MIS Software Recommendations?

[Duncan Hyde]

Hi Forum, our company would like to implement a new MIS system we got a white paper report on it from Printing Industry of America (PIA), but its a lot to look at, so i would love to get feedback from everyone on what they are currently using and are they happy with it.

My company is relatively small with 3 offset presses and 4 Xerox digital presses and large format printers. 25 employees.

We have EFI Fiery rips for digital and SCREEN CTP with Trueflow 7.3 for press, we do a lot more digital print jobs now and this side is growing rapidly.

Hope to here some Feedback on MIS systems from the forum

Thanks - Duncan

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Duncan, the following PDF guide may help in your decision making process (register to download):

http://accuramis.com/pages/sales/buyers_guide.htm
http://accuramis.com/print-mis-buyers-guide-i-5124.php


Stephen Marsh

 

[Duncan Hyde]

Thanks Stephen I'll take a look

 

[[email protected]]

Duncan,

I took a look at your website, and it looks like you cover a great deal of product types. Most systems are built to support packaging, or commercial print, and even then they might struggle to handle digital verses analog. They all support some kinda workarounds, and then complexities like handling bound printing exposes many limitations to MIS and Workflow solutions. CSS Group has specialized in developing a system that is designed to handle it all with 25 years of experience in integrating existing databases, Systems and Tools to the produce optimized, automated workflows. Most companies that properly implement a system designed for their work and workflow will rate their systems higher than those that either didn't have the right time and resources available or were using a system not designed for their type of work, and support their needs, so finding the right reference needs to match a company using the product in with very similar workflows to properly guide you to the right soultion.

 

[PeterGriffin]

Duncan

If you are still looking for a MIS solution you might want to take a look at our SolPrint MIS - www.solprint.co.uk - we have both rental / hosting or purchase solutions with the option to start with rental and then move to the purchase as required.

All the best.

Peter

 

[Average Joe]

Hi Duncan,
Have a look at Printlogic MIS - www.printlogicsystem.com. It is cloud based software and it covers Digital, Offset, Wide Format and Outsourcing. You can request free trial on their website.
Joe

 

[gabrielp]

Hey Duncan,
In my opinion, all print MIS' are really bad -- so pick your poison. You can learn about specific features like scheduling, data collection, and estimating scenarios and see which one suits your business (and where you aim to be in 10 years) the best, but it will certainly be a compromise. My suggestion is to look for an MIS where you have easy access to your data, by way of directly to the database or a robust API. That allows you to integrate systems into your business processes easily in the future and makes automation possible.

 

[michaelejahn]

DISCLAIMER: I work for SmartSoft, we develop and market a cloud based Print MIS system named PressWise.

http://www.presswise.com/

So, expect shameless plugs for that from me.

In my opinion, all print MIS' are really bad -- so pick your poison.

Well aren't you just a bowl full of cherries ! How can you possibly say that, have you installed and implemented each and every vendors offerings?

- or, is this some wild opinion based on the premise that since you are coder, you think all other coders ideas are FUBAR ?

Sheesh! Give us a developers who build, market and support systems a BREAK !



I will agree with THIS part of your statement -

"easy access to your data, by way of directly to the database or a robust API."

We offer ODBC AND API access. In Fact, we enable ANY third party storefront systems to inject XML into PressWise via our API, and we pass batch imposed PDF files ( or JDF files ) into your RIP / digital press / platemaker / wideformat device, no matter what vendor.

To the OP - Some customer love PrintSmith and Franklin, but they tend to be offset printers and do not really make use of a storefront or Web-2-Print systems. I have seen many prospects
come in with nothing more then an excel spread sheet for quotes and QuickBooks and manage just fine, some grow their own using FileMaker ( and grow their own workflow with awesome apps like Enfosus Switch ). We also see folks who started with some storefront, then realized they hated having to re-key everything into their prepress system. I like PressWise, but hey, I am biased. Some folks feel PressWise is a bazzoka to kill a mosquito, other larger shops like full on ERP systems, or large PrintMIS systems that also have full blown inventory and accounting systems built in, like EFI Pace.

I suppose it all depends on your volume and needs. You want system that offers storefront, estimating, production, shipping and invoicing ? That's what PressWise offers.

Best luck on your search.

 

[gabrielp]

Well aren't you just a bowl full of cherries ! How can you possibly say that, have you installed and implemented each and every vendors offerings?

- or, is this some wild opinion based on the premise that since you are coder, you think all other coders ideas are FUBAR ?

Sheesh! Give us a developers who build, market and support systems a BREAK !

It was just a flippant generalization -- nothing to take offense over. I have not installed and implemented each and every MIS.

The ones I have dealt with are aged, slow, cumbersome, and very expensive to implement any custom features. Many of them are completely walled off from accessing your data through integrations -- or even worse, say they have good API's when they actually have an extremely limited SOAP service that is barely useful. Meanwhile, MIS' seem to get gobbled up and discontinued by companies like EFI all the time. Furthermore, once you build your business around your MIS, it becomes extremely challenging (and costly) to ever change it. We're talking years in some cases.

I do see commercial print MIS' as a necessary evil and I completely understand why so many companies decide to roll their own. That said, I have a commercial print MIS. There's a lot I dislike about it but I won't be changing it any time soon.

 

[michaelejahn]

LOL gabrielp

question; Does anyone know much about Coffee ?
answer: COFFEE SUCKS.

your ststaement;

"The ones I have dealt with are aged, slow, cumbersome, and very expensive to implement any custom features."

Well, yeah, I suppose that is sort of trre for any system as complex as a PrintMIS system. Print manufacturing involves a complex set of relationships between imaging, substrate, orientation of the image to substrate, finishing tasks, bindery calculating weight for shipping, tax calculation, credit card processing - not to mention schedule prediction and inventory tracking - not for the feint of heart from a developers standpoint.

Occationally, a customer will suggest something we might add or do differently and as a LAMP shop, we are pretty agile and add that, but more often than not, most custom feature requests tend to already be there and they just did not search the KB or puzzle out what formula to select for a task.

Everyone calculates printing differently. Try developing, marketing an app that is totally customizeable, and you have a massive support issue.

Yes, it is expensive. Like building your own custom house, building one does not make building the next one easier or less expensive.

You do NOT WANT to change your Print MIS system more than twice in a lifetime, I WILL AGREE - too many customers, products, paper, press setups and finishing tasks to set up so you can estimate and produce.

But lets face it, it enables nearly touchless production, storefront to invoice. Building a digital smart factory requires precise set up and rules. 25% of our customer learn of new orders when they show up in the output bin of their HP Indigo because they have set up storefronts that process directly to a batch imposed sheet that prints via JDF injection.

That is the upside of a Print MIS system,

The downside is it is not simple to set that all up, and yeah, it is not "cheap" but should pay for itself with increase in productivity because the machine is doing many of the repetitive tasks.

Sorry you don't like the one you have. My guess is that is really what sparked the flipant generalization, and yeah, you called our baby ugly, so, yeah, i will take offence.

As for rolling your own, hey, we tried that in the 1990s when I worked for World Color. Being a good printer does not mean you are good developer or fully grasp process management. There are MANY downstream things one group rarely understands about the next step in a process. My favorite is always when people feel they were way clever and set up a cut-n-stack of a large variable data job and didn't know the addresses needed to FIRST run through some app that performs address verification, NCOA, PAVE and CASS.

My boss always said it best "computers enable us to make bigger mistakes FASTER.

Have a Smurfy day !