The new software, featuring more than 30 new and updated features from July 2022’s V45, focuses heavily on helping printers automate or speed up their processes.

Optimum placed its order on 21 March, the first day of the software’s demonstration at the Sign and Digital UK show in Birmingham, and just days after its launch.

Paul Bromley, PrintIQ’s global sales director, told Printweek that he was thrilled with the reaction to the latest version of the “new kid on the block” MIS.

“We’ve been inundated, to be honest. I think people have been looking for a solution for a while, but had put it on the backburner,” he said.

Matthew Austin, managing director of Optimum, said: “We have been in discussion with PrintIQ for several months now, and we always look to innovate within the company by using the best technology available. 

“The release of V46 along with the show proved to be the perfect time for us to confirm the order and start to plan ahead. We deal with some major brands, and we see this system as providing more visibility and communication for them as well as automating our workflow internally.”

PrintIQ’s frequent updates to its MIS are a core part of its appeal to customers, helping the developer to shape its software to client needs, according to Bromley.

He said: “We’re constantly evolving: a software business has to change the status quo. 

“It’s so dynamic, and [business needs] are so fast changing at the moment, that we’re becoming dynamic with our customers.”

Part of this cycle of improvement, he added, has been developing the firm’s onboarding process so that a properly prepared company needs only two or three months to run fully off PrintIQ’s MIS.

“Optimum have committed themselves and are going to put a good effort into the build, so again they have been looking at two to three months as well,” Bromley said.

Optimum has produced 3D, interior and digital signage and awnings since its foundation in 2009. Now operating from three sites in Preston, the firm installs orders nationwide.

For this reason, the business is particularly well suited to V46, Bromley added.

“What they are finding, as a sign company, is that they’re out on the road a lot. Everyone in the business is working full days, so they need to be able to do things while mobile.

“Because PrintIQ is cloud-based, they can do it from their phone, tablet or laptop, in real-time. 

“Beforehand, there was little to no possibility of doing that: because of the server-based solution they had, it relied on a remote desktop connection, which was really slow – and sometimes would not even connect.”