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It's hard to avoid talk about the rough financial seas at the moment and the ripples of recession have reached the exhibitors at next month's MIS 2008. However, it's not their own financial plight that has been exercising the minds of the MIS market. Rather, it's the ways in which their systems can be used by customers to cut overheads and improve efficiency and customer service.

Independent consultant Sean Smyth, who’ll be presenting a free session at the show at 2pm on 12 November, explains: The industry has seen huge productivity gains throughout manufacturing, but there’s been no attention paid to the administration process. The next generation of MIS will be more than internal management tools. They’ll improve the productivity of customer service reps, sales people, accounts and purchasing. As order values and run lengths drop, it’s impossible to think of working the same way you used to.

Smyth highlights the need for systems that seamlessly move from estimation into production. It’s crazy to have someone do all that work and not have it automatically feed from estimate into production, he says.

Next generation tool?
Crimsonwing, a new name in the print market, which will be making its first appearance at the MIS show this year, is one company that offers what Smyth says the next generation of tools need to provide. The UK-based firm is a specialist in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and, according to business development manager Leigh Banks, it plans to use the show to highlight the benefits of ERP over traditional MIS.

Using ERP, you can create an estimate, turn it into a quote and order materials, all from one screen, which would have taken three systems using a typical MIS, claims Banks.

It’s not the firm’s first time at the show – it exhibited under the Peracto brand last year – but, following its acquisition of Peracto’s specialist media and entertainment business, which includes print-related products, it has chosen to rebrand under the Crimsonwing banner.

According to Banks, using an ERP system, which integrates accounts, estimating, stock management, customer relationship management and operations into a single platform, offers capabilities way beyond MIS.
It’s much harder today to make a margin, so you have to look where you can make improvements and headcount reductions, he says.

The firm will be showing PrintVIS at the show, after launching it at next week’s Total Print! Expo. PrintVIS is an implementation of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system, developed by Danish firm NovaVision. There are a handful of UK firms running the system, including Welsh magazine printer Stephens & George and direct mail group Dsicmm, while direct mail and print management firm Adare is also in the process of rolling it out across its divisions. Crimsonwing claims there are 400 print sites running the system worldwide.

Established concept
While there may be a buzz around it at the moment, ERP isn’t a new concept – it’s been around for 20 years – but it has been slow to catch on in print. The problem has been that systems such as SAP are designed for huge firms and are too complicated and expensive for the majority of printers. Even though the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system that underpins Crimsonwing’s offerings isn’t as unwieldy as some packages, with its target market for firms of 25 staff and up, it’s definitely aimed at the larger print operation.

Banks says it’s only recently that ERP vendors have started looking to tailor their solutions for markets such as print.

There’s been a recognition that estimating and quoting, scheduling and production planning, shopfloor data collection and purchasing are all print-specific, he says. For so long, printers couldn’t entertain ERP without those functions.

According to several firms already supplying printers, they haven’t had to. They say the only distinction between MIS and ERP is the name that’s used to define the system.

Our system is an ERP, says Iteba SP managing director Peter Griffin. A generic ERP system will struggle in print. Our system has been developed over 20 years; you can’t get that sort of customisation overnight.

Sanderson, with its Unity product, is another firm with a foot in both print and ERP. It has served the print market
for many years, but also supplies systems to other manufacturing industries. All are based on the same core software, but with industry specific modules and configurations to tailor the product.

Unity has an ERP core, but we call our print version MIS. The lines between the two are blurring, says marketing communications executive Mark Ellis. If printers want to move from MIS to ERP, our architecture is such that we can turn that functionality on.

Vision in Print’s Richard Gray says the key distinction be­­tween ERP and MIS is how the accounts function is handled.

ERP and accounts are synonymous, says Gray. With MIS, there’s a clear handover between the MIS and the accounts package.

Gray has seen ERP work within print shops, but he says users have all been big print groups and cautions: I don’t think that ERP systems should be an issue to most printers in their operations, but they will be in how they interface with their clients.

More than a name
Regardless of how the suppliers choose to define their products, there are developments being unveiled that meet Smyth’s expectations of administration automation and of Gray’s suggestion that there needs to be integration with client systems. Iteba SP will be showing a new version of Solprint that automates the creation of estimates and jobs from data supplied as CSV or XML. For certain types of work, such as books and journals, it takes from a minute to 30 minutes to create an estimate, and it can be fully automated, says Griffin. It’s also possible for companies that have contracted business to move directly from the estimate to a price according to a pre-agreed price structure. It’s all part of a move to enhance the integration with clients, while reducing cost.

We’re taking out manual processing and cutting overheads, says Griffin. There’s a trend towards removing the distinctions between pre-press, production, CSR and estimating staff, which needs deskilling and automation, which is where we’re going.

Brightblue, which offers an automated online estimating service, has been busy enhancing its product with new features for calculating whether it’s more efficient to print a job litho, digital or a hybrid and, for multi-site and recently merged firms, where it’s most efficient to produce work within their operations.

Chief executive Mark Wragg promises more announcements at the show and says that one of the firm’s aims is to become the interface between print buyers and printers.

We want to be between corporate procurement and MIS, says Wragg. I hesitate to use the word print management, but it is print management software.

That interface between printer and the outside world is also where Sanderson has been working. It will be showing its web portal for Unity, which allows customers, suppliers and staff to access information remotely.

Customers can track their work, they don’t have to ring their account manager, it’s all there direct from the MIS, says Ellis. Customers get a view without having to do any leg work.

It’s clear that, regardless of whether the term used to describe the system handling business processes is MIS or ERP, suppliers are working hard to deliver the systems of the future, systems that Smyth says the sector needs to bring the advances of automation from production into administration and customer service. At a time when money is tight, anything that promises to improve the service you provide and cut costs is definitely worth further investigation.