Avanti Slingshot^™ Connectivity & Strategic Partnerships

By communicating with strategic partners, third-party systems, and equipment throughout the shop, Avanti Slingshot eliminates costly, time-consuming manual steps.

Job Definition Format (JDF) Certified

Using industry-standard JDF allows Avanti Slingshot to integrate seamlessly, linking your Print MIS with your other business software, prepress, production, and bindery systems to reduce errors, increase cost transparency, and save time.

JDF

Avanti is a member of CIP4, a not-for-profit standards association, whose mission is to foster the adoption of process automation in the printing industry. Avanti actively participates in focus groups to help define future versions of JDF to continue meeting industry and customer expectations. Avanti Slingshot has earned JDF certification for both MIS to Prepress and Integrated Digital Printing. The list of Avanti supported prepress software and production equipment for both the print shop and the bindery is growing every day, providing access to integration to customers of all sizes. It gives any shop the ability to connect their automation solutions through Avanti Slingshot to update job status, collect costs, and adjust inventory, all in real time.

When a job created in Avanti Slingshot is released to production, the JDF module sends as much information as the system receiving the job can understand.

Information exchanged between systems is dependent on the creator of the data but can include:

Job ticket number
Job description
Size
Colors
Media information
Quantity
Content files

With Avanti Slingshot’s JDF Framework, new integrations can be achieved within days, not months. And with lower integration costs, your ROI improves.

Some of the leading brands that the JDF integration works with include:

Xerox FreeFlow™ Core

Ricoh TotalFlow™

HP SmartStream™

Kodak Prinergy™

Konica Minolta Printgroove™

Accounting

Robust integration between Avanti’s Accounting module and a variety of third-party partners provides flexibility in choosing the best solutions for your business, while ensuring data remains accurate and nothing is missed. While each integration may have unique features and connections, the results are the same: reduction of manual, and often costly, data entry time and errors.

Microsoft Dynamics GP

Supported bi-directional integration with the most current and previous version with two-way transfer of customer information.
The strongest breadth of integration available with a full interface between Avanti Slingshot Invoicing, Avanti Slingshot Payables, and the Dynamics GP A/R, A/P and GL modules.
Avanti Slingshot Order Entry module reads each customer’s credit status, in real time, within Dynamics GP to determine if the order should be processed or put on hold.
Customer invoicing takes place in Avanti Slingshot. Once approved, information is then exported to Dynamics GP.
A/P invoices are reconciled in Avanti Slingshot through a three-way matching process after which, when the payable has been approved, the information is exported to Dynamics GP.

QuickBooks

Includes a standard export routine allowing information from Avanti Slingshot to be transferred easily to QuickBooks.
Customer invoicing takes place in Avanti Slingshot. Once approved, information is then exported to QuickBooks.
A/P invoices are reconciled in Avanti Slingshot through a three-way matching process.

Sage

Includes a standard export routine allowing information from Avanti Slingshot to be transferred easily to your accounting system.
All customer invoicing takes place in Avanti Slingshot. Once the invoice has been approved, basic information is exported to your accounting system.

Connectivity

Eliminate islands of automation throughout your shop with Avanti Slingshot. Avanti Slingshot is the central hub of your operation, exchanging information with all of the key applications and equipment you count on to run your operation.

Bindery

JDF integration enables seamless integration between Avanti Slingshot and your Bindery equipment. Quick to set up and easy to use, it saves you money and time while reducing room for error.

Direct Machine Interface

Manually collecting machine data takes time and results can be questionable due to human error. Avanti’s Direct Machine Interface (DMI) captures the data automatically through a link to the machine’s controls.

Shipping

With Avanti Slingshot’s Shipping module, you can easily integrate with major shippers and track shipments after transferring shipping and billing information.

Integrations include:

United States Postal Service
UPS
FedEx
Purolator

Pre-Press

Avanti Slingshot’s award-winning Advanced JDF framework creates a seamless link between the MIS and third-party prepress solutions. Information such as job parameters and production data flows both directions. Both quick to set up and easy to use, it has the ability to increase a company’s ROI through time and money saved.

Web to Print

Avanti Slingshot minimizes Web-to-Print complications with a Third-Party Web-to-Print Integration (API). Avanti Slingshot becomes the hub of the wheel, collecting order information from all order streams. Tight integration with multiple third-party solutions enables automatic data transfer between Avanti Slingshot and your order entry system through XML or JDF file formats for faster turnaround time and fewer errors by eliminating rekeying of information.

Features include:

Easy-to-use Graphic User Interface for field mapping of the information.
Automatic sales order creation by the API, with information you define, into Avanti Slingshot’s production system.
Ability to set up independent mappings and import orders from multiple sources/systems.
Ability to map inventory items, products, kits, and dynamic/custom items into sales orders.
File transfer through your own secure FTP folders including digital assets.
New orders can be processed in a touchless workflow or queued for review, depending on your business rules.
Ability to automatically schedule jobs based on the promise date, production details, and resource availability.
Capability to send information back to the third-party system related to order/shipping status and tracking numbers.