What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

Lammy

Well-known member
HA HA I'm first. na na na na na. :p Ok that may be like being the captian of the chess club but anyway. . .

What are you using for MIS and what do you like or dislike about it, esspecially compared to other.

We currently have Printers Software Inc. We don't have every "plug in" for it so there's no scheduling or inventory. There's little I like about it. The interface is clunky and dates. The formating of the printout for most everything is unorganized, cluttered and confusing. Worst of all the job ticket is useless unless you have them make you a customized one to the tune of $5K !
http://nastyz28.com/ubb/icons/scared.gif! I figure for that price we could find something newer, more intuitive, nicer to look at and that we could actually make use of the job tickets.
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

We,ve been using Logic since day 1 and fully use most of the set of programs (Estimating, Scheduling, Inventory, Job Ticket, Accounting, etc.). We just updated and are getting ready to tackle Quick Quote which seems to offer some significant advantages with our web offering. I suspect we will have a number of questions however, and plan to return to this site often in the months ahead to ask questions and hopefully do the QuickQuote installation correctly.
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

I have just moved to a new shop and have been introduced to EFI PrintSmith. So far the ONLY thing I think it has going for it is that it runs on OSX. It's klunky, unfriendly, hard if not nearly impossible to customize and missing some pretty major components say.. Perfecting for instance.
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

We also use EFI Logic, we have been using for several years, and we are also a beta tester.

We run all the Logic tools, Printflow for Scheduling, and Autocounts on presses and folders. There are still limitations and workarounds on what we need it to do. We are always tweaking certain areas, (we customize our job tickets.)

JDF integration from Logic to our prepress workflow and folders/presses will be next.
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

We use PSI also. I think it's limiting. It would be nice to go full blown Hagen, but our powers that be have customized our PSI. It would be impossible to change to anything else.
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

well bit of a turn of events. Had a machine replaced. PSI wouldn't install. Tech support said "upgrade to the SQL version and that should fix it". Pretty lame solution in my opinion. On a good note, folks that know about the Pervasive SQL we had to buy said it's ODBC standard. That means I can now pull info from PSI to use in another system or I'm thinking just pull the SQL for an html front end
:D
Another company I worked at didn't like any of what they found out there. Being they did tons of web programing they eventually wrote thier own MIS this way. (web/sql). I gotta say it was pretty slick.
__________________
Lammy

EPP Manager • Brass City Printery
OSX 10.4.10 • RAMpage 9.4 • Dynastrip 4.2
EFI Colorproof XF • Avantra 30 • Epson 7600
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

How long have you had autocount? How many units do you have? What benefits have you realized from this? How do you use the information?
I am trying to make a case for this (have been for 3 years now). Need help.
Thanks
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

We have Heidelberg Prinance and like it alot. It can be learned quickly and is an excellent source of JDF data. We are going to be adding on a web-to-print option soon that integrates very well. One of the best things about Prinance is how well it integrates with other Heidelberg software in prepress, press, and post-press and the comprehensiveness of the data that is exchanged between Prinance and other software. Many MIS to prepress or press JDF integrations I've seen only offer very basic information exchange between different pieces of software. Some did as little as merely getting the job number and name from one system to another.

Abe Hayhurst
Director of Color and Technology
We Do Graphics, Inc.
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

We've been using EFI's Printsmith for three yearrs and it has worked very well for us. But then again we're a small shop--seven employees. For a small press shop Printsmith seems more than adequate and EFI has recently upgraded it to price more types of presses. Like with most program it has its issues but for the most part we're pleased with it., but I can see where for larger shops it would not be adequate.
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

Abe that sounds too much like penance to this veteran of catholic school, graduated from Our Lady of the Holy Penguin and never looked back.

We're looking at ePace for an MIS right now, anyone have any experience with it? Any opinions? Anyone...anyone....
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

In reply to RedSox: There is a competitor to AutoCount called QTMS from Prism USA. QTMS goes beyond simply counting - it is an entire production management solution including dead-on counts across all machine makes and models as well as WIP tracking from paper receipt (and roll stand monitoring) to finished product. The ROI is quite compelling.
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

EclipseCount and EclipseRoll from Overbridge Technology compete with Auto-Count and QTMS. The systems are extermely accurate, flexible in configuration, and have an open database (native drivers for SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle) for system integration. EclipseRoll is installed on approximately 250 presses at RRD. EclipseCount was released in October of 2006 and is now installed on more than 50 presses, including press room wide at 2 RRD plants. One of the interesting aspects of Overbridge products is that they are not tied to a specific Print MIS system vendor, therefore there is no bias in this regard. Check out www.overbridgetech.com
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

We use Hagen OA. At the company that I worked for prior to this one, we used the OA system and before that, the Hagen ES system.

I am impressed with the system itself. The changeover from ES to OA went very smoothly at my former employer, however evidentally it is not the same story at my current employer. We were previously using the Parsec System and from what I can tell the crossover implementation must have been a bit of a fiasco. Much of what was done (Item ID's and different areas of the general setup) was simply poor decision making and now we must live with it. I wasn't here at the time so I have no idea if the problem lies with Hagen or my company. However, even having said that, I feel that Hagen is a very well designed MIS system and certainly has the ability to meet the needs of our company - general commercial printing with approximately 22MM in sales.

We do not use the Schedule Board however I AM pushing to add Autocount to our two web presses - anyone out there have opinions on the autocount system?

It seems like this could be a very helpful / enjoyable board to be a part of. I'm also looking for a board for printing estimators. Where you can share info and ask generalized types of questions regarding how people are setting up their systems, capturing shop floor data, etc... Anyone know of a board for estimators?

Edited by: Doug on Dec 5, 2007 8:54 AM
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

OK
I use FileMaker
and before anyone comes in -- just look at it - download a trial and if you dont lke it give it to a youngster. I have been writting for 30 years- FileMaker is fantastic..

MIS developers just dont understand our business

Peter
 
Re: What do you have and what's your opinion of it?

+"MIS developers just dont understand our business"+

Peter,

As the saying goes, exclude me out! Having owned and operated a print shop for 37 years, hands-on, from DTP (before there was DTP) to prepress, postpress, and logging thousands of hours actually running a press, I do understand the printing business. More to the point, I understand it well enough to have written an MIS, "Morning Flight," available free of charge at http://www.printfire.com. Unlike Filemaker, a fine product in its own right for general data management, Morning Flight was specifically written for small to medium size Offset/Copy/Digital print shops. What's more, the Free Edition of Morning Flight is not a trial like Filemaker. It's free forever.

If you'd like to see what Morning Flight is all about before downloading the program, a PDF file of the 214-page manual is on-line as well. Click on http://www.printfire.com/MFHelpF.pdf to view or download. Yes, that's free, too. Along with the Paper Cutter, Paper Pricer, and Run Pricer that are all part of the program.

So please, check out Morning Flight, Peter. See how much "Free" can buy you. Good or bad, I would appreciate your opinion.

Hal Heindel

!http://www.printfire.com/Images/Quote_1.jpg!

The Free Morning Flight Edition even includes Digital!

!http://www.printfire.com/Images/2006_1.jpg!
 
We use EFI Monarch (Hagen) + PrintFlow. We have 35 Cost Centers, and we are very happy with this combination, but some little things we do not understand the PrintFlow.
 
Morning Flight isn't officially supported for use on networks, but we discovered that the majority of installations are run that way. We don't charge for extra seats. The program can be installed on as many computers as you like within the same corporate entity, in no more than two different business locations. Using the program at home doesn't count.

Can Morning Flight be used on a network? | Morning Flight
Morning Flight - V13.1

Thanks for asking, cosmo.
 

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