In an interview with PrintWeek, Lee Short, vice president of sales and marketing for PDQ North America, said: "We're well established in the UK and it's slowly branching out in Europe, but we feel the opportunity in North America is quite substantial.

"Many of the major MIS providers only look at that component, managing information, whereas PDQ Haybrooke is focused on enabling commercial printers to come up with an accurate estimate very fast that also provides them the most profitability."

Short, formerly a field sales executive for Heidelberg North America, noted the PDQ software can be up and running in two weeks and can be added as a layer over a company's existing IT infrastructure.

"Where's it's really going to have an impact is with sales staff that are away from the office and can now quickly generate an estimate rather than taking it back to the shop and waiting half the day for a formal estimate," he noted.

Short added PDQ North America is focusing initially on the western half of the US and Canada and looking to quickly beef up its sales and support staff in North America. The company has had some early success, having inks deals with the Burke Group and Capital Colour Printing, both based in Alberta, Canada.

Barry Burke, general manager with the Burke Group, said the install went well, adding: "It’s allowed us to streamline our Estimate to Production process, this has so far yielded a 30% cost reduction. PDQ has also given us the flexibility with regards to who does the quoting on-site and the sales team can estimate remotely in front of clients. A PDQ customer access portal is next."