Your recommendation on Management Informaiton Systems (MIS)

[craiglpress]

As mentioned earlier in the thread it depends on how big you are and how big you want to get. We are a commercial printer and finisher (book binding) in South Africa -[ Caxton ]- CTP printers Cape Town and run Shuttleworth MIS. See Shuttleworth Business Systems - Perfect for Print.
My 2c
Regards
Vaughn

Vaughn,

Our company has been helping printing and packaging companies in the US and Canada evaluate, select, and implement MIS systems for 18 years. Is Shuttleworth now avaialble in the US or Canada? MIS Software Consulting for the Printing and Packaging Industry

[ems]

Has anyone heard of SmartQuotes? There doesn't seem to be much information or reviews on the internet.

[smharney]

Kburas I am looking inot a class action suit over hiflex's "smoke and mirrors" are you the owner of your buiness?

[kantblue]

Hi Ritter
I notice you comment that "Digital components are very weak on almost all of the systems I've seen."

We use Tharstern here and even though it does seem to have a number of digital print options I'm finding it quite difficult to sort out in a meaningful way.

At the moment we are using a simple spreadsheet to calculate digital prices and this works well for us, but we are trying to process everything through Tharstern.

The problem is that the spreadsheet is quite simple to get a price out of, but in Tharstern it seems to be more difficult to setup and create/cost an estimate.

Did you find any of the systems were better than others when it comes to digital printing?

kantblue

[PeterGriffin]

In case you are not aware of our services we have a extensive MIS called SolPrint with options for the small print organisation using the SolPrint rental hosted solution with every delievered via the "Cloud" or the main SolPrint MIS with 30 + modules available. For more info please visit our website SolPrint - Print Management Information System, Print MIS

[Stephen Marsh]

We are a mid-sized commercial printer trying to move on to the next level - automating what we have been doing manually (yes.. lots of hand work) like estimating, creating job tickets, handling shipping and logistics, invoicing, etc...

We have been looking into products from HIFLEX and EFI (ePace) but I wanted to know if there's anything out there that is reliable for smaller companies and the price range is - acceptable. We have tried implementing products from Printer's Plan and Franklin Estimating few years ago but have failed.

Basically, the biggest need we have here is getting an automated estimating system where prices can be generated with several clicks. And everthing else (like making job tickets, invoicing, handling shipping, etc) can all start from the price quote we generated. In other words, we need a reliable MIS involving our basic workflow - Estimating - PrePress - Press - Bindery - Shipping - Invoicing.

We are currently using Prinergy in PrePress, Akiyama Presses, MBO folders and QuickBooks for Accounting.

Any recommendations? Please advise.

As the Australian distributor for Accura Print-MIS, I would suggest that you check out the following link. The basic core module covers all of what you mention you are looking for.

Accura Print Estimating - Order Processing - Job Costing - Stock Control - CRM - The Print MIS System of Choice


Regards,

Stephen Marsh

[ERIC1542]

We are a small commercial shop in the US- 20 employees. Printer's Plan and Printsmith are two of the systems we are considering. What type of issues did you have with Printer's Plan? I've seen some of the negative re Printsmith. In dealing with Printsmith, the basic legalese is alarming. Does anyone have knowledge about Print-Quotes Software?

We are going from the Franklin Catalog so we are thinking that we may want to leapfrog to a more web-based system. Also what about going from hourly budgeted rates to a market based rate ( what it will bear)?

Thanks for any input.

[ChrisOAS]

Hi,

I would like to offer to show you what Intraprint can do for you. I have been an estimator and done installation and training for a number of software firms (for many years) on the market today and we offer the most flexible solution on the market today I can honestly say together with an online offering that can do things no other software can do. You can reach me at: 416-841-8322 or you can write me at chris.schwendinger@intraprint.com. Thanks for your time and have a great day!

Best regards,
Chris