Aquatint BSC is one of the generation of print businesses moving from a traditional MIS to the Optimus Dash system. “We have always had Optimus,” says managing director Rob Primarolo. “We are now implementing Dash.”
The company is mainly a large format operation, based in Bermondsey, offering marketing, design, print and digital to an equally diverse range of customers.
The appeal of Dash, says Primarolo is simple: “It’s about speed, the ability to produce quotes by people that do not have years and years of print knowledge. Its user interface allows even our apprentices to produce a basic quote.”
Dash is template-driven, based on the final product rather than on the process steps needed to get there. Templates need designing and attributes applied, but once done, it is simple to call up a template from the server and fill in the variable elements that allows an estimate to be calculated.
Users can create their own templates or Optimus can create these for the customer. “We fully expect to be building our own templates,” he adds.
By focusing on speed and ease of operation Optimus believes it is addressing the reality of today’s print market where short runs and skills shortages prevail. Once the estimate is accepted and is turned into an order, the data is sufficient says Primarolo “to drive the whole shebang”
“Our business model has changed,” he says, “so we concentrate on digital print and farm out litho jobs, but we are still able to quote litho work. In fact we can quote anything within the system.”
Quotes are generated much faster giving the business a better chance of winning the order, he says.
Dash is proving flexible enough to operate within a conventional SME printer. Rochester company DA Printers falls into this category where managing director Jason Allen endorses this.
“We like Dash because it is totally flexible. They have been able to create tailor made estimating templates to suit all our in-house production methods, including sheetfed litho, sheetfed digital, large format digital and mini web business form production. The resulting enquiry screens are simple to use and provide fast, accurate estimates.”
A lot of standard information is preloaded into the templates leaving only variable data to be added to complete the quote. “This means anyone receiving an enquiry can give an accurate estimate while speaking to the client,” says Allen.
Gareth Ward
The appeal of Dash, says Rob Primarolo is simple: “It’s about speed, the ability to produce quotes by people that do not have years and years of print knowledge. Its user interface allows even our apprentices to produce a basic quote.”
