"Lead times are vanishing," says director of digital printer Cypher Digital Paul Calland. "Customers want quotes in minutes or hours because they've left the job to the last minute. Often we find that from the time of an order to the time the job needs to be on the courier we've got less than three hours."
MIS supplier Shuttleworth says it's a common scenario. "If it's off a matrix, you'd expect pricing instantly, and if it's more complicated, within four hours," says joint managing director Paul Deane.
For Geoff Stephens, who set up TimeHarvest to develop a simple and speedy estimating tool back in the early noughties, digital has been something of a curse when it comes to customer expectations. "As the number of jobs has increased and the value of each job has got lower, so client expectations have increased," says Stephens. "It's a bit unfair on the printer as clients think that having digital print sprinkles a company with magic digital dust, and that raises their expectations of what can be achieved. Sometimes unrealistically."
One way of providing quicker pricing, and at a lower cost to boot, is by using web-to-print.
Calland chose to go that way in part due to Cypher's location in the Lake District. Being online opened up its market, which now includes clients as far afield as the Falkland Islands, but also includes firms in Amsterdam, London and the Scottish islands.
Double-edged sword
Having its pricing online is both a blessing and a curse. It keeps the cost of quoting down, especially for inexperienced clients, which he says is a growing cadre.
"In the old days, if someone wasn't sure what they wanted and asked for a range of options of different stocks and volumes, you could quite easily end up needing to produce 10 or 15 quotes," he says. "They'd all be done individually and we haven't got time. Now those clients can have a browse and if they're interested, submit their own quote."
The downside is that by publishing its prices Cypher is often asked if it can go lower and match a rival.
"Customers want to haggle more now, even though we publish our prices on the website," he says. "More often than not we say no, but now our system allows us to look in detail at the cost breakdowns of a job, we can see if we can make a profit at that price, and sometimes we may say yes."
"All the talk about web-to-print is fine," says Andrew Edmondson of Derby-based digital printer Purely Digital. "But those systems stop at production, and nothing goes across to the production system."
Calland agrees there's no single system that does everything and that integrating multiple systems is tricky and expensive. His firm uses TimeHarvest, a MYOB accounts package, a web-to-print package and some Excel spreadsheets. It recently started using TimeHarvest for both quoting and production management having previously used an in-house developed FileMaker Pro system for production.
Calland would prefer just one system, or to integrate all the diverse systems currently employed, but baulks at the cost.
"We recently spoke to one MIS supplier and they quoted a price that was more than my first house for a project that would take six months. That's a scary and unrealistic investment for a firm of our size."
Instead Cypher relies on manual workarounds, despite believing that automation is ultimately the way to go.
"We're the proverbial swans: everything looks smooth on the surface, but we're paddling around like crazy underneath. It's more cost-effective to do it manually than to invest tens of thousands on an automated system," says Calland.
Deane says that's an area where Shuttleworth has been working to open up the interface between its MIS and web-to-print packages, and any other software for that matter.
"All order processing and invoicing should be done in the MIS," says Deane. "It's absolutely key that those processes are automated, otherwise you will lose money."
One-stop shop
To enable the integration with web-to-print packages Shuttleworth has developed application programme interfaces (APIs) to enable the integration of its software with third-party systems and claims that it can work with most template driven web-to-print systems.
Deane argues that the use of web-to-print makes it far easier to automate the processes too as it standardises the way information is presented to the MIS.
However, there's no point getting in a stack of work if you can't get it printed, finished and invoiced on time, which is where scheduling and production tracking play their part.
"On-demand work negates the need for finite scheduling, but you still need to track it," says Deane. "And if you produce a mix then there's an argument that digital doesn't fit with traditional scheduling as it will have been printed and packed before it can be planned."
Stephens agrees: "While litho needs a proper scheduling board so you can see a number of days ahead, in the digital world it's different, and if you can see your jobs four hours ahead it's a miracle."
That doesn't mean that there isn't a need to have some sort of system for tracking the work though. In an on-demand environment with lots of small-volume work, tracking capacity is difficult but important.
TimeHarvest offers a simple traffic lights system that flags up the status of each stage of the process and helps the operators and the production manager to keep on top of all the jobs, including an alert that shows when any department is running at overcapacity.
When it comes to tracking, Cypher can have anything up to 200 jobs in the factory at any one time, with turnaround times that range from a couple of hours to a couple of months.
"We've got a much better overview using TimeHarvest," says Calland. In fact, as one business owner says, there's an argument that the increased visibility to everyone about where jobs are in the factory means a company could perhaps do without a production manager.
"The important thing, especially with the more complicated projects is to make sure everything comes together," says Stephens. "Litho is more akin to industrial manufacturing processes where you need to make sure you're running a smooth production line with as quick changeovers as possible. Digital is much more flexible and there is more of a focus on moving things around to get jobs out on time, which is our forte."
He argues that it's the more complicated projects that need management in digital, such as a set of training materials that might include a binder with personalised covers, section dividers, tabs, CDs and a roll-out banner. All will be produced using different processes, and maybe suppliers, but need to come together at the right time.
"In digital print, project management and customer hand-holding are the added value and may be more important than the print quality or the price," he says.
While there may not be a one-size-fits-all answer there are tools to cut the cost of communicating with clients and keeping tabs on the factory to meet the demands of on-demand print. There are even, at a price, ways to bridge the gaps between the two.
NEXT STEPS...
When it comes to visibility TimeHarvest founder Geoff Stephens has got a topical tool to extend the access to his software to anywhere at any time via Apple's iPad and iPhone.
"FileMaker Go is an app for the iPhone and iPad that allows you to access FileMaker-based software on the go on those devices," he says.
He sees two views emerging on this development – those who have to have it, and those who can't see the point.
Falling into the former category is Andrew Edmondson, managing director of Purely Digital in Derby, who has become the first TimeHarvest customer to deploy FileMaker Go on an iPad.
"It's brilliant," he says. "Previously I used a laptop, which I could walk around with, but nothing beats having the iPad and being able to scroll all the way through the lists in real time."
"Buying an iPad at £325 and the FileMaker Go licence of £25 is cheaper than buying a laptop and a FileMaker licence. I can see us using this set-up for both the guys in production and those out on the road," he says.
Edmondson says that FileMaker Go on the iPad gives him the power to check the true costs of his production at anytime and from anywhere, and it's always using the centrally stored data from the core MIS database.
Stephens is equally impressed with the potential. "It's a digital clipboard, that allows the production manager to keep on top of everything wherever they are," he says. "And one of the biggest advantages of it being an app on the iPhone or iPad is that it's live – it's not like using a browser window where if you make any changes you need to click submit."
Stephens also sees another advantage for managers and owners in using the iPad – taking work home by stealth.
"If you opened up a laptop at home you're liable to get yourself into trouble for taking work home," he says. "The iPad isn't seen as being a work device, so you can probably get away with it, discretely."
Edmondson proves the point, admitting to taking his iPad home recently to complete some quotes in bed.
