A good MIS system should make all stages of sales and production easier to manage. Complete workflow automation allows you to keep track of costs, profits, response times and reduce administration.
By investing in an MIS the whole process from gathering initial customer enquiries, through production management and invoicing should be seamless and allow you to meet your business challenges. A print companies MIS will at the centre of your business. All the data it gathers will be vital in making strategic decisions.
Why could an MIS be important to printers?
Even small print companies can gain benefits from an MIS. By automating key areas of your business, you can boost efficiency and take control. Very quickly your business will become much more competitive and give company owners the ability to effectively manage all areas of their business.
Production efficiencies can be introduced throughout the factory. System managers can analyse what jobs are most profitable and make strategy decisions. A range of common issues print companies experience such as low stock, wastage and bottlenecks can be spotted quickly and production time reduced.
How do print businesses benefit?
Your MIS will gather accurate and up to date information on your business processes which can be used to make quick and effective decisions. Which is obviously ideal in today’s demanding and fast paced world.
Equally, your customers will undoubtedly be becoming more demanding for you to provide quicker turnaround times and cost savings. If you are to retain your most important customers it’s vital you provide the highest level of service. A reduction in manual inputting leads to a reduction in errors and much quicker response times.
A print business operating an MIS will benefit from automated processes such as stock levels and material ordering and scheduling of work. This often reveals areas where extra capacity is available in production to handle more or bigger orders.
The financial benefits of an MIS
MIS software in the print industry should provide the ability for company owners and staff to free up time, which allows them to concentrate on production.
This is achieved through the removal of manual tasks such as manual inputting (and re-inputting) of information, or having to regularly check the progress of a particular job. Plus, the costs of a job and stock required to fulfil it can be checked at every stage, this results in being able to easily assess which jobs are most profitable and which can be completed in the least time.
Plus, estimates can be quickly produced and created in much higher numbers even by less experienced staff. One staff member can easily multitask which is vital for small companies.
Which MIS is right for my business?
When researching systems it’s vital you ensure it meets your requirements both now and in the future. What could be described as a good MIS system is only that if it meets your needs, you need to understand what you want to achieve by investing.
Plus, you may find some resistance in your company to introducing new software for staff to operate. What’s important is that an MIS is designed to be easy to use, all technical aspects will be going on in the background away from the user interface. However, a change in mindset may be required in order to fully embrace the benefits on offer.
MIS providers and The OPS
The Online Print Solution itself includes many features of an MIS, including quote management, order processing, invoicing and seamless communication with your chosen payment and shipping providers. Our web to print solution gives print business all the tools they need to sell print online and efficiently handle orders. Including an easy to use website, eCommerce functionality, online templates and artwork upload
However, we have also been developing relationships with industry leading MIS providers including Tharstern and Keyline. Integrations with these platforms are in development – to view updates and all current live integrations please see our integrations page.