**Looking for MIS help – commercial print shop**

[Mark @ Marketplace]

We’re a commercial print shop (offset + digital, publications, direct mail, bindery) getting serious about moving to a **cloud-based MIS**.

Right now we use **Franklin Estimating (desktop)** + handwritten tickets + ClickUp for job tracking. It works, but it’s time to level up.

We’ve tried implementing systems before and didn’t get full adoption—so this time we want someone who’s actually done this in a real shop to provide a little or a lot of guidance/help.

We’re considering **PrintMIS/ePro, Franklin Anywhere, PrintSmith, Ordant, PrintIQ, PressWise**, etc.—not commited to any one. Right person first, system second...many systems can work. Long-term we’d like web-to-print / customer portal as well.

**What we need:**

* Someone with real print shop experience (estimating + workflow)
* Has helped set up or transition to an MIS
* Can help choose, set up, and get people actually using it

**Flexible:**

* Opinions/advice appreciated
* Paid consulting possible
* Part-time or temp full-time during setup
* Could turn into ongoing CSR / estimating / MIS support

We’re in Iowa but remote is fine.

If you’ve been through this—or know someone who has—would love to connect.

Thanks!

 

[Tom Peire]

We’re a commercial print shop (offset + digital, publications, direct mail, bindery) getting serious about moving to a **cloud-based MIS**.

Right now we use **Franklin Estimating (desktop)** + handwritten tickets + ClickUp for job tracking. It works, but it’s time to level up.

We’ve tried implementing systems before and didn’t get full adoption—so this time we want someone who’s actually done this in a real shop to provide a little or a lot of guidance/help.

We’re considering **PrintMIS/ePro, Franklin Anywhere, PrintSmith, Ordant, PrintIQ, PressWise**, etc.—not commited to any one. Right person first, system second...many systems can work. Long-term we’d like web-to-print / customer portal as well.

**What we need:**

* Someone with real print shop experience (estimating + workflow)
* Has helped set up or transition to an MIS
* Can help choose, set up, and get people actually using it

**Flexible:**

* Opinions/advice appreciated
* Paid consulting possible
* Part-time or temp full-time during setup
* Could turn into ongoing CSR / estimating / MIS support

We’re in Iowa but remote is fine.

If you’ve been through this—or know someone who has—would love to connect.

Thanks!

Hi Mark. Four Pees provides consultancy and implementation services on print automation and digital transformation. We have a professional services resource based in Michigan with a production background and experience with MIS and workflow automation. If interested please send me message [email protected]. We can set up a Teams call.

 

[mheriot]

We’re a commercial print shop (offset + digital, publications, direct mail, bindery) getting serious about moving to a **cloud-based MIS**.

Right now we use **Franklin Estimating (desktop)** + handwritten tickets + ClickUp for job tracking. It works, but it’s time to level up.

We’ve tried implementing systems before and didn’t get full adoption—so this time we want someone who’s actually done this in a real shop to provide a little or a lot of guidance/help.

We’re considering **PrintMIS/ePro, Franklin Anywhere, PrintSmith, Ordant, PrintIQ, PressWise**, etc.—not commited to any one. Right person first, system second...many systems can work. Long-term we’d like web-to-print / customer portal as well.

**What we need:**

* Someone with real print shop experience (estimating + workflow)
* Has helped set up or transition to an MIS
* Can help choose, set up, and get people actually using it

**Flexible:**

* Opinions/advice appreciated
* Paid consulting possible
* Part-time or temp full-time during setup
* Could turn into ongoing CSR / estimating / MIS support

We’re in Iowa but remote is fine.

If you’ve been through this—or know someone who has—would love to connect.

Thanks!

Hello Mark, If you're looking to implement an EFI/EPPS/CAI solution like pace/iquote/MDSD, give me a shout. Have a lot of experience with installs and bringing the product home. My name is Mark too ... [email protected].

 

[Mark @ Marketplace]

Hello Mark, If you're looking to implement an EFI/EPPS/CAI solution like pace/iquote/MDSD, give me a shout. Have a lot of experience with installs and bringing the product home. My name is Mark too ... [email protected].

Pace is maybe too complex for us. Is Printsmith Vision one that you are familiar with?

 

[pixeltim]

I know I'm jumping in a bit late, but after dealing with the frustration of dealing with Printsmith and Printers plan, I decided to roll my own system. I'm using Claude.ai to do all the coding and I'm totally shocked at how well things are going. I have a limited background in coding, so I can read and understand the code it's building, but what takes a good coder hours or days to plan and write, claude does it in minutes. I'm thinking of putting a sample version of what I've build online so other printers can see what is possible. I might be ready for that phase in a week or two if things continue to progress as planned. I'm sure it will be eye opening to many of you.

 

[prepressdork]

I know I'm jumping in a bit late, but after dealing with the frustration of dealing with Printsmith and Printers plan, I decided to roll my own system. I'm using Claude.ai to do all the coding and I'm totally shocked at how well things are going. I have a limited background in coding, so I can read and understand the code it's building, but what takes a good coder hours or days to plan and write, claude does it in minutes. I'm thinking of putting a sample version of what I've build online so other printers can see what is possible. I might be ready for that phase in a week or two if things continue to progress as planned. I'm sure it will be eye opening to many of you.

Which programming language is your app built with?

 

[tngcas]

I know I'm jumping in a bit late, but after dealing with the frustration of dealing with Printsmith and Printers plan, I decided to roll my own system. I'm using Claude.ai to do all the coding and I'm totally shocked at how well things are going. I have a limited background in coding, so I can read and understand the code it's building, but what takes a good coder hours or days to plan and write, claude does it in minutes. I'm thinking of putting a sample version of what I've build online so other printers can see what is possible. I might be ready for that phase in a week or two if things continue to progress as planned. I'm sure it will be eye opening to many of you.

I'm in a similar situation right now. I wanted to add a plugin to our website that allows the cart to auto-calculate the rush service charges.
I could have coded this all by hand but ChatGPT is doing what would have taken me days in minutes. Just finding the right hooks to use would have taken me a while.
It's critical that you understand enough code to know what ChatGPT is doing and do micro-changes for each version but... it's shocking how fast this is going.

 

[pixeltim]

Which programming language is your app built with?

I'm doing it in PHP and Mysql. I bought a Mac Mini to have it as a standalone server for this usage. Once done (which might be next week) it'll allow anyone on my local network to access. I plan to have mobile friendly pages for as much as possible, but definitely for job tickets so my employees can view the jobs they are working on right on their phones.
Once it's all set, I plan to have it update and link to my old hand built, public facing site where my current clients can order (and typeset) their own business cards, door hangers, and order repeat orders and it'll automatically add those orders to the new system. The current setup is not that easy...

ETA: While waiting for a few other things to complete, I had a wild hair and asked to to build me a function where I can upload an excel file, have my site autodetect what is in each field, clean the data in several ways, have the ability to sort it and set up the file to be able to mail merge either one up, multiple up and either stacked or sequential. It took Claude about 3 minutes to design, write and implement it.
Mind bending.