EFI components such as PrintFlow for scheduling are available separately from its main MIS offerings
Management information systems promise to give printers a good understanding of their costs but with many other vendors selling data analysis solutions, do you still need one, asks Nessan Cleary.
The basic concept of a management information system, or MIS, was originally to gather enough information about a company’s operations for the management to make sensible decisions. But how do you gather the data in the first place, how do you present it in a meaningful way and how can you be sure that you will save enough money to justify the cost? There is a further complication, too, with the modern MIS also expected to be part of a production system.
So what exactly is an MIS these days? Wayne Beckett, sales and marketing director for Imprint, says, ‘The MIS is your backbone. It’s the thing that runs right through from your sales and estimating to your final invoicing. It connects everything together.’
Imprint upgraded its MIS to version 18 last year with improvements to the overall functionality and a redesigned interface. Mr Beckett explains, ‘It’s a cost-based system so it’s all about identifying your business cost rates and then putting a margin on these.’ He argues that with run lengths and profit margins coming down it’s essential to know where your costs are, and that you are squeezing the maximum amount of profit out of each job and not wasting time on unprofitable work. He says, ‘If you have really accurate cost analysis then you can find out what your sweet spot is and get your sales guys to go out and start selling in that area. Or you might find that your estimates are out and you could be more competitive.’
Most MIS offerings have a core system, which usually includes estimating, scheduling and imposition as well as the cost analysis of the business and invoicing. On top of this there will typically be additional modules that might include things like web-to-print and inventory management as well as fulfilment management.
Integration with other systems, such as CRM, is increasingly essential for MIS
Integration, integration, integration
The key attribute of a modern MIS is its ability to integrate with other systems, including production devices such as digital front-ends, litho platesetters and presses and finishing units as well as stock management, accounting and fulfilment software. Some of this integration comes via JDF / JMF, particularly the details around an individual job. But an MIS should offer a more holistic overview of the whole operation. Most current equipment can record a fair bit of information about itself, such as the number of sheets printed or the amount of ink used. The equipment vendors use this information to help with maintenance and troubleshooting. Most MIS vendors have put a lot of effort in recent years into developing a set of application programming interfaces to allow them to integrate relatively easily with other equipment and so to capture and use this information.
Mr Beckett says that in the past the MIS would have relied on operators manually inputting this information but that could lead to inaccuracies, adding, ‘If you have the machine telling the MIS what has been used then it’s really the best way that we can understand where your costs are.’ Some equipment manufacturers are cautious about what information they are willing to share with an MIS, and some will charge for this, or insist that the customer must buy their adaptor, which can push the overall cost up.
Do you need an MIS?
Some equipment vendors are beginning to look at ways that they can make use of the information they are collecting. Several press vendors, including Heidelberg and Durst, now offer a form of data analytics that can pinpoint your costs per job, at least as far as that press is concerned. If you have a single press supplier and relatively simple post-press setup then that might be enough for some printers.
Some press vendors are even looking to extend their data gathering. Koenig and Bauer, for example, has developed an inventory tracking app, ProductionApp, that runs on Android-powered mobile devices and can keep a track of what consumables are used and whether or not they’ve met their expected service life.
In addition, there are plenty of other developers offering software that can do some of the specific functions such as imposition or web-to-print. Arifiq, for example, has developed an estimating system that can push jobs through to production. The Core engine keeps track of the print service provider’s machinery, paper stock and related costs and can automatically generate a quote as well as job tickets and impositions. The solution also includes customer data management and the ability to upload print-ready files, as well as APIs for integration to other systems.
It’s worth noting that many other vendors have also worked to link their equipment to other bits of kit so that some print shops might not need the full-blown integration that an MIS offers. This includes Arifiq, which has teamed up with HP to link its estimating engine with HP’s Print OS. This means that companies running PrintOS Box and PrintOS Site Flow will be able to receive job tickets and print-ready imposed PDFs, without requiring predefined products. The Arifiq technology takes care of the quoting and imposition, including adding printer’s marks, while Print OS oversees the pre-flighting.
Tharstern’s MIS can manage proofing, amongst other things
Start small and simple?
Another alternative that may make sense for small printers is to start off with a spreadsheet or a simple database that can help them understand the different elements of their own business. And it’s only really when you come across limitations in this approach that you know what to look for in an MIS.
Lee Ward, sales manager for Tharstern, says that most new customers nowadays are people who have started in this way and reached the point where they’ve outgrown this approach. He argues that you can’t replace an MIS with other solutions because of the workflow benefits of having everything integrated and working together, adding, ‘There’s lots more to an MIS, for example, raw material stock management, supplier management, purchasing paper, fulfilment of finished goods, estimating job management control and managing proofing.’ An established MIS such as Tharstern’s includes modules to cover all of these tasks.
But Katja Pötzsch, EFI Europe’s marketing manager for productivity software, says that it doesn’t matter if you use different components so long as they talk together, ‘so you have to have an integration between them.’ She adds ‘Only then as a business owner can you understand how your business is functioning and where you have bottlenecks or you are losing money, or you have a customer that is so demanding that you lose money on the job. This is what an MIS also provides.’
EFI has pushed this to its logical conclusion, developing a series of Productivity Suites tailored for particular applications, such as commercial printing or packaging. Each productivity suite is based around a particular EFI MIS. Ms Pötzsch says, ‘We call it a suite when the customer chooses at least two more components like a web-to-print system or a scheduling software and if there’s some route to digitisation like a Fiery front end or a prepress integration, such as to Agfa Apogee or Kodak Prinergy.’
Customers can also buy many of these components separately, such as PrintFlow for scheduling or iQuote for estimating. Ms Pötzsch says that EFI recognises that many customers will be reluctant to change an existing MIS but suggests, ‘If a customer has invested in another vendor’s MIS and realised that his scheduling functionality, for example, does not fulfil his requirements and he wants to improve that scheduling then we would be very happy to talk to him and integrate PrintFlow to his existing set-up.’
She also points out that some large print companies opt for generic ERP systems that might lack specific print functions and that it would make sense then to add these components separately.
Mr Ward also points out that people are trying to do more work with less staff: ‘The modern purchaser of an MIS is after efficiency so they are trying to break down the departments. In the past you would have an estimator and then you would have the customer service rep (CSR) that looks after the job and then you have an accounts person for the invoicing. The modern MIS needs to break all those barriers down. So you don’t require a dedicated estimator, it can be done by the CSR along with the accounts, the invoicing and purchasing.’
Central role
In some ways, an MIS is just like any other piece of equipment in a printing plant in that it has to demonstrate a return on the investment or there’s no point in buying it. But there’s far more to an MIS – everything else in the factory will connect to it, including all the production equipment, the inventory management and financial software. Over time that MIS will evolve as it is updated and new functionality is added, or even removed if the business changes.
Every new bit of kit will have to be looked at through the prism of the MIS and how easily it can be integrated. And if, for some reason, you need to switch to a different MIS somewhere down the line, then the whole business is going to take a rollercoaster ride, which is more likely to be hair-raising then fun – so you’ll need to think carefully not only about whether any new MIS has the functionality you need immediately, but also the scalability to grow with your business. More importantly, you’ll also have to be confident in the R&D team and be comfortable working with everyone in the MIS company.
