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.” £

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. £

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.”  £

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.  £

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.”  £

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.”   £

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.  £

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.”   £

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.  £