The Colne-based developer will reveal further details of Tharstern Cloud later this month.
The first release will be targeted at label converters, with plans to add the whole gamut of printing including commercial print, packaging and large-format in the future.
Chief executive Keith McMurtrie said the “brains” of the new system had been specifically designed to be sector neutral.
“The approach we’ve taken means we can easily teach the brain of Tharstern Cloud to understand production processes in all print disciplines. So in the coming months, we’ll be evolving the MIS so that over time, it supports all types of print.”
Development began three years ago, with Tharstern recruiting a dedicated team of 11 including developers, testers, and quality assurance specialists to work on the completely new technical infrastructure involved.
At the heart of the system is a product engine that handles estimating calculations.
“This engine has been put together to allow us to easily ‘teach’ it about different print domains. Indeed, it could easily be taught the processes required for the manufacturing of widgets,” McMurtrie explained.
“It’s taken us three years to build the lion’s share of a complete end-to-end platform. It is the fact that it is a multi-tenanted true cloud application that is sector neutral that has taken three years. Everything else will come thick and fast from now on.
“To support other print sectors, we just need to add the product definitions and rules for other types of printed products. It's not an additional module or separate product that will do this – it's just one product with additional rules.
McMurtrie said that once the appropriate logic had been added, Tharstern Cloud could be used for any type of printed product. “In fact the system has been engineered so that it can be in theory taught how to manufacture any type of product, maybe not even from print.
“So you will be able to quickly and easily create a quote that has a label product manufactured on a flexo press, then add a brochure product manufactured on a litho press, then add a banner product manufactured on a wide format machine. All on the same quote, using the same system but with a sector/product specific user experience.”
The official product launch for Tharstern Cloud for labels will take place via an online event on Tuesday 27 July at 3pm BST, and the session will also include information about Tharstern’s overall vision for the new product.
Register at www.tharstern.com/launch.
Tharstern has more than 7,000 users of its MIS and workflow management systems worldwide, and works with a wide range of leading manufacturers and suppliers across multiple industry disciplines.
