Page 57 - Print21 July-Aug 2018 Magazine

Print blog
Daniel Aloi
Keeping your
vision clear with MIS
Running a small business can be tough at the best of times, but it gets tougher when information overload sets in. With a barrage of data coming in from all sides, it can be almost impossible to keep everything straight in your head. EFI’s Daniel Aloi looks at the benefits of automating your business processes.
Whether you’re running a franchise, a small print shop,
a print-on-demand outlet, or an in-plant facility, it’s easy as an owner to take on many roles. All too often, you end up focusing on the day-to-day and losing sight of the overall view of your business.
Investing in a good Management Information System (MIS) software suite is a great way to take the pressure off your decision-making. Having a software solution to take care of many of those small but necessary tasks within your business can save valuable time and money. It’s all part of running a print business: cutting costs, reducing job turnaround times, and winning more work.
What to look for
A decent MIS platform should be able to streamline your printing workflow, leading to less human involvement and fewer mistakes, give you an overview of your business performance and allow you to make improvements where necessary. It should also provide secure, fast and easy access to your business information at any time, from anywhere.
Production accuracy, waste reduction and job turnaround times all contribute to the success of your business, and often determine the
satisfaction of your customers. Improving accuracy and job turnaround times while reducing waste will benefit your overall business performance, so it’s vital that your MIS has the capability to optimise these aspects of your business.
The right MIS will also allow you to work with an easy-to-use interface allowing you to check in with your business at any stage. You can
see quickly and easily how things
are operating and make the right decisions quickly every time.
In my years of industry experience, I’ve found it’s best to have an MIS suite behind you that can tick all of those boxes, bringing together everything you need in a single package – and EFI’s PrintSmith Vision does exactly that.
An all-in-one solution
EFI PrintSmith Vision is a browser- based, scalable and customisable print management solution. It’s designed to streamline operations, reduce costs and give you valuable insight into your business.
Offering a modular architecture, PrintSmith Vision lets you choose the solution that best fits your business requirements, size, and budget. This solution provides the ability and flexibility to grow with your organisation as your business needs evolve.
EFI PrintSmith Vision is a product that focuses on workflow, covering print estimating, production, accounting, sales management and e-commerce. Its reporting tools give you real-time analytics, so you can quickly identify productivity and job costing.
To accompany the software and get you on the right track, EFI provides
a customer service team staffed with experts to get your automation up and running within forty hours. EFI doesn’t just sell an MIS – we provide a complete solution including the support you need to keep it running and make it work hard for your business. 21
Daniel Aloi is the regional manager for software at EFI, and is happy
to answer your questions about PrintSmith Vision MIS. Contact him at efi_anz@efi.com.
57 Print21 JULY/AUGUST 2018
Cloud-based MIS
For those who might find the investment and maintenance of their own MIS daunting, there is the option of the Cloud, or MIS software as a service.
Using a cloud-based MIS solution has many benefits, especially for companies that do not have a strong IT staff or those that are looking to minimize IT hassles. EFI customers stand to benefit from the opportunity to connect their Fiery-driven printing engines with an EFI MIS technology to establish worry-free, certified end-to-end production workflows.
Customers gain significant benefits with streamlined, integrated job submission, estimating, accounting, scheduling and more, including integration with EFI Fiery color management capabilities for digital printing. The Cloud bundles are delivered as an out-of-the-box solution that can be up and running quickly. EFI’s Digital StoreFront Entry Level, Core and Digital Marketing bundles can also be added.
EFI’s cloud solutions are secure and always up to date and have the advantage of accessibility using the internet, from anywhere.