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Only a matter of taste?
5th July 2010 : by Peter Kohn : www.proprint.com.au |
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Should you opt for a locally
developed MIS tool or pick a
Northern Hemisphere import?
Peter
Kohn asks printers and suppliers
whether origin matters.
Local or import? It’s an interesting
question, even a bit contentious.
One vendor said we were looking for
trouble. Our inquiry was a red
herring. It ignored quality issues.
But when we put the question to some
printers, we heard two conflicting
takes. Some swear by Australian and
New Zealand products, given our
region’s software acumen and the
fact they’re buying a locally
developed (and developing) system
that reflects local conditions,
particularly in accounting. Others
say overseas systems simply have the
edge: an army of IT professionals at
their disposal, and the legacy of a
vast outlay of installations from
which to derive feedback for the
continued improvement of the
product.
Talking to long-term advocates and
recent inductees on both sides of
the fence, there’s one salient
point. As our marketing critic had
fumed, local versus overseas isn’t
the issue: it’s a matter of finding
the product that is most suitable
your needs. But when you’re looking
for a way to measure suitability,
domestic or import isn’t a bad place
to start.
The advice from printers seems to
be: check around. See how the MIS
was installed, how it is upgraded,
what level of care is taken by the
vendor, and how smoothly the install
went. So let’s look at the
arguments.
The case for imported
When the NSW Land & Property
Management Authority (LPMA) needs
mapping, they turn to their graphic
services operation. It’s a unit of
around 50 people, divided between
Sydney, where there is a small
group, and Bathurst, the main hub of
the operation.
Aside from its charter to provide
large-format, up-to-date maps, the
LPMA in-plant also provides
commercial work within the
department, project printing and
scanning, and digital output. Maps
are printed offset on a compact
AA-plus, four-colour Mitsubishi
Diamond press. Digital printing is
done on Konica Minolta 6500s.
After an intensive search, the LPMA
went to local supplier DES, which
installed a new MIS from UK
developer Accura, which was due to
go live on 1 July. Graphic services
manager Stephen McRobert says the
system is cost-effective and
functional.
The LPMA has quality-assurance
accreditation to ISO 9001, so
McRobert was particularly impressed
with Accura’s customer relationship
management (CRM) performance and its
link back to quoting and estimating
data. “That was a very big aspect of
what we were looking for. It allows
us to make notes against jobs and
customers, and flag issues. There’s
a lot more depth and ability to
capture, retain and identify
customer information.”
He says the new system is a
significant improvement on the
previous MIS, an
Australian-developed product. Accura
is “a more up-to-date system, a lot
broader range of capabilities,
better reporting, and more
flexibility in generating reports”.
A drawcard for McRobert was that MIS
developers in the UK have strong
experience in developing their
products for the public sector
agencies, which are structured
differently to commercial businesses
and have internal and external
customers. “We needed a system with
more flexibility in extracting data,
that could easily differentiate
between these two types of customer,
report against the different
sectors, or report against them
combined.”
The LPMA also has environmental
certification ISO 14001, so the
ability to develop a custom
carbon-cost calculator module within
Accura – rather than a generic –
scored points. “That offers you the
ability to deliver the carbon cost
to the customer,” says McRobert.
“And if the customer chooses to,
they can pay a levy to one of the
‘green’ councils to pay off those
costs, with the funding going into
research into renewable resources.”
He concedes that selecting an import
was initially “a risk factor we
looked at”. In the world of MIS,
customisation is everything, and
there were concerns about just how
bespoke a MIS from another
hemisphere would be.
“But given that it’s all web-based
and there’s local support, we felt
that risk was pretty minimal, and
the fact that they’ve got runs on
the board over time within the
industry globally, we felt confident
that wasn’t going to be an issue.
Certainly for some of the questions
we’ve already fired, we’ve had a
very quick response.”
Sydney printer STI Lilyfield switched from
local MIS developer Quote & Print’s
product to a TharsternSQL two years
ago, and managing director Ian
Kingham reports a positive impact on
the bottom line. The Regents
Park-based company, which has around
100 staff, focuses on commercial,
packaging and point-of-sale work. It
runs Heidelberg presses (a 10-colour
and two five-colours), a Lotem
platesetter and a Prinergy workflow,
as well as Fuji Xerox digital
presses.
Kingham says TharsternSQL was
attractive because it was easy to
use and had reporting tools that
show costs at a glance. He sees shop
floor data capture and reporting
tools as a strength. “I now know my
costs every day; how much is direct
cost, how much is contribution.”
JDF integration was also a factor,
he says, and that will be developed
later this year, enabling data
capture from the production workflow
and job tickets. Estimating is
another plus, he says. “The
estimating system is robust and
quick. We can do template estimates,
enabling some of our sales team to
do on-the-fly estimating, which is a
time saver.”
Kingham believes Tharstern’s 800-900
installs around the world mean the
product is tested and proven.
Resources to perform upgrades are
straightforward, and support comes
from Tharstern’s Melbourne office.
“One of the key advantages is we
don’t have to wait for Tharstern to
do the upgrades. My IT manager is
well versed in SQL and he can
perform upgrades through the web
pages we build on to the MIS. We’re
not necessarily waiting for
Tharstern to do upgrades.”
There is no denying that European
and North American MIS vendors have
scale on their side. The world
beaters in this segment constantly
liaise with technical development
teams of key developers such as
Kodak, Heidelberg and Xerox.
Tharstern New Zealand managing
director Tresta Keegan
begin_of_the_skype_highlighting
says there is a considerably larger
pool of customer funds (driven by a
considerably larger UK and European
print spend) that sponsors
development at a rapid pace. “Where
there is a customer innovation in
the global market, whether it
originates from Dunedin, Kalgoorlie,
Johannesburg, Dublin, Dubai or
London, it is written into the
software and made available to all
users. Our solution is challenged by
like-minded industry peers from
around the world, who work in a
range of work types.”
She emphasises that the
UK-originated TharsternSQL product
is not a top-down import to
Australasia, but benefits from
collaborative development around the
world, including input from a small
New Zealand development team. “The
same technologies exist in
Australasia as they do in the UK.
The lines around MIS and all
software systems in the print
industry are becoming blurred, as is
that concept of ‘local’ versus
‘global’. The advent of the internet
and email has accelerated the
cancelling out of that idea of
‘local’ versus ‘global’. We are
inherently, unavoidably, and
luckily, a global industry.”
Tharstern is not the only UK vendor
beefing up its Australasian
presence. Optimus’ managing director
Nicola Bisset reports that her
company conducted road shows in the
post-Ipex period to launch new
products locally, including its new
Dash MIS for digital printers. These
travelling expos were held in
conjunction with GASAA.
The case for homegrown
Glenn Mitchell of Australian MIS
developer DaVinci ardently believes
MIS software must be local. “Clients
must have a direct and ongoing
relationship with the mathematicians
and programmers who create the
software.” He says DaVinci has “no
interest in operating outside of
Australia” and exhibited at Drupa 08
to bolster credibility back in
Australia.
Around 20 months ago, DaVinci user
Lindsay Yates Group (LYG)
restructure to better embrace
diversified markets and develop more
productive work processes. Sales
director Craig Loughran says the new
approach involved “lean
manufacturing... how you process
more with less, and about due
diligence disciplines”. Today, LYG
director David Shoppee says those
new goals are being fulfilled, and
believes its MIS plays a big part.
The offset and digital printer is
located in Artarmon, Sydney and has
a staff of 65. It runs a mix of
Heidelbergs, from B3 up to a
Speedmaster XL 105, with digital
courtesy of a DocuColor 8000 and a
Nuvera, all linked to pre- and
post-press. LYG offers its customers
commercial print, mail, fulfilment
and warehousing. It is a
logistically large operation, with a
lot of processes to keep orderly and
productive.
In 2005, the company became a beta
site and then the first Australian
user of DaVinci. Shoppee has seen a
wide mix of MIS products operating
in non-print enterprises – he left
the corporate world a decade ago to
enter print. “A number of systems
are designed for smaller businesses
and DaVinci is designed for an
enterprise and it’s very robust in
an enterprise setting”.
He says DaVinci, which replaced an
overseas-developed Prism MIS, brings
a combination of productivity and
powerful reporting. It has been
highly effective at LYG for a number
of reasons, adds Shoppee. He lists
its attributes as “the fact that it
was a fully integrated system, and
the ability to take cost out of the
business through automation”. The
result is a far more transparent
operation, he says. “Everything
talks to everything else.”
Shoppee says some of DaVinci’s
advantages come down to its local
pedigree. “It’s not like many
systems, particularly overseas
systems, where you’ve got to take an
extract, download it into an
accounting system and then massage
the data. It’s fully integrated.”
For example, in LYG’s estimating
department, when an estimate is
generated, all the paper-merchant
pricing detail supplied to the job
is electronically and regularly
updated. “From there, it enables us
to streamline a number of processes,
so we can generate an estimate that
has been supplied electronically
from the supplier. And, if we’re
successful with the order, we
generate a purchase order on the
supplier. That’s priced out, based
on information provided by the paper
supplier. We then receive goods
here, and they’re matched in our
receiving area. The purchase order
in our system is matched back to the
supplier’s invoice, and provided
everything matches, it is posted to
the general ledger.”
It has enabled LYG to dispense with
an accounts-payable person entering
invoices. And if there is a
discrepancy in either quantity or
price, the MIS will not post it to
the general ledger, but instead
sends an email alert for
investigation. “It becomes a very
powerful protection tool. And you
only get that with a fully
integrated system,” says Shoppee.
That said, he will not be drawn on
whether a local MIS vendor will do
better as an integrator than an
overseas purveyor. But he does point
to a high level of customisation by
DaVinci when the MIS was installed –
and a degree of dedication to the
site that might challenge vendors
who bring their MIS product in from
afar. “We worked with the DaVinci
guys. They actually ‘lived’ here [at
LYG] for 12 months while they wrote
code.”
When Alliance Print Management in
Auckland switched from an overseas
product to its current Printcost
MIS, the new product’s local
pedigree played some part in the
decision, reflects Alliance customer
services manager Bernadette Hoani,
who manages the system. The company
a 38-year-old mid-sized offset and
digital company located at Ponsonby,
near Auckland’s CBD, Hoani says the
older system “was not very user
friendly” and left a lot to be
desired in terms of vendor support.
Printcost was chosen for its
“flexibility”, she says, in terms of
local conditions, countering claims
made for overseas MIS products that
they can readily be adapted to
various regions around the globe.
Printcost, by contrast, “was made
for our market rather than an
English market”.
Since Printcost was switched on
around a year ago, Hoani says it has
lifted productivity. She likes the
fact that “I can make changes in the
system myself. For instance, if I
need to make pricing changes, I can
do that. It’s quite easy to get my
head around how it works.”
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Tharstern PRIMO -
THE MIS system for the print, packaging and cartons industry
17th June 2010 : www.packingeurope.com |
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Tharstern has announced the launch
of Tharstern PRIMO its new, fully
integrated Management Information
System (MIS) specifically tailored
for the print industry. PRIMO, which
is Latin for first, was launched at
this year's Ipex 2010 exhibition at
the NEC in Birmingham to supersede
the current enterprise level MIS,
TharsternSQL v4.
“The reason we chose the name PRIMO
is because in Latin it means first.
We (Tharstern) believe we have
always been the first to incorporate
new technologies into our MIS
systems,” explains Ross Edwards,
Tharstern’s Sales and Marketing
Manager. “A Tharstern MIS is the
first choice for the modern printer,
which is also the first point where
a print job will be priced up and
come to life, before embarking on
its journey through the print
production route,” he states.
PRIMO has built on the success of
TharsternSQL v4 but some of the key
changes and developments included
are; The new Ribbons control
interface, the upcoming rules based
quick estimating tool, job ganging
and tools to gang sections and jobs
together, enhanced production
planning with multi-planner and
multi-site support, JDF integration
with PDQ, a Home page with a
customisable dashboard displaying
real-time information, data and
tasks related to their job to help
perform their roles.
“It has taken two years for us to
develop PRIMO, which has been built
and developed in response to the
feedback from our customers,” states
Edwards. As if to underline this
statement, the launch of PRIMO at
this year’s Ipex exhibition was
greeted with a very positive
reaction from Tharstern’s new and
existing customers who came to see
the demonstrations on the Tharstern
stand.
Specifically designed for all types
of printers, packaging and carton
manufacturers, no matter what size,
PRIMO, does exactly what the name
describes, it manages information.
At the same time it provides
printers and their businesses with
the necessary tools to help
dramatically improve their
day-to-day running, by saving time,
helping to improve efficiencies,
increasing productivity growth, and
ultimately profitability, thereby
freeing-up staff to concentrate on
the tasks of customer service, sales
and job production functions.
The most noticeable difference
between TharsternSQL v4 and PRIMO is
the new Ribbon control interface
reflecting the Windows 7 and Office
2010 style, which logically group
tools to help users quickly find
commands needed to complete
production tasks and easily navigate
their way around the system.
Still a key area of Tharstern’s MIS
is the estimating module, which
enables printers to price up almost
any type of job quickly, simply and
with precision. The PRIMO estimating
module gives estimators the right
tools and structure to build quotes,
even with the most basic job
requirements.
Further developments introduced to
the PRIMO estimating module is the
ganging facility that could help
printers to make further production
cost savings by producing similar
jobs together - which saves on
materials, effort, and time and
helps to reduce costs. Products or
sections of a job, for the same or
different customers, and with common
materials or colours, can be ganged
together onto one production job,
even if their finishing processes
are different. Jobs can be
highlighted and ganged together
manually or alternatively submitted
to Lithotechnics Metrix software,
ready for the jobs to be processed.
Whether it is one product or 100,
different sizes, different
quantities or a mixture of flat or
folded work, each with different
bleeds and grain direction, Metrix
takes away the complexities of
Ganging and calculates the best
layout options in just a few clicks.
Also within the estimating module is
a print and outwork Management
facility, which enables the printer
to get the best price for outwork
and select suppliers that can be
relied upon, by creating attributes
and submit tenders, allowing the
user to compare and rate suppliers
and prices thus simplifying the
decision of who to award the work
to.
PRIMO is ideal for print managers
and printers who outsource by
helping to streamline the
outsourcing process, and covers all
aspects of the tendering process to
handle one-off items, general
outwork and full campaign quoting.
This feature enables printers to
match the product attributes of the
campaign to supplier’s defined
capabilities, so the most suitable
providers are automatically
identified for selection, and prices
can be electronically requested
within a specific deadline.
Communications can also be
streamlined with suppliers who use a
more recent version of Tharstern
MIS, enabling submitted tender
requests to be received into the
suppliers MIS allowing them to
re-use the information, to build
their estimates and then submit
price information back within the
tender, providing a prompt response
for evaluation. Web portals are also
created for each supplier, unique to
the tender request, enabling each
company to submit responses on-line,
again feeding into the campaign for
comparison.
Tharstern also previewed their own
flavor of rules and production based
quick estimating at the IPEX show
which not only speeds up and
simplifies the quoting process even
further but provides best price
production options for a product as
well as suggesting alternatives in
an instant. Unlike other
‘intelligent’ estimating solutions
Tharstern’s development doesn’t just
stop at the quoting process. The
seamless integration will enable the
job to be managed and tracked
through the entire MIS and will
still support JDF workflows.
Mutual customers of Haybrooke
Associates and Tharstern could also
benefit from the JDF enabled
integration to enable communication
between the PDQ,
production-route-based intelligent
estimating solution and Tharstern
MIS to enable the quote created in
PDQ to be submitted to Tharstern to
manage the rest of the workflow.
Through the use of PRIMO Production,
planners have the tools to create
fluid, visual plans to help make
decisions to manage demand and
capacity, based on deadline, job
priorities, dependencies and
resources or staff availability. The
planning features increase the
transparency and communication of
production plans, progress and
capacity across a printers business,
and new to PRIMO is the multi-user
and multi-site support which enables
each department or site to share
production responsibility by
prioritising and managing their own
workloads.
The introduction of the milestones
feature in PRIMO will also help to
add significant value to project
scheduling and management to
accurately determine whether a key
event has been completed, whether a
job can progress to the next stage,
if a job is on time, and if not what
the hold-up is. The milestones
feature can be used to demonstrate
to customers how printers can best
manage their work, and enables CSR's
and staff involved in the production
workflow to easily track job
progress and action any segment not
done, whilst making plans based on
the milestones that have not yet
been completed.
Through the use of Events and Proof
Management, general events in the
proofing process can be tracked,
recorded and passed for press to
help speed up and manage the
progress of a job. Labour time and
costs for events can also be tracked
by linking events to operations in
Shop Floor Data Capture.
As an alternative to JDF
Connectivity, PRIMO Pulse is an
intelligent data capture device to
automatically monitor and record
real-time production data on a
printer's existing press and
finishing equipment. This enables
automatic data collection without
the need for machine operators to
enter a job’s status.
Tharstern have been at the forefront
of JDF support and integrations for
sometime now and PRIMO is no
different, at IPEX Tharstern had a
dedicated JDF zone showcasing live
powerful workflow integrations to
systems such as Agfa Apogee, Kodak
Prinergy, Lithotechnics Metrix and
Heidelberg Pre-Press and Press Room
Manager just an example of the types
of sophisticated and automated
workflows that can be achieved using
their MIS. The JDF capabilities of
PRIMO was further illustrated by the
IPEX Daily where Tharstern played a
key role in controlling the JDF
workflow with Kodak, Komori and
Muller Martini to produce live
copies of the publication each day
at the NEC; capturing and displaying
job status and production activity
via the JDF production dashboards.
The Fulfillment Services tools now
also includes and advanced module to
allow the structuring of the pick
and pack process, for streamlined
assembly and despatch of orders, by
creating work to lists for warehouse
staff to follow, using printed lists
or wireless barcode readers; helping
to optimise staff time and ensure
complete orders are delivered to
schedule.
With e4print customers can now also
order electronic copies of variable
data or standard products that can
be automatically and instantly
delivered via email as PDF's or
other formats.
Using pre-designed templates,
tailored for their requirements,
customers can access, approve and
personalise their own print
documents, knowing that their
branding and corporate guidelines
will be adhered to.
The Tharstern Integration Manager
(TIM) was originally introduced in
TharsternSQL v4 but its scope in
PRIMO has become broader allowing
more integration’s between the MIS
and other third party applications.
For example, to enable customers to
order directly through their own
procurement system or using EDI or
CSV, accept orders from web portals
or e-commerce sites. Bespoke
plug-ins can also be used to accept
external feeds directly from third
party applications such as Kodak
Storefront, Xerox FreeFlow Web
Services, and web portals to create
estimates, orders or other
functions. Through the integration
with leading imposition applications
pre-press and production workflow
can also be driven and streamlined.
The level of automation has also
been extended within PRIMO to allow
triggers to be defined to
automatically generate and process
emails and communications to staff,
suppliers or customers such as order
confirmations, dispatch
notifications, and stock re-order
requests…
All of this goes to demonstrate,
that when it comes to THE MIS
solution for printers, Tharstern
PRIMO should be your first choice.
Ipex 2010 was held at the NEC in
Birmingham on the 18-25 May, 2010.
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Tharstern (UK) unveiled as part of Heidelberg's MIS partnership programme
18th May 2010
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Tharstern (UK) has announced that it is delighted to have been unveiled as part of German press manufacturer Heidelberg’s partnership programme with manufacturers of management information systems (MIS).
The initiative, which aims to enable users to boost their productivity by further improving the interfaces between third-party MIS systems and the Heidelberg Prinect shop workflow, was announced at the beginning of this year’s Ipex 2010 exhibition, at the NEC in Birmingham.
A number of these interfaces are already in use in several successful Heidelberg customer projects, and the aim is for many more to be implemented.
The partnership programme also includes fellow MIS manufacturers EFI, PrintPlus and CERM along with Tharstern (UK), who have now all agreed to the framework collaboration.
According to Heidelberg, the MIS manufacturers that have been selected are those with particularly well-developed JDF interfaces, all of which will assist Heidelberg in helping to maximize the possible range of functions available, as well as providing long-term support for further developments to workflows.
In every instance the inter-connection between Prinect and the MIS systems from the MIS manufacturers in the partnership programme is based on CIP4’s ICS specification of the JDF format.
The plan is also for further expansion of the interfaces between Heidelberg’s Prinect and the MIS business partners, all of which will help enable Heidelberg’s customers to gain a concise view of the capabilities being offered by the open systems.
The Heidelberg partnership programme is also open to further additional partners to be added. £
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TharsternSQL offered as Software as a Service
April 2010 : NZ Printer Magazine |
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TRESTA Keegan, managing director of
Tharstern New Zealand, believes that
MIS has never been more accessible
than right now.
At PacPrint last May, the company
previewed a new product, Print IQ,
as an online subscription system
aimed at very small print companies.
The emphasis has been to provide
tools and automation to
resource-starved operations that
can’t justify the expense of a full
Management Information System, but
still compete in the market against
companies who can afford the
technology. After feedback from test
sites, Print IQ has subsequently
benefitted from further refinement.
Keegan says, “I believe that Print
IQ is the best (and possibly only)
entry-level MIS available for $100 a
month per user; no contracts; no
unpleasant strings attached and
loaded with tools for managing
quotes, jobs with outputs of quote
letter, job bag, invoice and
reporting.”
For those companies who continue to
want the full TharsternSQL solution,
Tharstern New Zealand has now taken
that concept further with SAAS or
software as a service. Keegan says,
“It’s a common enough term in the IT
industry but not something printers
in our market are that familiar
with.”
Keegan explains that SAAS simplifies
the MIS implementation process. She
says, “Printers don’t have to buy
Server hardware and they certainly
don’t need an IT manager to maintain
the system. They just need an
internet connection and can access
their own TharsternSQL solution from
anywhere on the world, just as if it
was sitting on a box in their
office. After implementation, they
pay a fixed monthly fee depending on
the size of the site.”
She says an added benefit of the
system is that it doesn’t
discriminate against PC versus Mac.
She adds, “A lot of printers have a
mixed platform and this gets around
that.”
Black Box preview for Ipex
KEEGAN is off to the UK to preview
Tharstern’s Ipex offerings and will
be assessing the latest evolution of
Estimating, which is commonly
referred to as Black Box Estimating.
She says, “With Black Box
Estimating, the MIS knows what the
printer has on the floor e.g. a four
colour offset, various digital
printers, and finishing equipment.
Once the estimator has effectively
described the job the estimating
module will generate the
permutations of running a job on
sheet-fed versus digital, or vice
versa. The variables of producing
the job on one work-type as opposed
to another will be show as a cost
value of x; production time is y;
wastage is z.”
“It’s the natural evolution of MIS.
We’ve spoken about it with a number
of sites over the last few years
while it has been in development but
Tharstern is making sure that when
it is released, it won’t be lacking
in automation and what some of the
development team in the UK take
great pride in: finesse.
Our release version will be an
absolute breakthrough. It is the
pure automation that only a mature
MIS can offer and it’s nothing short
of exciting.” Keegan will also look
at logistics when she visits the UK.
She says, “We
believe
we are already well ahead of the
game with our logistics in
TharsternSQL as it is now, but the
UK have invested considerable
resource in further development as
logistics management is inherently
linked to a large portion of our
user sites. It is a common driver in
all markets.”
While Keegan remains coy about the
specifics of release dates and the
details of a few other developments,
she expresses
confidence
in the company’s ability to change
the game and move its MIS to the
next level.
She says, “Tharstern makes sure that
at each show, it has exciting
developments to present to existing
customers – who are ultimately who
we are accountable to. The objective
is that the show and the new
developments
reinforce
their confidence in our system and
in us. We want them to walk away
still knowing that when we joined
forces with them, they made a
decision that has resulted in
innumerable benefits to their
business and looks to do so, well
into the future.”
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Tharstern releases T4 MIS solution brochure for Packaging & Carton Manufacturers
March 2010 : www.paperindex.com |
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Tharstern has produced a new
brochure, highlighting its T4
Management Information System (MIS)
business management solution for
packaging and carton manufacturers.
The six-page brochure highlights the
partnership between Tharstern and
EskoArtwork, which has enabled them
to share their respective knowledge
to develop a complete business
solution for the packaging and
carton manufacturing community.
Tharstern’s latest T4 offering
allows a seamless sharing of
information between the Tharstern
Print MIS and Esko’s ArtiosCAD
providing a “complete business
management solution”.
Commenting on the partnership
between EskoArtwork and Tharstern,
EskoArtwork’s Regional Business
Manager for the UK & Eire, Paul
Bates, said; “EskoArtwork has worked
with Tharstern for many years on JDF
integration with our workflow
automation systems. What Tharstern
has done here by integrating
ArtiosCAD with their T4 MIS system,
takes the whole process to a new
level. Workflow automation has been
our greatest success during this
recession, and when I see
EskoArtwork's products integrated
with MIS systems such as T4, it
allows us all to see how technology
will play its part in guiding our
customers to more profitable times.”
New designs can be created using
ArtiosCAD parametric templates from
within Estimating; multiple nesting
solutions can be offered for optimum
production capability; manufacturing
layouts can be imported or existing
carton design can be planned-up for
efficient sheet and material usage;
Directly from within Tharstern
Estimating users can also drive
ArtiosCAD planning functions and
change design attributes.
The new brochure not only highlights
the need for this latest Tharstern
MIS T4 suite, but underlines the
commercial success, capability and
functionality of T4 which provides a
structure and discipline to
businesses, enabling them to support
a packaging business of almost any
type and size.
T4 provides the user with facts and
figures to help make decisions
easier and forecast the growth of a
business. Packed with tools and
features, it is the ideal support to
administrative and production
requirements within a business,
enabling the users to work smarter,
faster and more efficiently.
No matter what size a business, a
Tharstern MIS is specifically
tailored for the demanding
requirements of the print industry
and can provide real benefits, and
is probably one of the most cost
effective investments a company
could make to manage its print
business.
What’s more, it does exactly what
the name describes – it manages
information.
With nearly 7,000 users worldwide,
Tharstern has become a market leader
in Print MIS solutions, with over 25
years of applied industry experience
and backed by a long-standing
workforce in both technical and
print backgrounds, Tharstern has
grown to be a leading global
supplier of Print MIS solutions.
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Ipex opportunity for Tharstern
24th March 2010 : i-grafix.comresta Foothead |
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Tharstern is the biggest selling MIS in the UK and is
quickly gaining a strong and loyal
following in Australia.
According to its sales director
Napil Abdel, Tharstern is both
market leader and technology leader
in MIS, with 25 years of experience.
He says, “Tharstern provides end to
end MIS solutions, from automated
estimating to invoicing.”
Tharstern is also at the forefront
of web to print development,
bringing out its first commercial
web to print solution way back in
2004. Abdel says, “Web to
print isn’t new, but its uptake has
been gathering momentum, certainly
over the past year or two. It is
very rare now that we have any
discussions with potential clients
where W2P is not a priority. There
are many W2P vendors out there, and
some of the products are very good
indeed. The one thing being missed
though is that it is fine to have
all these jobs coming in from your
online solution, but once it hits
your plant that is a different
story. If your W2P solution is stand
alone, or doesn’t talk to your MIS
effectively then you are going to
have a lot of inefficiencies as you
re-key orders into your MIS.”
Tharstern has had a fully integrated
W2P solution for many years now and
Abdel says unlike some other
solutions, it is fully integrated
into the Tharstern MIS. He says,
“Quotes and jobs received online
flow directly into the MIS,
requiring virtually no operator
involvement, this means greater
efficiency and less operator
errors.”
Additionally, Tharstern has had JDF/JMF
integration with all the major
vendors for a long time now, meaning
that jobs can sent directly into the
workflow, reducing operator
involvement and improving
efficiencies.
Tharstern has many sites, both in
Australia and overseas, already
successfully using this technology.
The upcoming Ipex exhibition will be
an opportunity for Tharstern to
demonstrate the latest version of
its software, which includes
extended support for print
management and multi web printers.
Abdel says, “There are also tools to
help the environmentally conscious
printer plus the Non-Conformance and
Print Passport features to track and
ensure departmental compliance with
quality assurance procedures.”
Visitors to the Ipex booth will also
see the Executive Intelligence Pack
highlighting the dynamic reporting
pack that employs the use of
real-time KPI dashboards.
Abdel says, “As you would expect,
the JDF based functionality is much
richer than earlier versions,
offering greater control and
automation of the workflow.
Tharstern will be demonstrating live
JDF integration on there stand with
a number of vendor workflows.”
Ipex is also being used as
Tharstern’s platform to preview the
next version of e4print, Tharstern’s
long standing and completely
integrated MIS solution, which has
benefited from a complete interface
re-design and extra functionality to
support web-to-print workflows.
Abdel says, “There is more that we
are planning to show at Ipex, it is
a bit hush-hush at the moment but if
you are planning on making the trip
to Ipex this year, make sure you
stop by the Tharstern stand, you
just might be amazed at what you
see.”
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Tharstern introduce online MIS
26th May 2009 : i-grafix.com (published at PACPRINT 09) |
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Tharstern
is the biggest selling MIS in the UK
and is quickly gaining a strong and
loyal following in Australia.
Tresta Keegan,
managing director Tharstern New
Zealand, believes the introduction
of Print IQ, the company’s new
online subscription service can help
smaller printers compete more
effectively. She says, “Two years
ago we noticed that we had nothing
for the small print businesses. They
told us they couldn’t afford MIS
because it cost a third of their
annual salary. Now they can compete
with the big boys.”
Tharstern’s solution
is to provide smaller print
businesses with an online system for
managing quotes and jobs. Napil
Abdel, sales director Tharstern
Australia says, “Print IQ offers
clients a quote, quote letter, job
bag, an invoice and reporting. It’s
all online. Because it’s web based,
it doesn’t matter if they have a PC
or a MAC, so it saves a lot of
trouble.”
Keegan sees time and
service as the big advantages of the
new system. She says, “I talk to
small print business owners who tell
me that they do all their quoting at
night. Print IQ enables them to
provide better customer service. For
example, quotes are quicker and
there is no re-writing of job bags.
It frees up their time
significantly.”
Keegan adds that some clients have
returned after giving the product a
rethink. She concludes, “Today at
PacPrint we’ve seen people who we
saw two years ago. They’ve had us in
mind during that time and now
they’ve come back to us.”
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Tharstern NZ to preview Print IQ at Pacprint
11th May 2009 : Printgraphic News |
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 THARSTERN New Zealand has announced it will give a preview of its Internet Quoting and MIS intelligence solution Print IQ this month at Pacprint.
Print IQ (Internet
or Intranet Quoting) has been developed as a web based estimating
tool which only requires Internet monthly subscription to Print IQ.
Tharstern claims Print IQ is a hosted solution, which means no
special hardware is required to use it and you are able to use it
only as long as it words for you with a pay as you go subscription
service.
Additionally,
Print IQ is able to rapidity generate accurate quotes for simple or
complex jobs regardless of print house size.
The solution also
includes Job bags, Reports, Invoices and the ability to export files
into an accounts package.
Print IQ is the
culmination of development collaborations between Tharstern NZ and
development partner Paloma Technology. Both companies have worked on
a number of projects for common customers in Australia and NZ and
felt the market was ready for the release of Print IQ.
Palomatech’s Print
IQ tool integrates with the TharsternSQL database, allowing
customers to access online estimating tools and also have to option
to scale up to a full service MIS in their local environment.
Print IQ is
developed to be layered over a companies own MIS solution achieving
point of sale customer traffic, franchise linking to a centralised
database as well as simplification of the estimating process to a
broader group of non specialised individuals.
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Tharstern knows why MIS is King
Tresta Foothead
08th May 2009 :
i-grafix.com |
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For the experts at Tharstern SQL,
Graph Expo’s continued findings in
favour of MIS as critical technology
is a welcome voice, added to the
message MIS vendors have persisted
in communicating to the market for
so many years.
Tresta Keegan, managing director of
Tharstern SQL, believes the
fundamental statement its customers
can make about their business is
simply to say, “We are a business”.
She says “It is a loaded chicken and
egg situation: you can’t be a
printing company without a press;
but you can be a printing company
without an MIS. However, it is
increasingly difficult to be a
successful printer without a strong
management plan in place, and that
relies upon an MIS. Good information
from an MIS will tell you what it
means to have the right equipment,
the right people and the right
customer base. It sounds remedial,
but each factor is loaded with
details that make and break
organisations.”
Keegan wants print service providers
to address the basics of business
and explains, “Irrespective of the
fact that a printing press is
central to the goods that leave the
plant, exercising control over all
business processes is the most
primary requisite for continuation
of the business. This is why MIS is
king.”
While she contends that the risk of
ignoring this concept and its
application to individual businesses
is seriously amplified in a
recessive economy, she has noticed a
movement toward MIS. She says, “We
have noticed in the last 12 months
that there is a natural and extreme
shift in thinking by a handful of
possibly more progressive
organisations that came to these
realisations when starting the
process of self-evaluation. They
needed to make decisions and found
it was impossible to do so when the
information they had to hand was
only a veneer.”
Taking comfort in the status of the
business as an overview through
monthly P/L’s and a walk around the
floor is naive, possibly bordering
on reckless, according to Keegan.
She advises that evaluation should
be in real-time, in great detail and
daily, or more frequent than that,
and says, “This is a time for truth
and straight-talking. Everyone in a
print organisation is in this
together. Vendor partners are also a
valuable and accountable part of the
process.”
Success and
failure
KEEGAN advises that company owners
need to make employees aware of the
impact of each day, the success and
failure to meet the targets (key
performance indicators) of the day,
week and month. She says, “Relevant
information should be made
accessible to those within the
process who are accountable for the
performance of their department,
their machine, or even accountable
for the value that they have added
on their shift. Everyone needs to be
involved in contributing to the
solution in a very real and tangible
manner.”
She sees JDF is an extension of
this, explaining, “Practically
speaking, the JDF/JMF process uses
tools and automation that have been
developed by partner vendors over
many years, so each piece of
equipment can be monitored for
wastage, efficiency, utilisation
etc. It enables true analysis of
production efficiency and the
ability to make some subtle changes
that have significant downstream
benefits. Obviously, this is the
pinnacle of where MIS comes into its
own.
“There are the other touch-points
such as online e-procurement: the
ability to automate jobs straight
from the customer into the
production workflow; and seamless
integration of the MIS throughout
the plant, making all information
accessible through the system and
via the internet. Online tools
provide time efficiencies,
information transparency and
automation that are for many, the
expected norm’ and not the
exception.”
Time is now
While the economy looks daunting,
Tharstern knows the way forward will
differ for each company and the
first step is taking some decisive
action based on accurate
information.
Keegan says, “At Tharstern, we have
spent some time considering what
this will mean for the printing
industry in the next 24 and 48
months. We believe what is going to
emerge is a stronger industry and
despite a concern for the times
ahead, we can’t help but feel
optimistic about this new breed of
self-aware printer who will weather
the storm.
“Our conversations have changed with
our customers, and with potential
customers. They are motivated to
push the boundaries of the software;
add to the functionality with new
modules to look at business
diversification; and best of all,
they are actively more aware of the
quality of the data they are
capturing.”
Keegan says while the companies that
possess an awareness of the need for
MIS remain in the minority, those
that do so can look forward to a
better future. She concludes, “About
20 to 25 per cent of the potential
customers we’ve seen over the past
year fall into the category of truly
self-aware organisations. It is
refreshing, motivating and it seems
as if MIS is truly now coming into
its time as these tools that will
bring about the revitalisation of
company after company. MIS provides
a high level of security in moving
forward because there are no hidden
surprises in dark
corners.”
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MIS Open Experience
3rd April 2009 : AU Printer Magazine |
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With [800+] installations around the world Tharstern can clearly claim to be meeting the needs of printers for management control and ecommerce solutions.
According to Napil
Abdel, sales director at Tharstern Australia, Tharstern is both
market leader and technology leader when it comes to MIS. He says,
“Tharstern has proven capabilities going back a quarter of a
century, and is now in the vanguard of the digital evolution.”
Abdel points to
JDF as a shining example of Tharstern’s pioneering progress, he
says, “There are a lot of stories about JDF, a lot of information
and a lot of misinformation. Tharstern has proven integrated JDF
with most of the major vendors, worldwide we now have more than 50
fully functioning MIS JDF printers. I can announce that the first
JDF enabled printer with Tharstern MIS is just up and running in
Australia.”
Abdel isn’t saying
who or where the printer is, beyond that it has several B1 presses
and digital printing output capability, but he clearly sees it as
the shape of things to come, and points out that it took just weeks
to complete the integration.. Abdel says, “The integrated solution
increases the level of automation and eliminates many manual tasks
and processes. The JMF data coming back into the MIS enables instant
automatic feedback of production data.”
However Abdel does
not see an MIS JDF solution as the panacea to all printers, he says,
“For the medium to bigger printers it will be a great boon; however
for the smaller printers JDF may not always be appropriate.
Tharstern’s client
base is made up of the full rage of printers from large to small,
and in fact for the smaller printers the company has a purpose
designed, and competitively priced MIS, known as Smallprint, which
the company says is a cost effective and innovative, all-in-one,
user-friendly package ideal for small sized printing organisations
interested in the advantages of a print MIS.
Aside from all the
traditional uses for an MIS, quoting, job creation and so on,
Tharstern gives printers the tools to forecast accurately, to set
KPI’s and monitor them in real time. “Printers should know how much
each piece of equipment is making, on any type of product, over any
period, for any customer. When you have access to this kind of
information, in real time, you then have the opportunity to make
sound business decisions” says Abdel.
In web to print
Tharstern is similarly at the forefront of development, and in fact
has had its own web-to-print solution since 2004. Abdel says, “There
is no doubt web-to-print is currently one of the hottest topics in
print, as it enable printers to get closer to their existing
customers, it takes out a significant amount of back office
activity, as the customer effectively provides much of the admin,
and of course it opens up the world to the printer.”
Tharstern also has
the ability to integrate to some of the more popular third party
web-to-print solutions directly into its MIS.
Often referred to
as the silent sales rep the Tharstern e4print module can quickly
become a valuable source of income, helping to bring e-commerce to
the business.
With Tharstern
e4print printers can create multiple custom sites to personalise and
reflect either their own or their customers’ corporate branding. It
is fully integrated with the TharsternSQL suite and can be used by
their customers and own internal staff to drive the printer’s MIS
and provide real time access to stock balances, estimates, soft
proofs and production information.
Users can also
request quotes and even place orders on-line, which are then fed
directly into the MIS. Furthermore, as the information comes direct
from the customer, both communication and accuracy is improved and
of course it removes the need to re-key information.
Tharstern’s
primary MIS package is TharsternSQL. Since the early 1980’s.
Tharstern has offered arguably the most comprehensive and
easy-to-use print MIS available. Designed specifically for print
environments including sheet fed, reel fed, label, screen, digital
print and the pre-press environment, TharsternSQL is experiencing
accelerated acceptance in the global marketplace after years of
innovative product development.
TharsternSQL
offers an entry-level Suite License as the base platform including
estimating, job costing, purchase order processing and raw materials
stock control. Licenses are purchased on a per-user basis, to make
the solution easier for companies of smaller number and tighter
budgets.
The system sells
with additional modules allowing printer to tailor a solution to
specific needs and integrating with packages from other supply
companies to build an overall best-of-breed solution.
TharsternSQL is
built with Microsoft technology, giving the system a level of
openness that enables it to integrate with other commonly used
Microsoft packages. Adding to this, proven JDF, CiP3, CiP4 and ODBC
capabilities mean TharsternSQL is possibly the most open,
supplier-cooperative print MIS available.
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