Emerson Welch, marketing manager, Clarity Software
Drip feed success
As you would expect from an MIS provider with over 4,500 sign and display users, we’ve got plenty of evidence to prove it certainly does improve the bottom line.
Clarity provides improved efficiencies from day one, and returns profit to a business in a controlled way. The design of the software has been considered carefully so it can be implemented in stages, removing the need to overhaul your entire business overnight and risk upsetting your loyal staff.
Quoting and order processing is the primary area to start the returns flowing through. Once your new way of working (including simple emailing of PDF quotes and instantly finding previous prices) becomes second nature, you release those bottlenecks that restrict how much you can sell. You can keep the customer on the phone while you quote. You can win more orders at higher margins, with visibility of your true costs.
The design of the software has been considered carefully so it can be implemented in stages, removing the need to overhaul your entire business overnight and risk upsetting your loyal staff”
Customised job sheets detail the exact requirements and an automatically generated folder structure offers a central place for all PDFs, artwork files, and other job documents to be stored.
And this is just phase one. You are now ready to drop in the next segments of Clarity, including purchasing, production, shop floor, stock, and WebShop selling, and turn up the profit returns even further. All without causing major disruption to your business.
To give you just a taster, average sized users of Clarity see a 100 percent productivity increase in raising quotations, reduce admin errors by 58 percent, and regularly get their jobs away in half the time spent and with greater accuracy than before using Clarity.
That certainly makes a difference.
Focus in
Colin Holmes, operations manager, Applelec
Without a doubt it makes a difference. In fact it’s so important that it’s a central focus in the strategic plan for the growth of Applelec. One of my principles for the creation of an efficient business involves exploiting technology, and here at Applelec, we have been using Clarity Professional MIS software for over ten years. This system provides us with modular applications to connect and manage quoting and estimating, production, marketing campaigns, invoicing, and shop floor activity. Once a system like this is fully integrated within business functions, to a point where its use is second nature to employees, the benefits are enormous.
Without MIS the efficient operation of the business as it grows would be unmanageable, particularly for a multi-site operation such as Applelec. With an office in Bradford, another in Tring and two factories in West Yorkshire, MIS allows all departments and more importantly job activity to be linked up. The system’s pricing wizards mean individual sign component costs are set and can be added to a quote by any member of the sales team across our offices.
Without MIS the efficient operation of the business as it grows would be unmanageable, particularly for a multi-site operation such as Applelec”
The production tracking system collects data on all activity on the shop floor, which we then use for factory capacity planning and analysis. For example, if too few LED modules are estimated for a job that then needs rectifying on the shop floor, at cost to Applelec, MIS is used to track how many extra modules were required and, more importantly we can then rectify the underlying issue through staff training.
From raw captured data, we can also run reports that identify, in detail, any issues that need addressing, and ensure our sales and production departments are well managed and efficient. In a cost and lead-time competitive market, accuracy and speed in quoting helps us win business and that definitely makes a difference to the bottom line
Make the most of MIS
Dawn Safford, marketing executive, Shuttleworth Business Systems
It is true to say that some companies only use their MIS as an estimating and job management tool. For most this is a missed opportunity, as an MIS is capable of so much more. Modern MIS are designed to provide crucial business data that enables companies to increase operating efficiencies, enhance customer service and, ultimately, improve their bottom line.
The key to getting the most out of any MIS is to understand how your business processes currently work. At Shuttleworth we can then apply the technology to monitor and support these practices. By doing this, the MIS will start to provide your business with precise information on how processes are actually performing.
As a company becomes more aware of how it is operating, changes can be made and procedures developed. These modifications can lead to significant improvements such as savings in time, increased accuracy, as well as improving and speeding up vital customer service and support.
The key to getting the most out of any MIS is to understand how your business processes currently work. At Shuttleworth we can then apply the technology to monitor and support these practices”
It is also important to keep up-to-date with new MIS technologies to help the process of continual enhancements across the business. Most modern MIS support a ‘Business Intelligence’ module, which means that information is available at the touch of a button. New App’s are also constantly being designed that integrate directly into the MIS, enabling easy access to updated information even ‘on the move’.
Customers are facing a huge challenge in meeting the needs of their changing market place. To prosper and grow, a modern business needs to be able to produce high-quality products and services at a cost-effective price. A printers’ MIS is the most powerful business tool that they possess; treated with respect and well developed, it will reward them with accurate information enabling them to make strategic business decisions based on factual data.
No doubt about it
Gareth Parker, strategic marketing manager, Ricoh UK
MIS in their various guises have been a feature of the industry for many years, yet there remains a lot of talk about their actual inherent value to print businesses. There is no doubt MIS can make a great difference to a company’s bottom line. But, and it’s a big but, it’s not the MIS alone that makes the difference—it’s the way it’s integrated, utilised, and maximised that will ultimately define its success. After all, hardware and software only become great assets when they fit succinctly from a strategic and production perspective and are made to work hard and give the users true freedom to operate their businesses as they need to.
The best MIS and workflow systems are those that are constantly redefined and tweaked in response to technology advances, market opportunities and customer feedback”
In addition, with more connectivity than ever before, the MIS’s real impact on the bottom line also needs to be measured by the strength and ability of its Application Programming Interface (API) to seamlessly adapt and integrate with other legacy systems in the business, from Web2Print, collateral management, and web-based quotations, to the various facilities and programmes that help to manage customer relationships and expectations.
The best MIS and workflow systems are those that are constantly redefined and tweaked in response to technology advances, market opportunities and customer feedback. It is this approach that forms a key part of our MIS and SaaS strategies at Ricoh. In the end, it’s all about how you manage the information system itself that makes the difference to your business and your bottom line.
