Wesley Dowding started with the business, which has held the UK and Ireland dealership for Keyline since last summer, on Monday (7 January).
Dowding has worked in the print communications industry for more than 20 years and prior to that he spent eight years working in the postal industry. In 2003 he co-founded Inc Direct and he later worked at Romax for nearly five years, most prominently as operations and technology director.
An expert in ISO 9001, 27001 and 14001 accreditations, during his career Dowding has conceived and deployed several web-based platforms including a bespoke web-to-print platform for a major leisure company while at Inc Direct.
Based remotely from Peebles, Scotland, Dowding will handle the North of England and Scotland sales and after his initial training will also be responsible for installations within his territory.
Resolve Business Management, which was established by former Imprint MIS staff Wayne Beckett and Chris Watson, distributes Keyline in the UK and Ireland on behalf of Cloud to Print, which finalised a deal to market the system in the UK last year.
Dowding, who had recently returned to the UK following a stint living in Spain, first connected with Resolve via LinkedIn.
“Wes happened to comment on something on LinkedIn and I messaged him to ask how it was going in Spain and he told me he was back and living in Scotland. He said he was looking at doing some work within the print industry and it went from there,” said Beckett.
“The likes of Wes, who have got that print background and have a knowledge of software, are pretty hard to find. So we jumped at it when we found out Wes was looking and it makes sense for him too as he can work from home and doesn’t have to travel miles to an office.”
He added: “Having somebody on the ground up there will be a lot better for us and he’s going to start contacting local businesses now. He will also be helping us with installs as and when.”
Developed by German-based Crispy Mountain in collaboration with a number of German print companies, Keyline is a software-as-a-service product, intended to cover the full print process from order taking and estimating through production and finishing to stock keeping, logistics and accounting.
The system’s open interfaces allow for communication with any kind of software, as well as printing, finishing and logistical machinery.
Early UK adopters of Keyline, which can also be integrated with other systems via apps available from Crispy Mountain’s dedicated Keyline AppStore, include financial sector print specialist Colourfast Financial and cross-media printer and design business Datum.
