You can still replay the webcast on demand here (registration required).

EFI has also made available its executive guide on choosing an MIS system available here.

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David Taylor states that ERP is not suitable for the print industry - is it or is it not suitable? Furthermore "don't give it to accountants" is probably one of the reasons why the print industry has been so much harder hit than the rest of the world who run their business by accountants first.

Jaap Schram de Jong

David Taylor (DT) - The attached white paper provides a detailed answer to the question. Personally I believe that accountants have an important role to play in the management of a print business.

 

Why is the thrust of the panel aimed at production efficiency, when efficiency gains are so often given back to the customer - e.g. prepress done free and jobs finished quicker? What about seeing the anticipated profitability of every job instantly? That way marketing can be focused on building up a portfolio of jobs that are worth doing. It may mean turning away jobs that aren't worth a light. Turnover is not king. MIS must not create a wealth of busy fools. MIS without good costing concepts are as useful as chocolate teapots.

Norman Marks

Warren Brew (WB) - I totally agree, Eclipse is not looking to use technology to give back costs in terms of production efficiencies. The biggest ROI for us in our new system is the ability to automate as many processes as possible, reduce waste in terms of time and cost, and ultimately put more work through the factory without adding staff in production or administration. We use the SFDC to tell us what we are good at, not to reduce the price but to effectively win more of that type of work and also make sure we improve on what we are not so good at.  

In terms of reporting, our dashboards tell us exactly where we are at in terms of AV, contribution, margin and profitability either job by job, quote by quote and collectively by month or week or rep. The reporting is totally customisable to our business and we constantly update and review dependant on the business KPIs of the business.


DT - Production efficiencies are just one of the potential gains from the implementation of an ERP/MIS system. Understanding potential and actual profitability is a pre-requisite for doing business today. One needs to take control of the information and proactively manage the business to maximum profitability. The heart of EFI ERP/MIS is the concept of costing and profitability.  

 

Hi , We currently use a MIS system from a large supplier in the UK, and have recently run in to a serious problem; we wanted to restrict certain people from seeing other people's work dockets which carries sensitive costing information, ie supplier costs, commision, selling price etc. When we contacted the supplier they informed that at present anyone using the system has full access to job costing; when I pushed them on restricting reps using some access code, we ran in to a brick wall. Would anybody be able to suggest a MIS package that will deal with this situation?

Steve SMC Print

DT - Within the EFI product portfolio of MIS/ERP software solutions you can configure the system in such a way to hide sensitive costing information.  


Hi Warren, Could I ask which MIS you use and how long have you had it?
Simon Reed

WB - We are currently installing Technique MIS which will be complete in November, but at present we are using three systems:

Tharstern – For estimating and job bags (seven to eight years)
Technique – For production planning and part DC collection off our web press only (five Years)
PDQ – For estimating only (a new route-based estimating package)

The reason with the new install is purely the business need for Eclipse to have a completely integrated MIS, rather than three disparate systems which do not talk to each other. Also it was a time to look at upgrading or replacing systems to take advantage of new technologies such a route-based estimating as opposed to template-based etc; we also needed a system that was fully integrated and Technique offers us that solution and with the additional MI we can generate along with the automated reporting, dashboards, SFDC and transfer of information electronically between departments means that we will be able to put more work through without adding staff costs.