Technology
News on Digital Print Technology
| Monday, 01 September 2008 15:17 |
Process ManagementSophie Matthews-Paul looks at what’s available for digital wide-format production when it comes to the latest in MIS Systems.In simple terms, management information systems or MIS, gather together all the elements of a company with the intention of keeping abreast of who is doing what, where and why, and how much it’s all going to cost. Analysis of the data provided should assist businesses to streamline their operations and maintain control in all departments. MIS doesn’t just boil down to calculating general costings for a job as there are many variables which need to be included before a precise estimate can be put together. As in any printing discipline, with wide-format digital production there’s a wealth of imponderables to be taken into account including the type of material, the ink being used, how long the finishing will take, and what’s involved to get the end job delivered to the end customer. A well developed management tool can be optimised to make sure that all sales, accounting and production elements are incorporated, yet many businesses in the wide-format sector have fought shy of getting involved with a computerised system as they believe that there aren’t any products which cater specifically for the needs of the digital display market. Nothing could be further from the truth. There might not be an enormous choice of products from which to choose, but there certainly are specialist programs which have either been designed from the ground up for the wide-format industry or have been adapted successfully from other industrial use. To get efficiency across the board, companies need to have some kind of computerised management and accounting software, even if it’s only functional on a basic level. These principles don’t only apply to large organisations; even small businesses can now benefit from using more comprehensive packages which incorporate initial marketing and sales activities, account for quotations, order confirmation and stocks, and make it easy to keep control of production scheduling. Added to that, invoicing and delivery can also be provided in the part of the same suite. Keeping track of processing of estimates, orders, jobs, despatch and all the associated paperwork is a time consuming and labour intensive exercise which can be prone to human error. But MIS in the wide-format world goes beyond being able to handle basic accounting and statistics’ management. As applications have developed as computerised systems have been enhanced by networking and the use of web-based capabilities, so more information becomes available to assist in general management of a company. The trend for modularity has extended itself neatly into MIS and, these days, it’s not uncommon for new users of software to start with a fairly modest set-up and to extend it as more facilities and automated statistic gathering is deemed to be beneficial. Companies can buy an off-the-shelf package to handle elements such as invoicing and stock control but, increasingly, efficiency in an operation is easier to quantify by being able to use programs which offer integration of the different elements of an organisation. Potential users of MIS systems are quick to point out that their own businesses don’t fit into the typical mould which can be addressed, and catered for, by existing options. Those involved in the wide-format market are adamant that their needs are different to the rest of the printing industry and, thus, their requirements have to be addressed by software which is specifically tailored for this particular segment. As a result, developers of MIS systems have added wide-format options to their solutions. One example comes from Northamptonshire based Shuttleworth Business Systems which now claims to be the UK’s premier supplier of print management systems. Currently it has around 700 implementations and the company says its philosophy has always been to provide a single source for all printers’ IT needs covering software, training, support, hardware and network infrastructure. The ability to hold price matrices and incorporate click charges is considered by many to be the key essential ingredients of an MIS for printing companies utilising digital print production equipment. Shuttleworth’s systems have now been designed to include wide- and superwide-format digital printing within its management information system. Emphasis has been given to all types of digital printing, including screen-printing, as it has the ability to calculate costs based upon material square metres in addition to calculating and controlling costs according to machine speeds in relation to area coverage for ink-jet printing. Shuttleworth joint managing director, Paul Deane, says: “We are constantly working on ways to help printers make more effective decisions about the way that they run, and indeed control, their businesses. This means providing them with the right tools for the job that they can use every day to make more effective decisions on a day-by-day basis to help them identify the key issues that they need to address. Examples include controlling production work-flows, estimating and quoting more accurately and effectively, and managing their customer relationships. Above all else our passion is to help make printers become more profitable.” When integrated with front end web-to-print software, such as Xralle, Shuttleworth’s digital MIS fully automates all back office administrative routines, including batching and raising jobs, and automatically producing delivery notes and box labels as part of the overall documentation set. All the printer has to do is to print and deliver the work while an automated invoicing routine within the system raises the invoice and completes the job. Established amongst the display industry are Clarity’s two options, designated Professional and Lite which do as their titles suggest. Clarity Lite has been developed as a business process software option for smaller businesses yet handles contact management, estimating, quoting and pricing, producing what it described as consistent professional documents which complement the process. What this package does is allow users to store customer, supplier and home contact details on a single database, with the ability to build their own price lists for materials, sub-assemblies and labour, incorporating margins, price breaks and variables, such as sales discounts. Estimates and quotes can be produced from price lists or entered manually, and these can be printed as personalised documents, including partial or whole delivery notes, invoice and credit notes. Designed to save on management and administrative time, users can generate reports, such as outstanding quotations, work in progress and invoiced business within any given period. As a modular platform, Clarity Professional adds extra options including full contact management, plus contact notes and activities, the control of marketing and e-mail campaigns. There are additional elements which can be incorporated, such as goods handling and stock control, purchase orders, detail job costings and analyses, and production scheduling. Sage and Quickbooks can be integrated and, with website and network integration, remote access is available for users on laptops. One of today’s products which was developed out of a personal need but which subsequently became available as a commercial industry product is Webtrack. Originally the brainchild of B&P Lightbrigade Group, and optimised for its own use when the company realised that time and costs could be saved by using a dedicated management package, Webtrack is designed to keep abreast of sales, job progressing and day-to-day production. This modular package, which has a web-based interface and is compatible with browsers such as Firefox and Safari as well as Internet Explorer, is designed to give up-to-the-minute information on any job from start to finish. It incorporates a mirrored RAID, ensuring all data is secure, and it features sales, production and accounting elements, all of which run seamlessly. Users can be given password protected access, with sales modules giving separate log-ins for each account handler. Adding jobs is simple and intuitive, with templates making it easy to add jobs and features, such as typical printer selections a setting, a re-do facility, and the creation of invoices. Webtrack’s ability to handle sales, scheduling, pre-press, print, finishing and despatch removes the daily problems associated with progressing jobs across departments, saving time and eliminating any margin for error. Once a job is complete and invoiced, the package automatically displays details on the accounts’ screen, enabling the accountant to cross-check the final figure, invoice address and customer reference number prior to printing the invoice and creating a .csv file which can be batched into Sage. Even if the person running a wide-format digital printing business is a complete technophobe, there are many advantages to automating as much control as possible of sales, production and invoicing procedures. In fact, by removing the manual element doesn’t throw accounting and processing systems into disarray, instead streamlining traditionally tedious jobs. The use of a tailored MIS system for wide-format digital print should ease many of the concerns involving time and management, the estimation of costings for materials, inks and labour. The packages available today cover all company sizes and structures and can benefit even the smallest business by adding a degree of automation and structure which can save time and money, essential elements particularly in today’s tough economic climate. 
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