Shuttleworth is giving visitors to Print Efficiently in Hemel Hempstead this week a demonstration of the new version of its MIS. Print Efficiently runs at the Apex Digital showroom from Tuesday to Friday.
Version 5.05 contains a number of incremental improvements, but will be notable for rediscovering functionality that has been part of the system for five or six years according to managing Andy King, but which is now coming to fore to meet increasing demand for what Shutttleworth calls product led processing.
This allows an estimate for multiple products within the same production run, ganged up carton blanks, labels business cards and so on. These can be quoted individually and the production order raised very efficiently despite comprising the multiple jobs. The same functionality says King can be used to produce a single price for product kits, where a mailing campaign will include a number of inserts, or most likely where an order received for inshore displays means a selection of different format posters, window films, point of sale leaflets and so on.
“This can include both items that are produced in house and those that are brought in,” King explains. “The customer need not be aware of the different processes involved, all he wants is one price. This is a very useful feature for large format and display printing. We have one customer who was asked to kit out a number of railway carriages including the wraps, the in-carriage displays, altogether some 50 items that needed to be pulled together as a single order.”
The upgrades have been tested by pilot customers and is being fed through the customer base with positive feedback received to date, he adds. It will be followed rapidly by an enhancement to the stock checking function which has just started its beta phase.
This will enable stock management by a mobile device. Warehouse staff can work from a pick list displayed for the job and immediately update the main system rather than working from a print out and updating the system from a terminal as each order is completed. Unnecessary activity is reduced and accuracy improved King explains. The same function works as the company accepts deliveries. These can be logged immediately to the host MIS through entry on an iPad. “We think that this is an exciting development,” he says.
The company’s opening of its technology to allow customers to request bespoke dashboard views of information that they require has been a success. Demand is on the increase and this accounts for 20% of sales to the user base. “It’s helped us realise how much latent demand there is for companies to have their own bespoke solutions to enhance the core package in terms of seeing what they want and how they interface with their clients.
It has led Shuttleworth to set up Shuttleworth Technical as a way to capitalise on this demand by adding a structure to technical support on offer. The software support engineers will visit a customer to provide deeper technical advice on how best to use the MIS and how best to set up disaster recovery if needed. “We are trying to build a set of products and services to help customers in all eventualities,” says King.
