Making Moves with MIS
Efficiency is key to any modern business, both within the sign-making and wide-format print sectors and also outside the industry in other areas. Making sure production is running smoothly and ensuring you have control over the various processes will help ensure a much smoother way of working.
Management information systems (MIS) products help companies in the industry to achieve exactly this, granting them a greater insight into how their business operates and allowing them to easily identify areas for improvement that may not have been possible without such a system in place.
With many types of MIS solutions available, SignLink speaks with several providers in this area about their latest and most sought-after products to find out more about their stand-out features and the benefits these offer to companies within the signage industry.
Saving Time
One specialist within this sector is Clarity Software, which provides workflow management software solutions. Sales and marketing director Samantha Yarnall says printing companies that use software from Clarity report cutting print quote time by around 65%, giving them more time to invest in their business.
Clarity Software says its customers have been able to reduce print quote time by around 65%
“Time equals money, so improving the efficiency of operations will lead to more profits and long-term success,” Yarnall says, adding: “With no MIS, businesses do not have transparency over the entire business process resulting in inaccurate decision making, the team not being aligned, and confirming orders that just aren’t profitable.
Time equals money, so improving the efficiency of operations will lead to more profits and long-term success”
“Clarity Software estimates the quantity of material, labour, machining, and delivery expenses, giving you an exact breakdown of costs and expected profits resulting in providing customers with accurate quotes quickly and accurately which is crucial in such a competitive market.”
As to what wide-format print companies and sign-makers should be looking for with their MIS, Yarnall puts forward several recommendations. These include ensuring the credibility of the product, that it is supported by real people, easy to use, and is a reliable solution. She also says it is important to make sure the provider has relevant industry knowledge and a strong user base of existing clients.
With this, she draws attention to the software available from Clarity. Yarnall explains Clarity Software is a modular solution that enables complete scalability within a business, meaning the company can support users in executing their vision.
“The modules come together to create a solution that manages the entire business process including CRM, pricing, quoting, production, and invoicing,” Yarnall says, continuing: “Our most popular features are our calc wizards that have been developed with industry knowledge that really do change the game for print estimating as we are able to consider the machine running times, ink usage, and wastage allowing complete profit assurance.
“Accurate estimates and quotes are essential to maximising profit but too many businesses are fighting with figures; these wizards support this no end.”
Future-proof Your Business
Another specialist in the MIS sector is PrintVis, which works with a wide range of printing companies to support them with management and efficiency. Helle Vogt Mikkelsen, marketing and partner channel manager at PrintVis, says wide-format printers looking to digitalise and optimise their businesses need a secure and flexible platform that supports every step of their processes to ensure they gain full ROI.
“This implies that the platform, or solution, is future-proof,” Mikkelsen explains, adding: “When saying future-proof I want to stress two important factors: First, the software solution you select must be able to stand the test of time, with no hidden technical debt! This is the hidden cost of numerous quick fixes and shortcuts taken during software development, which accumulates over time. It jeopardises the long-term health of any software investment, leading to increased maintenance expenses, decreased stability, and a higher risk of bugs.
PrintVis bills its solution as a flexible,
cloud-based, all-in-one platform designed to run the entire print business
“Second, the solution must be cloud-based, hence easy to upgrade continuously, and with ongoing development of additional features so it adapts to the business requirements over time. And in addition, a modern platform must be designed to integrate seamlessly with other software and hardware solutions commonly used in the printing industry.”
Mikkelsen goes on to say most MIS software providers in the market offer essentially the same features. As such, when looking for new software, Mikkelsen advises also asking for a roadmap of the software development and release cycle, and also checking whether the software vendor provides well-structured product documentation that you have access to as a customer.
“We have been talking about ‘big data’ for many years and to gain actual value of your production data make sure to select a solution that gathers all your business intelligence in one solution to avoid ‘data silos’,” Mikkelsen says, adding: “To use and understand your data it should be in a so-called common data lake so you can draw out reports and gain insight from real-time data presented visually in Microsoft Power BI.”
Another topic that comes to mind for Mikkelsen, and as it should also do for all printing businesses, is security. Moving from own on-prem servers to the cloud gives advantages both regarding the overhead of managing own server infrastructure as well as higher security levels.
“Cloud service providers invest heavily in security measures, enhancing data security,” explains Mikkelsen, who continues: “Being in the cloud ensures that you are always running on the latest version without requiring manual intervention to upgrade, contributing to system security and up-to-date functionality. Just imagine how much money Microsoft is spending on Azure security compared to your own IT department!”
Being in the cloud ensures that you are always running on the latest version without requiring manual intervention to upgrade”
Looking to how PrintVis can help, Mikkelsen bills PrintVis as a flexible, cloud-based, all-in-one platform to run the entire print business. It is powered by Microsoft with all the benefits that the Microsoft stack provides.
PrintVis, Mikkelsen says, is a standard, out-of-the-box business management software solution tailored to meet the needs of the entire print industry. PrintVis is built directly on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and developed with print-specific MIS functionality all combined in one comprehensive, yet flexible solution.
“It is continuously developed by print industry specialists and is the complete end-to-end solution for the print industry to help print businesses streamline, run, and manage their operations from estimate and quote to invoicing and shipping including warehouse management,” Mikkelsen adds.
What Do You Want?
Also in this sector is Zaikio, which works with companies to provide management solutions. UK sales manager Louise Pasquini says when selecting an MIS solution for use within the wide-format print market, companies should look to internally prioritise first and consider what they actually want from their solution.
Louise Pasquini, UK sales manager at Zaikio
“Large-format printers should update their MIS for efficiency, cost reduction, improved communication, data analysis, scalability, compliance, and integration capabilities,” Pasquini says, adding: “The last point in particular is a crucial one in the modern market.
“With more and more customised orders coming in from different sources, relevant systems need to be connected and automation needs to be lived. For us the key is an open and flexible MIS to work with other elements of your business, meaning it should have API connectivity.
“As such, we recommend those seeking a new MIS solution or upgrade should consider if it has a user-friendly interface and its scalability, integration capabilities, automation features, reporting and analytics capabilities, reliability, support from the provider, any security measures, and, finally, its cost-effectiveness for your business.”
O Factoid: Zaikio is partnered with a number of MIS providers including Imprint and Infigo O
Leading on from this, Pasquini goes into more detail about what is available from Zaikio in terms of solutions for wide-format print companies. She bills Zaikio as an open data platform that works with many partner companies in the industry, including several leading MIS providers.
“Even though Zaikio has Keyline as an MIS, the focus is on the DACH market,” Pasquini says, adding: “International MIS such as Imprint or EPMS have understood the challenge and give their customers the possibility to share and receive print data with other Zaikio partner systems.”
Understanding Your Business
Going into further detail on this link-up with Imprint, Zaikio says with its platform, it enables automation by enforcing the normalisation of job data from various sources, using its own standardised data model and our opinionated API. The Zaikio platform then makes that structured data available in a secure workspace, so that subsequent processes can work with it.
Peter Horwood, commercial manager at Imprint, praises this partnership with Zaikio, billing the company’s platform as “forward-thinking and collaborative.”
“As more companies connect to Zaikio, the benefits for customers to have bi-directional software integrations are clear to see,” Horwood says, adding: “The ability for our MIS to receive orders from a variety of platforms and then in turn to return status information about those jobs to subscribed software is a powerful tool.”
From an Imprint point of view, Horwood also has advice and guidance for those seeking new or improved MIS. He says that in an increasingly competitive market, wide-format print companies need to be able to effectively track their projects and know where they are in the process, as well as have a grasp of costs and effective markets using data analysis.
Imprint works with Zaikio on MIS
“When looking for an MIS partner, first and foremost, you should look for a company that you feel is listening to you and actually trying to understand your business model,” Horwood advises, adding: “An MIS should have the flexibility and the right tools for you not just a conventional printing system adapted to fit. Also, enquire about the programming roadmap so you can be assured that the system continues to be developed.”
As for how Imprint can help, Horwood says the company has observed that the market is focused on a business-wide clarity of the statuses of work and analysing MIS data to identify bottlenecks that need attention. By continually reviewing this, Horwood says, this allows its customers to make key business decisions such as the justification of new equipment or hiring new staff for example.
“Imprint is continuing to develop its online dashboard offering,” Horwood says, adding: “Its new projects system is ideally suited for capturing kitting style projects. Imprint has also finished its latest workflow integration with more details to be released soon.”
While there is seemingly no real right or wrong answer when it comes to selecting an MIS partner, there are several steps that wide-format print companies and sign-makers can follow to ensure they get this decision right. Ensure the provider you want to work with has a solid track record in working with those in the industry, understands what you and your business are all about, and that their product can match your own hopes and ambitions.
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