What is it?
It’s an estimating tool that calculates the most cost-efficient way of producing any printed job. It collates all of our data and customer details and we use it to work out the best price and most efficient production methods available. Once a price has been found, the system automatically writes the quote letter and emails it as a PDF to the customer. The tool has allowed us to quote quickly, which means we can price up marginal jobs where previously the conversion rate was not high enough to justify the time spent producing the estimate.

Why did you choose this particular product?
We wanted to improve the accuracy of our quotes and get the sales team to increase their quote output, but we wanted to do this without employing another estimator – it can be hard to balance the number of estimating staff against peaks and troughs of sales enquiries. It was also key for us to get the account managers to produce their own estimates. With such slim margins, it was important every quote was consistently accurate irrespective of who had produced it. The set-up fee was small and we pay a monthly rental charge based on our firm’s size and number of estimates processed.

Did you look at any other similar software?
We could have replaced our existing MIS with one that had slightly better estimation automation. We decided that this would have been disruptive and would have only improved the productivity on simple jobs. I then looked at other specialist estimating packages, but felt most were really only able to produce ball-park estimates. I also found they were often tied to a specific print manager rather than producing quotes I could rely on for any given customer.

What features do you particularly like?
I like the way that it only requires the completion of one brief sheet before using its estimator rules to calculate the most efficient production methodology. We have found it to have a great deal more depth than we originally anticipated. This is because it looks at the complete production process in detail. It will, for example, decide if papermaking is more profitable than using stock paper sizes. It selects the best layout and press taking into account post-press finishing and even works out if a different production methodology for each quote quantity will prove more efficient. I also liked the fact that we still have control of final prices where we need it, depending on the user rights.

What features do you dislike?
At first, we thought the time it took to calculate a job – up to a minute – would be a problem. We’ve found, though, that we can get on with inputting another brief while Brightblue’s data servers work through the calculations.

Were there any difficulties experienced during the installation?
We had to do a lot of testing, partly to convince the sales team that it actually worked, and partly to fine-tune the configuration. We spent a great deal of time with the Brightblue consultant and he proved to us every time that the chosen methods were the best. The team’s initial apprehension has definitely proved to be unfounded.

What about the service?
It was very quickly implemented – it took just a couple of weeks to collect data and build an accurate model of our factory’s capability, bulk upload customer details and do the user training. Everything was done so quickly because no extra IT equipment was needed. The service runs from Brightblue’s data centre so we only needed a web server.

Under what circumstances would you buy another?
We are now interested in Brightblue’s management information tools. These look not only at sales conversion rates but also at which presses are used most frequently in quotes, our most cost-effective paper and our average value add per customer. We are currently running this estimating system alongside, but separate to, our Heidelberg MIS because only a small proportion of estimates turn into orders. We are looking forward to integrating them both
in the future.

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CONCLUSION
User’s verdict
Speed 4/5
Accuracy 4/5
Reliability 4/5
Value for money 5/5

Supplier’s response
Brightblue chief executive Mark Wragg says: “TL Visuals’ management team should be praised for the success of this installation. They took their time looking into a system that was right for them and brought it in gradually instead of dropping it on its staff from a great height. Staff who are not professional estimators are now able to produce very accurate quotes for customers. In this industry, people are on razor sharp margins and we are offering a product that will always calculate an extremely accurate price.”
Price monthly fee from £1,000 to £3,000
Contact Brightblue 020 7112 5110

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