Press Releases

MetaCommunications Releases Workgroups™ 2007

New plug-and-play solutions architecture unleashes the Workgroups 2007 suite on the entire graphic communications industry.

IOWA CITY, Iowa - June 26th, 2007. MetaCommunications, Inc., today announced the release and immediate availability of Workgroups 2007, a major upgrade to its process and productivity management software suite for the graphic communications industry. Workgroups 2007 includes over 50 new features and introduces a new plug-and-play solutions architecture enabling organizations to import pre-built functionality, called Solution Libraries, that contain support for vertical industry segments and specialized processes. Solution Libraries for Workgroups 2007 are designed to enhance and extend the core functionality of Workgroups without imposing unneeded features. Each organization is unique and Solution Libraries allow the easy tailoring of systems to support individual workflows and specific products and service offerings.

Solution Libraries are free of charge, and will be available for download from the company's website in July 2007. Over 20 Solution Libraries will be made available with the initial release including libraries for Advance Workflow & Scheduling, Brand Management, Catalog Page Production, Creative Services, Direct Mail, Procurement, Video/Audio Production, and Web Development.

"While there is a substantial increase in the functionality of Workgroups 2007, the big story is the inclusion of configurable, industry segment specific Solution Libraries," said Robert T. Long, Executive Vice President of MetaCommunications. "This means that we will be able to easily extend the benefits of Workgroups' process automation across the very diverse and encompassing graphic communications industry. We are now the only management solution to support add-in functionality for virtually every specialty area within the graphic communications industry, from Marketing, Retail, Packaging and Digital Print to Video production and Web Development," says Long.

According to John Tighe, Vice President of Promotions and Operations for Time Consumer Marketing, "We do all of the creative for customer acquisition and retention for the various Time, Inc., magazines, including such well-known names as Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated and People. This latest release incorporated everything on our wish list, and we are ready to take our process automation to the next level at Time. We know the savings have been huge. We feel it, and we see it every day. Everything is right where we need it, in one place, including the history, all of the comments and even the billing information at the end. And we are much more efficient in our ability to track jobs and keep them on schedule. With each subsequent release, MetaCommunications delivers an even better product, and we expect to continue accruing the benefits of those enhancements into the future as the pace continues to pick up here at Time."

With over 750 installations worldwide, and as many as 1,000 users per installation, Workgroups has been adopted by a wide range of diverse organizations that have capitalized on its value and capabilities to streamline workflow and improve productivity. These include Time, Inc., Bon-Ton stores, Centers for Disease Control, Sandy Alexander, the American College of Physicians, Hearst Publishing and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

Workgroups 2007

The Workgroups 2007 suite is a tightly integrated offering comprised of four modules, and is designed to be open and modular so that users can adopt the modules of the suite that meet their initial needs and retain the ability to easily expand and grow into other functionality as their requirements change over time.

Workgroups 2007 consists of four core components:

  • Job Manager, a powerful suite of financial management tools that enable creative and production workgroups to accurately create estimates and quotes, monitor job costs, quickly generate on-demand reporting and invoices, and share information with industry leading accounting systems.
  • Virtual Ticket, a configurable job ticketing solution that brings together all the components of your work in a centralized location, including project briefs, job tickets, customer information, associated document files, and more. From this one location Virtual Ticket provides advanced workflow tools to help you manage and automate your processes, dramatically improving productivity, turnaround time, and quality.
  • Approval Manager, a tool for managing, tracking, and scheduling any approval process within and across creative and production environments.
  • Digital Storage Manager, a powerful storage management solution specially designed for creative, publishing and prepress workgroups, leveraging multiple file servers, near-line storage, and offline media.

By combining all four components in a streamlined, integrated suite, Workgroups 2007 unites and empowers workgroups by facilitating collaboration, automating processes, centralizing information, managing workflows, tracking files, and measuring key financial and productivity metrics.

Solution Libraries

Solution Libraries can be imported to extend the core functionality of Workgroups 2007 without the need to purchase a large, bloated application with more functionality than required. Solution Libraries are customizable. Administrators of Workgroups 2007 can not only add them to their workflow out of the box, but they can be easily modified and tailored to specific environments using a built-in solutions editor. Solution Libraries include forms, pre-defined searches, pre-programmed scripts, and reports. The initial release of Solution Libraries will include:

  • Advanced Workflow & Scheduling
  • Asset & Contract Tracking
  • Brand Management
  • Catalog Page Production
  • Creative
  • Customer Relationship Management
  • Digital Asset Management
  • Direct Mail
  • Knowledge Base
  • Large Format
  • Media Buying
  • Package Design
  • Photography
  • Prepress
  • Print
  • Procurement
  • Quality Assurance
  • Resource Requests
  • Screen Print
  • Shipping
  • Utility Solutions
  • Video/Audio Production
  • Web Development

Pricing and Availability

The Workgroups 2007 suite is available immediately. Add-in Solution Libraries will be available in July 2007. Upgrades are available to customers who participate in the Meta Assurance support and upgrade program. New systems are priced affordably with complete multi-user suite bundles starting at $4,995. Workgroups component applications-Job Manager, Virtual Ticket, Approval Manager and Digital Storage Manager-may be purchased individually, starting at $1,695. MetaCommunications products are available from authorized resellers, system integrators, distributors and OEM partners. For more information, visit http://www.meta-comm.com.

About MetaCommunications

MetaCommunications (http://www.meta-comm.com) is a leading software developer of cross-platform process management and productivity solutions for the graphic arts industry, including its award-winning Job Manager™, Virtual Ticket™, Approval Manager™ and Digital Storage Manager™ components. MetaCommunications has thousands of users of its software worldwide, helping some of the world's top creative agencies, corporate marketing groups, printing and prepress firms, and publishers work more efficiently and profitably. MetaCommunications was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa. For more information, please visit http://www.meta-comm.com.

For more information, contact:

Robert T. Long
MetaCommunications
1210 S. Gilbert Street
Iowa City, IA 52240 USA
319-337-8599 x180
blong@meta-comm.com

© 2007 MetaCommunications, Inc. All rights reserved. MetaCommunications, the MetaCommunications logo, Approval Manager, Virtual Ticket, JDF Solutions Framework, Digital Storage Manager, and Job Manager are trademarks of MetaCommunications, Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.