Looking for PURL/VDP Software Comparisons/Recommendations

[ksherrod]

Hi I just discovered this forum and already have spent a good deal just digging at information that seems piled high here...great place.

What I am looking for with my company is a solution to "get into" PURL and "do better" with VDP. We don't currently sell any PURL obviously but want to start, and we do a lot of variable work but I feel like we either aren't making good use of what we already have or have reached the limit of what we can do with what we have. The variable work we do is not usually incredibly detailed, usually just names/addresses...but we are wanting to move forward with more personalized work such as PURLs. The problems we run into right now are partially due to extensive RIP times on most of our machines, partially probably due to lack of knowledge/training, and partially due to lack of capability with our current systems. We are a smaller shop so spending TONS of money on hardware and software that is above our heads/current clientele is not really an option...looking for reasonably priced solutions at this point.

We currently use FusionPro Desktop and our most variable capable color machine that we have right now is a Creo CXP6000 in front of a Xerox 6060. We also have Xerox 6180s running DocuSP 3.8 which I realize is a degree of limitation at this point, which would probably be upgraded at a later point once we know what we need.

[X33]

start by looking at the CREO DARWIN solution, it has a PURL option.

[ksherrod]

Will the Darwin format create "skinny" files to RIP for any machines besides the Creo front end, or is it proprietary to Creo? We only have the one Creo right now, our other colors have Fierys on them (without VIPP), and our 6180s only have old DocuSP.

[X33]

DARWIN can output VPS, VDX, PPML, XEROX VIPP, PDF and POSTSCRIPT.

[ksherrod]

How does Darwin differ from what we can achieve with Fusion Pro?

[X33]

Can you do PURLs with Fusion Pro?

I don't know Fusion Pro, but I'm sure there are many more differences if Fusion Pro costs $600 and Darwin $6,000. There's also XMPie and it could easily cost $60,000

[ksherrod]

We currently have Fusion Pro Desktop, to do PURLs we would need Fusion Pro Links Printable | FusionPro Links

Cost is a pretty big player at this point, but I was hoping some of the advantages/disadvantages between the available systems could be pointed out so I could justify (or not) the additional costs associated with them. I think that if Fusion Pro Links could get us to a point where we could sell PURLs that might be the best price/performance option at this time since we don't yet have the PURL customers to pay for XMPie... I'd kind of like to see a H2H comparison of Fusion Pro Links and Creo Darwin...since it looks like at this point the Creo is probably the only RIP we have that is modern enough to handle variable files anyway.

[jminrod]

We use easy purl (EasyPurl: Create Personalized URLs and Customized Landing Pages for Direct Mail.) you can purchase the software through them. But the best part is you can sell Purls and they will take care of them from start to finish and after you sell enough you can start doing them on your own. But I would start by checking out there site. They have a great upfront training and a very knowledgeable staff of people. They will even make a speaker phone sales presentation with you and act as if they are your companies Purl specialist. Hope it helps

[OMG_Why did I do this]

Well to be quite honest. Here's the answer:

All I've heard about for the last 18 months is Pearl this and Purl that blaa blaaa blaaaaaaa. Just go with WEBCRD from RSA Inc. and cease paying extremely high baby-sitting fee's from Everybody else. And I do mean everybody. Thank You S.W. for all that you do.

[pcmodem]

Well to be quite honest. Here's the answer:

All I've heard about for the last 18 months is Pearl this and Purl that blaa blaaa blaaaaaaa. Just go with WEBCRD from RSA Inc. and cease paying extremely high baby-sitting fee's from Everybody else. And I do mean everybody. Thank You S.W. for all that you do.

Do you work for RSA? Because it sure sounds like it. If you do, that is fine, but it would be nice to know.

Do you have any facts to backup your claim?