Today’s MIS is potentially the heart of a ‘smart factory’, with links to just about everything from e-commerce jobs coming in, through scheduling, automated production, admin, accounts and despatch.
The origin of MIS was in the computer estimating programs that started appearing in the early 1980s, often developed by printing companies internally for their own use, and then put on the market to sell to others. Imprint and Optimus are examples of this, that are now successful and widely used developers with international customer bases. With estimating as a core, more and more functions were added, often as optional but interlinked modules, and the term MIS was coined to describe these.
Current long-term trends have been to move the data processing from local computers into remote central servers – the cloud – with browser access so you don’t need local apps.
MIS will often plug into shop floor data collection systems, or directly to machine production control networks (eg Heidelberg’s Prinect or Horizon’s iCE LiNK). While JDF may be used for data exchange, developers often find it quicker and more effective to link directly by proprietary APIs.
Customers may be able to log onto print service providers’ MIS to request quotes (and sometimes see them instantly), see stock levels, place orders and so on. Often the link is via an e-commerce system (some MIS have this as a module, some will link to third-party systems such as Infigo, Flex4ops or Vpress). Some high-end ERP procurement systems can be configured to access printers’ MIS directly too.
When the Industry 4.0 concept appeared in the mid 2010s, MIS was associated with the intelligent job analysis side of that. This is shading into the fashionable artificial intelligence term. Whether it really is AI yet, or just very clever expert systems that can learn, is a matter of semantics.
Here’s a list of prominent MIS applications available in the UK.
Accura MIS www.accuramis.com
Accura MIS (Data Design Services) was set up in 1988 in Chandlers Ford. Its Accura360 offers a combination of MIS, web-to-print, integrated CRM and accounts functions. The MIS handles estimates (for up to five quantities) with easy-to-use templates; sales order and job ticket generation with just a few clicks; proof approvals management, production scheduling, remote data capture, purchasing, stock control, costing, invoicing, and other functions. There’s a drive app for proof of delivery and live syncs to accounts systems including Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB and more.
Avanti Systems www.ricoh.co.uk
Avanti is a Canadian developer owned and sold by Ricoh. Its Slingshot Print MIS automates the production workflow and handles estimating and scheduling, job tickets, inventory management, direct mail, fulfilment and shipping. It works with third-party systems such as Kodak Prinergy and Caldera workflows, XMPie and VPress web-to-print, BCC direct mail automation, accounting etc. JDF integration will link to Xerox, Ricoh, HP, Kodak and Konica Minolta print production systems.
Clarity Software Solutions www.clarity-software.com
Clarity is a UK developer that was originally set up in the 2000s to specialise in MIS for wide-format, which wasn’t much addressed at the time. It’s broadened out into other applications since, but wide-format is still a core competence.
It offers a choice of Clarity Go cloud-based software, or Clarity Pro or desktops. Functions include estimating & quoting, CRM, monitoring marketing, sales tracking, digital invoicing, job tracking, reporting, with optional purchase ordering. Clarity Go is also available as part of a business organiser for smartphones, while its Proof of Purchase app is a handy multipurpose smartphone app for signage deliverers and installers.
eProductivity Software (ePS) www.epssw.com
ePS is the largest global supplier of print MIS, with the highest number of installed seats. Like many major suppliers it’s increasingly moving to cloud-based offerings.
It may be more familiar as EFI Software, which spun off its MIS wing early last year and its now a separately owned company. Its roots are in Print Café, a Scitex-backed company that started buying up a lot of existing MIS developers in the early 2000s.
A lot of growth has been by acquisition and then converting customer bases to its own systems. Its most recent acquisition earlier this year was the UK’s Tharstern, though it says it will retain the innovative Tharstern product line and development team.
Current main products are divided into two main categories, with application-specific products and configurations within them: Packaging (including folding carton, flexible and corrugated as well as label & tag) and Print (including commercial, sign & display, government/education, franchise, quick print, inplant and several more).
For example, the Midmarket Print Suite platform is aimed at medium-sized businesses and designed to streamline automation and production processes. The MarketDirect StoreFront software is for e-commerce, multi-channel marketing and fulfilment processes. Escada is a system for the control of corrugated production within the modular Corrugated Suite.
Flex4ops www.onlineprintsolution.co.uk
Flex4ops has developed web-to-print software called Online Print Solution, that can automate accounts and shipping operations as well as helping with marketing performance. It can integrate with most online payment systems, the main accounts systems, plus several MIS solutions, including Tharstern and Optimus, with Printlogic under development. There are ordering links to some trade printers and shipping companies.
Imprint-MIS www.imprint-mis.co.uk
One of the earliest UK computer estimating companies to emerge during the early 1980s, Imprint has moved with the times and offers modular configurations for specific industry sectors: flexo, digital, direct mail, foiling & blocking, carton, label, web-to-print, wide-format and print management.
All systems start with the Imprint desktop and can then be linked to modular functions including estimating, order processing, data reporting, production control, shop floor data collection & machine monitoring, stock control and warehousing. There are API links to Sage, Quickbooks and Xero accounts systems.
Optimus www.optimus2020.com
One of the first UK computer estimating companies, originating in an in-house system developed by Optichrome in Woking in 1982. It was spun off as Optichrome Computer Systems Ltd (OCSL) and eventually adopted the name Optimus after its MIS product at the time, Optimus 2020, introduced in 1999. This is still available, but the main product today is the Dash MIS, introduced in 2010 for fast turnround print and expanded since to cover most print sectors. Modules cover sales and marketing, customer services, job tickets and job management, production control, remote data collection, live work status display, purchase order management, KPIs and other analysis.
Optimus also offers its own Cloud web to print system, and Cloud Mobile allows remote access to the MIS from a smartphone, for quotations, stock checking and order taking.
PrintIQ www.printiq.com
This Australian company has been selling into the UK since 2020 and has its own development team in Manchester. The software is cloud based for browser access. The PrintIQ Core set comprises eight modules for a “seamless, end‑to‑end estimating, ordering and production workflow”. To this can be added optional tools called the Connect Module, divided up into API, Automate, Pre-Press and VDP types. Within these categories are 12 modules.
It can configure for applications sectors including digital, flexo, fulfilment, labels, offset, packaging, signage and wide-format.
PrintMIS www.printmis.com
UK-developed software that was first released in 2009. It’s very affordable, costing an initial £4,500 for the first year, including the whole package of cloud access, setup training, automatic backups and system updates. After the first year the annual renewal cost is £1,800 for the MIS, and £1,500 for web-to-print.
Functions include creating estimates, job tickets, POs, delivery slips, invoicing, through to managing inventory, customers, suppliers, web-to-print and more. Relevant print sectors include digital, litho, large-format and print brokering.
PrintVis www.kodak.com
This MIS is supplied in the UK via Kodak and is based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 technology. It offers the usual set of MIS capabilities: estimating, planning and scheduling, inventory and purchase, job tickets, job costing, JDF links to production systems, and a web to print module. It can also integrate with Esko and Agfa Apogee X workflows.
Tharstern www.tharstern.com
Recently acquired by ePS, Tharstern is a long-standing UK MIS developer with a large international user base. Unlike previous EFI/ePS acquisitions, it’s said that the Tharstern product line and development team will be retained.
There are desktop and cloud-based solutions, with functions taking in presales (including a web portal, estimating, job optimisation), job and order management (plus costing, accounts, reporting), pre-production (proofing, scheduling, workflow automation etc); production (tracking, QC, device integration); and post-production (warehousing, fulfilment etc). It’s long been remotely hosted as SaaS, but a recent development was Tharstern Cloud for Labels (2022), which used a new cloud-based approach that’s being incorporated in all the other configurations over time.
Zaikio www.zaikio.com
Zaikio is a Heidelberg-owned German company that’s developing an open connectivity platform intended as a more accessible alternative to JDF with true ‘plug-and-play’. Third parties are encouraged to develop links via the Zaikio cloud-based platform, which can then be accessed through users’ Mission Control dashboard. Before the Heidelberg acquisition it was called Crispy Mountain and had developed an MIS called Keyline. This MIS is now a module within the platform, alongside Zaikio’s imposition and preflight apps for accounting, billing, production planning and scheduling.
Keyline functions include sales, calculation (estimating and costing), planning, task data entry (shop floor data via iPad), logistics, accounting and reporting.
