MIS which covers litho, digital and signage estimation

[RMMM]

Our Litho Printshop has diversified into digital printing & signage business. Any suggestions for an MIS which fully covers litho, digital and signage estimating. Currently, we are using Prinance for estimating but is has got limitations when it comes to digital and signage estimating.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

I would like to recommend the Accura print MIS solution, which covers most printing methods, whether it is sheet fed litho, web fed litho or flexo, letterpress, reel or flatbed inkjets calculating in square unit or linear unit, digital copiers/printers that use click charges, screen printing - as well as art, repro, finishing and outwork. Although it usually all starts at the quote, a good print MIS is about more than just providing an estimate.

Accura Overview - The Print MIS Solution of Choice for over 600 Companies

Accura - MIS Buyer’s Guide

(Disclaimer, I provide training and support for this software for the Australian/New Zealand distributor).


Stephen Marsh

 

[LoneGoose]

Not to divert too much off the topic, but has anyone here ever developed their own MIS in FileMaker? Would love to hear about their experience in that regard.

 

[cjs]

I built a custom MIS system at my last job in FileMaker Pro. It had quote and job tracking, customer and contacts management, and basic scheduling capabilities. It was going along well and was easily adaptable to the new markets into which we were going such as large format and digital. It utilized our in-house Excel spreadsheet models to estimate pricing, which I considered to be a strength as it kept the maximum level of flexibility. (For instance you could use one spreadsheet model for offset, one for digital, one for large format, etc. And you could tweak the models as you went along, while keeping the historical data for how old quotes were calculated intact.) However my bosses wanted a system that made job estimation even faster, so they 'upgraded' to another commercially available system that was also built with FileMaker and did all estimation inside of FileMaker using literally thousands of Calculated Fields (instead of a combination of scripts and functions). I will not say the name of the product but will say that we found that 'out of box' it was NOT as promised. We had to make so many tweaks to it just to make it do the basic functions that it was not worth the price, in my personal opinion. That system was built in an OLD version of FileMaker and it shows -- it is barely usable in FileMaker Go or the new WebDirect interface.
If you are building your own system in FileMaker, I would recommend starting fresh in version 13 (which just came out last week). If you want to speed up the process, perhaps consider hiring a FileMaker developer to build the core of the system and then you can tweak it yourself afterwards.
FileMaker is an awesome platform, but works best if the developer knows what they are doing and understands good user interface and database design.

 

[LoneGoose]

Hey cjs, thanks so much for the motivation!

Yes, I'm tired of our MIS system's 'black box' mentality of calculating quotes. Even trying to emulate how I think it's working out quotes, I can't get to the same figures. It's also just not flexible enough for our growing business - very old school litho-oriented, and scheduling so clumsy we do it by hand rather. Can't wait for the holidays to begin so can start working on our custom solution (have the 'Lost Manual' by O'Reilly and am half-way through).

 

[michaelejahn]

I work for SmartSoft, and we offer a cloud based application called PressWise:

Web-to-Print, Print MIS and Print Workflow Automation | PressWise

Most of our customers are commercial hybrid type print service providers who offer offset, own some digital press and wide format devices.

 

[kansasquaker]

Not to divert too much off the topic, but has anyone here ever developed their own MIS in FileMaker? Would love to hear about their experience in that regard.

Yes, it's definitely doable! We have our own in house solution that started in FM 7 and we've since migrated to 12. It does litho, digital and inkjet estimating, prospect management, order processing, scheduling, inventory, job costing and billing. There's really nothing you can't do with it (which is especially true since version 12). We just added the ability to use the iOS client to collect signatures upon delivery, send out notifications and store them with the job ticket.

We've never used an outside developer. We've been developing it on an ongoing basis for about 8 years. We're probably on the order of 1500 hours of development over that time. We do about 7mm per year in revenue, so a comparable MIS would be $50-100k or more plus 10-20% "maintenance" yearly. After all that it still wouldn't be as flexible as our FileMaker solution. I've looked at some of the systems out there over the years and I've never been tempted to switch.

So go for it!

 

[MAC.NETWORK]

Re-inventing the wheel?

Re-inventing the wheel?

Yes, it's definitely doable! We have our own in house solution that started in FM 7 and we've since migrated to 12. It does litho, digital and inkjet estimating, prospect management, order processing, scheduling, inventory, job costing and billing. There's really nothing you can't do with it (which is especially true since version 12).

Hi Kansasquaker, it sounds like you have a good system, have you thought about selling it? I can't believe how we have all these companies re-inventing the same system for themselves. I was looking at JobPro for my clients but it's about $5000 to manage a 5 user business. Plus ongoing customisation and dev costs at $150/hour!

 

[kansasquaker]

Hi Kansasquaker, it sounds like you have a good system, have you thought about selling it? I can't believe how we have all these companies re-inventing the same system for themselves. I was looking at JobPro for my clients but it's about $5000 to manage a 5 user business. Plus ongoing customisation and dev costs at $150/hour!

I've toyed with the idea, but we didn't really develop it for selling - it would take too much work. For example, there's no documentation, period! I've developed the whole thing, so it's fairly easy for me to customize. I can't imagine how somebody else could pick up my sloppy organization and do anything with it.

 

[Simon Ivarsson]

I built one. But just as a demo tool to feed Automation Engine with XML's.
Works fantastically good!

 

[PeterGriffin]

SolPrint MIS - Rental and Purchase Options

SolPrint MIS - Rental and Purchase Options

Our Litho Printshop has diversified into digital printing & signage business. Any suggestions for an MIS which fully covers litho, digital and signage estimating. Currently, we are using Prinance for estimating but is has got limitations when it comes to digital and signage estimating.

Hi I would be please to arrange to take you through what our SolPrint MIS can offer you - it is a modular system with over 30 modules and can either be provided as a low cost hosted solution or purchased and installed on your own server. To see more details please visit our website SolPrint - Print Management Information System, Print MIS

 

[hoofer70570]

Hi Kansasquaker, it sounds like you have a good system, have you thought about selling it? I can't believe how we have all these companies re-inventing the same system for themselves. I was looking at JobPro for my clients but it's about $5000 to manage a 5 user business. Plus ongoing customisation and dev costs at $150/hour!

I actually just discovered JobPro, after spending the last two years planning and building my own FileMaker MIS in my spare time. I really like it, and I think the price compared to other options is quite good. I'm planning to customize much of it myself and hope to be live with it at the beginning of 2016. Anybody else using JobPro out there?