscious printing and publishing environment.
Who will benefit from the :Delano solution?
Delano was born out of decades of print production experience and developed in collaboration with creative, prepress, printing, and finishing teams.
Small and mid-sized print shops or creatives use the organisational strengths of Delano to enhance their planning, production flow, and collaboration with partners and third-party suppliers.
Large, multi-national printers appreciate the automation tools and the improvement of communication channels through a multi-lingual interface, enabling colleagues to co-ordinate a variety of diverse production processes, equipment, skills, and cultures among different plants.
You can tailor Delano to meet your specific production needs for commercial, magazine, catalogue, promotional, corporate, book or speciality products in offset, flexo, screen, digital, sheet- or web-fed printing. Everyone involved with project management, customer relations, or print production can achieve new efficiencies with Delano.
Customise Delano to meet your specific production needs for magazine, catalogue, promotional, corporate, book or speciality products in offset, flexo, screen, digital, sheet- or web-fed printing.

Thanks to the enabling technology of JDF specifications, the transition from customer Product Intent to Delano End Product is a simple and automated process.
Intelligent Digital Job Bag
Delano does not replace the JDF functionality. Instead, it translates instructions between JDF-enabled devices, visualises the JDF information for users on the :Delano team, and enriches the information provided by the JDF standard. :Delano makes tracking and re-using workflows straightforward and provides essential information to create inter-departmental reports.
In short, Delano creates an ultimate Digital Job Bag. A Rich Knowledge Base. Delano is designed specifically to meet the needs of businesses that manage multiple print projects from simple datasheets to complex annual reports. With successive use, Delano builds a powerful knowledge base of project management information that preserves your organisation’s best practices and eliminates unprofitable approaches. For smaller businesses, the analytical capabilities of Delano bring new possibilities for continued process improvement. To leverage your workflow planning expertise, Delano creates an ongoing project management knowledge base that stores, accesses, and re-uses job parameters of successful jobs. With this strong foundation, you can focus on profitable approaches to project management, and avoid less-efficient ways of working. Project-by-project, job-by-job, your business moves naturally toward greater efficiency. And since :Delano is extremely user friendly, you can empower new or reassigned employees to become highly productive project managers.