Nessan Cleary talks to users about how this package has evolved from being financial management tool to a vital part of the production system for the modern wide-format operation.
Management information systems (MIS) have become increasingly important to print businesses, partly because there’s more emphasis on automated throughput than there was, but also because the role of the MIS has changed. Traditionally such systems have been all about gathering financial information so that managers can make the best decisions for the smooth running of a business. But increasingly the MIS now sits at the heart of the production process, running everything from estimating and quoting to generating delivery notes and invoices.
This can be seen in the way that Magenta has used its Optimus MIS. Magenta is a wholly owned subsidiary of Debenhams Retail and as such it takes care of all printed products from shelf edge tickets to large-format POS - the only exception being direct mail which is bought from specialist suppliers. The department itself goes back several decades though Magenta as a trading name was set up about four years ago to make it easier to take on commercial work for other customers without any ambiguity.
It has a mix of print equipment, including two B1 litho presses and two small-format digital printers. But the fastest growing area is large-format and includes an Inca Digital S20 flatbed and a HP latex 2650. In addition, Magenta has just installed two Durst Rho 320 printers - a P10 complete with fabric handling kit and a 320 HS.
Magenta is a long time user of the Optimus MIS and uses a number of modules, including the Dash enquiry manager. Lee Hutchinson, print and display production manager, says: “It's incredibly powerful and allows you to perform calculations to produce estimates and works orders that are simply not possible in traditional estimating.”
Magenta also uses a third party scheduling system, Prestige, which has been integrated into the MIS. Hutchinsonexplains: “You effectively create a large digital Gantt chart with all of your available resources, machinery or staff and can easily manipulate schedules to delivery critical paths.Every task that is managed from within Optimus has a time and that time is plotted against those resources to give you the schedule and milestones for that project. The shop floor data capture fits in as it is live real time so if you overrun or underrun everything is reorganised.”
Optimus has got very detailed reporting options for financials for management review and Magenta uses the cost analysis on a job-by-job basis. But Hutchinsonsays that Optimus is the heartbeat of the production facility, with every job produced being handled through Optimus from start to finish.
Another happy user is Push Print, based in Glasgow. It’s run by husband and wife team Bradley and Vikki Van Beuge and handles a mix of small- and large-format digital printing, the latter accounting for the main growth of late thanks to the installation of a HP latex L2650.
The company looked at several different MIS, but Bradley van Beuge says: “Optimus was the only one that looked as if it was designed around our business rather than us having to fit around it.”
He continues: “We have a small business that relies on us having to always be here to quote and manage the orders. We were looking for a system that would allow us to transfer the management of the business so that all our guys could take a hands on approach with it.”
Quoting is also an important feature for DA Printers in Rochester. The company runs a mixture of different print technologies including a couple of narrow-format Xerox digital presses and has branched out into large-format courtesy of an Epson printer.
Director Jason Allen says that the main advantage of the Optimus MIS is the templating, explaining: “They worked with us to see how we work and built our templates to suit all of our various types of production.”
He adds: “It's very important to us to be able to give accurate estimates very quickly and I'm confident that the prices we give are our best price.”
As a bonus the Optimus system has also worked out to be much cheaper to keep running than the previous MIS. Indeed, the common theme across all these users is that the MIS has led to more efficient quoting and management of jobs.
About the product
The Optimus MIS has been around for 30 years now, making it one of the oldest MIS designed specifically for printing. It’s a modular system, with the core part handling the basic functions such as estimating and stock control and customers choosing whatever other functionality they need from a long list of optional modules. This includes Dash, developed specifically for digital printers, including wide-format devices.
Nigel Tyler, technical director at Optimus,explains: “It has very powerful templating and evaluation engines which give a vast amount of flexibility to configure the system for each individual customer, their production equipment and the type of products produced. It can be used to produce quotes and plan jobs for just about any form of print-related processes.”
He adds that it was designed to be very fast, saying: “Revisions to the quote are also instantly reflected on screen, allowing, for example, ‘what-if’ scenarios to be easily evaluated.”
The pricing starts at around £7,500 for the core modules, though £8,750 is perhaps a more realistic figure for a small bureau with a couple of additional modules. There’s also around £300 per year, per license, in maintenance costs.
Alternatives
Tharstern Primo
This is designed to manage all the relevant information and present it in a clear visual form. It includes estimating, job costing and stock control as well as having JDF integration and managing jobs as they move through the production system. There are also comprehensive fulfilment features for barcode-based stock management and despatching orders.
Primo Lite is a stripped down entry-level version of the above and can generate estimates, track jobs, manage customers and generate business reports. There’s an option for barcode scanning to track jobs and production costs, and another option to calculate hourly cost rates.
Shuttleworth MIS
This includes estimating, scheduling and fulfilment management. It has a number of add on modules, including the Total Production Management module, for organising capacity, gathering real time data from the shop floor and managing JDF and JMF. There’s also a CRM module that includes estimating, costing and invoicing, as well as managing customers. Other modules help deal with stock and inventory control, as well as accounts and ecommerce.
Clarity Professional
One of several Clarity MIS flavours, this is a modular system with options for CRM, quotations and invoicing as well as sales order processing and material requirements planning. There’s a Lite edition, that allows for unlimited numbers of users. It lets companies generate quotes from a price list and issue invoices, as well as providing business reports. There’s even a free edition for single users, which allows for estimates and invoices, as well as managing sales activity.
EFI PrintSmith Vision
EFI has several different MIS programs including this browser-based offering. The full version includes a pricing and estimating tool, as well as generating sales summaries and work in progress reports. There’s a Digital version that supports large-format printers. It automates estimating and invoicing and generates management reports.