Loftware has designed an extensive portfolio of products that provide numerous benefits such as improved efficiency, better support for evolving regulations, reduced errors, faster time to market, effortless scaling and more. The company's products are also suitable for a wide range of industries, including life sciences, manufacturing, food and beverage, retail, automotive, consumer products and apparel, Troy Walker, global artwork and packaging solutions executive, tells L&NW.



Walker brings over 20 years of experience in the global packaging and technology sector to his role at Loftware. Before joining Loftware, Walker spent over 10 years in senior management positions with two ground-breaking SaaS start-ups in the packaging and artwork management space. 



Q: How has the technology evolved in recent years?

Walker: Artwork management has existed since the first industrial revolution. However, only recently have organizations been truly embracing its digital transformation. For many, this means migrating away from time consuming, error-prone “email and spreadsheet” based workflows to more efficient, centralized content management and automated workflow processes.



At Loftware, we’re always listening to our customers to get their first-hand feedback, identify emerging challenges and develop critical new features to meet their unique needs. This enables us to constantly refine and enhance our solutions and reimagine how streamlined artwork management can benefit organizations.



As an example, our recent Smartflow release includes updated Master Datasheets that provide a central location for users to curate, review, approve and store content for entire product lines. This feature ensures that only approved content is used in packaging projects while also eliminating the need to search through multiple locations for images or files so users can quickly and accurately manage bulk changes.



We’ve also implemented additional enhancements to support the latest web browsers, as well as new options to manage date and time stamps, which make it easier for companies to know when changes were made relative to geography.


Q: What are the drawbacks of using antiquated software?

Walker: We’re truly in a fourth industrial revolution, where capitalizing on capabilities like centralization, automation and more efficient data management are key to future-proofing any operation. Despite this, many still rely on a patchwork of lengthy manual processes for artwork management, which frequently involve various parties sifting through countless printed documents, emails, pdfs and spreadsheets.



These manual approaches are a recipe for disaster, and often lead to inconsistent data, crippling bottlenecks, poor visibility, human errors, operational silos, excessive revisions, a version control nightmare, delayed time to market, and ultimately, lost profits.



The impact of manual approaches is all too real. It's not unheard of for an organization to lose hours’, days’ or weeks’ worth of work due to misplacing a job jacket or project folders, or from unexpected events that damaged physical records, like fire-prevention sprinklers going off. Delays are all too common when an employee goes on vacation and there’s a lack of visibility to show an item is waiting for their review. And some will go so far as driving to a store to purchase their own product just to know which artwork was used for the final version. This should never be necessary.

Many myths have also arisen around packaging artwork because of inefficient legacy methods - for instance suggesting it’s normal to get past version 10 on every proof, it’s difficult to collaborate with outside partners, it’s necessary to repeatedly make the same translations or that new product development processes simply can’t be improved. But the fact is, all of this can be streamlined by centralizing and automating to improve control and manage your entire packaging artwork process with ease.

Q: What feedback are you getting from label and package printing companies?

Walker: When it comes to converters, they can benefit from enabling better collaboration with their partners. An automated platform streamlines the process with partners or third parties and offers controlled access for easy collaboration and visibility. For all parties involved, these solutions can help speed up processes, prevent extra cycles and improve time to market.



For converters that do use Smartflow, one of the most appreciated and beneficial features is our DaVinci online artwork comparison tool for proofing and collaboration. This enables users to proof and annotate images or artworks in real-time, without downloading the files directly on their PC. Users can also compare versions of artwork while automatically highlighting differences on what has changed from version to version. And users can access a full audit history of all annotations, which is essential for industries that require traceability like pharma, medical devices or food and beverage.



Another game changer has been Smartflow’s text comparison capabilities. This enables users to compare source documents, such as Excel, Word, XML, PDF or RTF text files – including Braile – to output documents, like a PDF file, and identify variations in content, formatting and fonts. The system even lets teams preview barcodes to evaluate if they meet predetermined design guidelines.



Smartflow’s customizable solutions to streamline Artwork Management workflows are also very useful. This can include controlled access via a SaaS-based system, so users can quickly and securely access and manage desired workflows from anywhere. We also have customizable dashboards with a simple traffic-light style display system that allows all users to see whether projects are on schedule.

Q: What are Loftware's newest products, and what are the benefits?

Walker: One of our most recent product releases was for Loftware Smartflow, our digital artwork management solution, which transforms project management, bringing accountability and structure to the process. The recent release of Smartflow 26.3 builds upon Smartflow’s ability to facilitate collaboration and increase speed to market, enabling users to access, manage and use pre-approved packaging phrase copy.



Businesses today often juggle dozens or hundreds of labeling and packaging projects, each with countless variations that must comply with specific regulations. At the same time, every organization wants to expedite time to market, but improving workflows and efficiency can be a daunting task, especially when managing a plethora of stock keeping units (SKUs), assets and information.



Smartflow helps by introducing a range of modern capabilities to streamline the packaging concept-to-shelf process. Users can manage all the content and data needed for artwork in one unified platform, onboarding of new users is quick and painless, and automated task management can be quickly deployed and scaled. The solution also offers intuitive proofing and collaboration of graphical images, allowing teams to easily review and compare artwork versions and provide annotations in real time.



By introducing new workflow efficiencies that can greatly reduce man hours, revision cycles and errors, Smartflow can improve collaboration, reduce time to market and lower costs significantly. Loftware’s comprehensive Smartflow platform enables you to manage packaging artwork and the end-to-end business processes – mitigating risk and improving control, compliance and traceability while reducing the overall complexity of the artwork management process.



In addition to offering Smartflow, Loftware’s product portfolio also includes Loftware Spectrum, which provides an all-in-one, browser-based enterprise labeling solution. Spectrum facilitates centralized labeling and integrates labeling with other business systems, enabling organizations to create, manage and print labels with ease. Additionally, it enables business users to quickly design or update complex labels for any printer or model quickly, without any coding. This alone greatly unburdens IT resources and speeds up time to market.

Q: What should customers know about getting started with your products?

Walker: As the largest global software company specializing in enterprise labeling and artwork management solutions, we can deliver the exact right solution for companies of all sizes and all vertical markets – regardless of the need or challenge. We have extensive expertise across all the industries we serve. And our products are highly flexible, allowing us to tailor and configure a solution to meet any customer’s unique requirements.



For instance, a customer may need an on-premise solution, something cloud based or a hybrid option for enterprise label management. Or they may have trouble meeting compliance for a specific industry, such as life science, food and beverage, chemical or manufacturing. Whatever your needs are, Loftware’s experts are here to help.