Exhibition and events specialist Oasis Graphic Co has been able to gain a clear picture of its costs and pricing, through implementing Clarity Professional MIS software.
It took something like two to three years, but eventually Oasis Graphic Co – the Berkshire-based exhibition and events wide format specialist – found the MIS that it was looking for.
Four years ago the company came to the conclusion that its homespun Filemaker Pro-based system was becoming obsolete, and it began the search for a replacement. A key consideration that the new system needed to meet was to help Oasis to centralise information about its costs, to bring clarity to the actual costs of a project. It also wanted a system that was easy to use, had popularity in the industry, and that came with a pledge of constant development to meet the future demands of the business.
In truth, there are few MIS systems that are tailored for the wide format printer, but Clarity Professional is one such, and it was this that the Cookham company settled upon. The software was fully implemented in time for the start of the firm’s financial year in April 2014.
Operations director Andy Delpech told Digital Printer: ‘The look and feel of the system compared to the others stood out. It seemed to do everything that I intuitively was trying to achieve with Filemaker. I guess you could say it worked how my brain works. I like the Calc Wizards in particular; they are very methodical and thorough. We can bring purchasing, relationship management, and cost management all seamlessly together, whereas previously we had the information across separate parts of the network. It is easier to manage like this.’
Oasis Graphic Co specialises in work for the exhibitions, events and office/corporate environment branding sectors, and has produced graphics for customers such as Sky, Pizza Express and Blackberry. With 24 staff, the firm has been steadily growing since its formation in 1988. Growth brings with it its own pressures however, and the MIS can play a key role here.
‘The opportunities we are getting are more prestigious, and you find yourself competing against different competitors for some great work, and that’s when you’ve really got to up your game,’ said Mr Delpech.
Previously, suppliers’ prices would be kept on a spreadsheet and he would have to rely on these and his industry knowledge to put together a price. ‘As much as you tried, you could really not do a cost for a client in a short space of time, like Clarity does. Once it has been set up you can pull all that data together very quickly.
‘It gives us more control over the work. We have got a great understanding of costs now and it has allowed us to be very specific and flexible with our clients as well. We are very much into the detail here and Clarity allows us to do that.’
The Clarity software is integrated with the company’s accounting system, which helps to streamline the administration side of the business. At this point, Oasis does not offer a web to print service because the nature of the work is so bespoke.
Mr Delpech professes himself to be ‘pretty happy’ with the way that Clarity Professional is helping the business out. It has streamlined purchasing and provides more information to the production team to allow for better planning. Having centralised information has allowed Oasis to take on more work, and project managers appreciate having a clearer picture on the time required and the costs incurred for individual jobs. They can now, for example, be on top of how much material they need to buy in.
Clarity itself as a vendor is always open to suggestions, always looking forward and developing, said Mr Delpech. ‘As soon as we started with the system I had an influx of ideas, and Clarity were great about that. Looking to the future, we are considering bringing in their production scheduling workflow to finish the system off. That’s my next aim, when we have got a year under our belts.’
