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Walk-up VDP
On Xerox's stand at drupa, Xerox and XMPie are demonstrating a VDP web-to-print application running on an office MFD device through Xerox EIP. For those of you who aren't familiar with Xerox EIP or Extensible Interface Platform, it's a software platform that enables developers to create server-based applications and display an interface through the MFD touch-screen user interface. EIP is branded as Fuji Xerox Apeos in the Asia Pacific region.
The presentment layer on the MFD interface is essentially an HTML browser, so you just create a Web page or series of pages of the application, designed to fit the dimensions of the interface.
Xerox EIP is a popular platform for creating business applications that enable integration into document repository systems, cost accounting systems, and more. However, this is the first example that I've seen of a web-to-print application for customising and printing VDP jobs.
The example on Xerox's stand is a travel application for a fictional travel company where a user can create their own personalised travel brochure in a few easy steps. After entering a few basic details, a personalised image is displayed on the interface and a personalised brochure starts printing.
As Xerox EIP is just requesting HTML pages and no application resources are installed locally, the Web server and XMPie uProduce server can be located anywhere. In fact, you can even enter the application URL in a standard web browser and see the same pages.
The number of walk-up VDP applications are endless; from customised brochures in travel agents, to real estate listings in estate agents and so much more. The market potential for these consumer walk-up applications, particularly in B2C environments, is signficant.
Posted on Monday, 2 June 2008 at 11:37 PM | TrackBack: http://www.veedeepee.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/146
Comments
looking for new business of printing
Posted by Kyunghun Yang on Monday, 16 June 2008 at 5:17 PM
Well Kyunghun, I think you just found it.
Posted by Eliot Harper on Monday, 16 June 2008 at 6:24 PM
In their defence, about 2 years ago Canon launched their MEAP application for just this purpose - unfortunately, they've lacked the foresight and the dedication to actually do anything with it.
While these toys are great for the dems and presentations, there's little real world application for a single user standing next to a machine (and therefore taking over the box) for 3 hours doing what can be done sitting at a desktop in half the time.
90% of devices have web based interfaces, so the need to be at the machine should be considerably less.
Posted by David on Friday, 1 August 2008 at 12:54 PM