Sixteen years after adopting two ppi Media workflow tools at its Grand Rapids Press, Advance Local has extended the solution across all its 14 company and third-party print sites.

Part of Advance Publications and a sister company of Condé Nast, Advance Local is one of the largest media companies in the US. Its company-wide switch to a workflow based on the PlanPag planning tool, OM-ProofStation and JobEntry has helped it consolidate workflow for more than 180 publications from one central technology stack.

Advance Local has been using PlanPag and OM in Walker, Michigan print site since 2003, producing papers including the daily Grand Rapids Press. Seamless integration of the various software components and the ease with which the resulting hands-off workflow for the entire production process is handled were among the reasons for the implementation across the entire enterprise.

While the papers are planned with PlanPag, JobEntry is used to plan and integrate advertising material and external printing orders into the production process. The output manager combines information from both planning modules to manage a 'first needed first out' hands-off workflow for all 14 print sites, with Amazon Web Services used to create a central data management hub.

Enterprise director of creative production and prepress Matt Fleming says the

ongoing cooperation with ppi Media since 2003 laid the groundwork to expand the collaboration. "Since all of ppi's software components work together using concepts of the Industry 4.0 Initiative, our entire workflow now offers incredibly quick response time when it comes to last minute changes or adjustments," he says. "In addition, the fact that all data is managed centrally offers complete synchronisation of all production components involved."

Advance Local is part of the privately-held Advance Publications which employs more than 12,000 people in companies including Condé Nast, American City Business Journals, 1010 data and POP.