The Company

Established in 1992, F1 Colour started as a digital only reprographics company in south London and by 1995 was Printweeks 'Pre-Press Company of the Year".

Since then F1 Colour has won and been highly commended in various industry awards for it's customer driven attitude and willingess to diversify into related areas where beneficial to it's clients. Digital print, photography, both studio and location, and asset management being prime examples.

2002 saw F1 implement their first online Digital Asset Management system, wwWebflow, by Silicon Systems. This allowed their clients to access their colour managed assets where ever and whenever they wished to.

Today F1 Colour employees 14 people and are as progressive as ever. They are always looking at ways they can add services of value to their clients that exceed their expectations.

The Driving Force

With some customers working across several locations F1 recognised the need for a system to approve the pages they produced. Jamie Robinson, F1's Production Director reveals "wwWebflow, our previous asset management system was good at uploading, downloading, searching, resampling and storing files, but did not extend to flatplanning or project management.

"People are working in a variety of different ways now and it's quite common for there to be someone in another part of the country or world who needs to be able to see a job in a flatplan, online and give approval or comments".

Flowmation

Silicon Systems contacted F1 Colour back in late 2005, they presented them with the early workings of Flowmation and asked them, with their experience and vision, to become a Flowmation development partner. Flowmation combines Digital Asset Management, Remote Approval and Project Management in an efficient way. Jamie adds "We had been working with Silicon Systems for a number of years and were pleased with their enthusiasm and williness to listen and react to our needs".

Flowmation had some great functions and with us having input into the final product, it enabled us to include our requirements and those of our clients, we can see the fruit of that in the product that we are using today".

"Utilising the technical benefits of the automated workflows, we are developing a system that will allow different ways of working for our clients, depending on their requirements. This could mean them taking more responsibilites and thereby savings costs or just a more efficient way of working."

"Since we installed Flowmation we have shown it to a few of our major clients, who have all been very impressed. They particually like the benefits of the automated workflows, online flatplanning and remote approval functions".

"Last year we presented Flowmation to Alfol Publishing, who produces 3 hair dressing magazines. They have offices in both London and the North East of England and both need to be able to view and approve the pages we produce for them. With Flowmation they can do this online whenever and wherever they want to".

The Future

F1 Colour are a Flowmation development partner who have been working with Silicon Systems since they came on board. Jamie explains "Utilising the technical benefits of the automated workflows, we are developing a system that will allow different ways of working for our customers, depending on their needs and wants, whether it involves them taking more responsibilites and the cost savings that brings, or just a better way of working."

This added advantage has already lead to new business. Jamie is very confident that the system will help retain existing business too. He sees the potential, he states "We are currently rolling out flowmation to our existing customers who have been very impressed with it. We have big plans for this year and developements in our ways of working are going to play a big part in that".