The Next Generation
Workflow and Asset Management Solutions

Papermule Workflow delivers the next generation, enterprise level, web enabled, production environment. It integrates your production process to form a single control and reporting infrastructure. The key benefits of this are improved throughput, consistency, reliability and performance.

Endless Control...

Where does it start and when does it finish?
Papermule Workflow enables you to track and report on every aspect of the production cycle. Incoming assets are captured and stored in the system at the earliest opportunity, where they remain until no longer required. As much information as possible is extracted from the asset and stored as searchable data. Users are given a role-dependent view of the assets they need to work on, enabling them to find their work easily and progress assets through their workflow journey. Work can be directly assigned to users, deadlines set, and access to data and actions restricted. Assets are locked while users work on them, preventing accidental overwrites.

But much of your workflow likely involves other existing processes. Integration with third-party tools is a key feature of Papermule Workflow. Tasks such as pre-flighting finished material, file format conversion, and delivery to and from external systems can be automated and monitored, streamlining your overall production considerably.

Completely Customisable

At the heart of Papermule Workflow lies some innovative technology which allows each solution to be easily yet extensively customised to meet each customer's unique requirements. The underlying database schema is incredibly flexible due to the Virtual Spreadsheet technology at the core of the system. Changes to the schema are usually a trivial exercise, and are automatically reflected in the user interface without changes being required. Papermule's Query Engine allows users to search the database with no knowledge of how the data is organised in the database. You just specify the search criteria and go!

In addition to conventional field based searching, Virtual Folders can also be created. These are pre-defined hierarchical structures that allow you to browse for assets according to fields of your choosing, perhaps arranged by customer, publication or insertion date.

In fact, the entire user interface can be customised to your specific requirements. The primary user interface is web browser based, which enables rapid development of custom user interface components. You can also alter the overall branding to better fit Papermule Workflow into your intranet.

Overall, Papermule Workflow has reduced cost of ownership, since it can be adapted over time to keep pace with new requirements and technologies.

Extensive Automation

The centre of all automation within Papermule Workflow is the Event Manager. For each significant event that occurs in the system (e.g. asset checked out for editing, change in status, thumbnail created), the Event Manager can be configured to execute arbitrary tasks, before or after the event. The scope of what can be executed is limited only to the imagination and scope of available software products. Typical automated tasks include PDF generation/checking, thumbnail/preview rendering, e-mail proof dispatching etc.

More intensive processes can be deferred through a Process Queue, that runs in parallel with the rest of the system, freeing you to do something else. Queues can run not only sequentially but also by deadline, where the most urgent tasks are done first. This feature greatly increases the ability to fast-track late production assets through the system without the need to take any specific actions. Queues can also be fed files by periodically polling a directory, thus providing traditional hot folder method of system input.

Available Everywhere

Papermule Workflow is an entirely web based solution with no more reliance upon the client platform than a Java enabled web browser. File delivery to both creative users and those requiring previews / PDFs etc is also handled by default over HTTP. Client side file management and application launching is handled by a smart browser based java applet. This removes the requirement for a mounted volume over the local network and hence opens the system to remote users. Specific application integration to leading products like QuarkXpress and InDesign is provided via native application extensions and/or application scripts. Full internationalisation and language support is delivered as standard, by using UTF-8 throughout, both in meta data and file names.

Comprehensive Reporting

Papermule's Virtual Spreadsheet and Query Engine technology also lends itself well to providing detailed system reports. You can get a snapshot view of the current state of production for a given publication, generate statistical usage reports or investigate throughput and performance information. Reports are completely customisable, and can be edited to suit your needs. Any report results can exported to your favourite spreadsheet application or, since the underlying database is fully constrained and normalised, you can use third-party tools such as Crystal Reports instead.