Editor’s Note: Four reprographics shop owners/managers discussed their experiences with reprographics software during a webinar on Wednesday, June 21. Below is a highly edited transcript of their discussion. To hear a complete recording of the webinar, click here.
The panelists were Pam Turner, director of operations of Digital Now in Pensacola, Florida, who uses the software called e-Automate; Kevin Anderson, president of SE Blueprint in Cleveland, who uses Thoroughbred software; Mark Luncsford, co-owner of Best Imaging Solutions in Chicago, who uses Cyrious Control software; and Cory Deermount, general manager of AIR Graphics in Boston, who uses MVS Profits Plus.
Question: How does your software handle bids and order submissions?
Kevin Anderson (Thoroughbred): Okay, I'm under the assumption that by bids you mean, a quoting system, which Thoroughbred does handle quite well. What it does is our sales reps have access to certain parts of the Thoroughbred software system where they can create and distribute quotes within the system, either be it emails, fax or printed paper and deliver. And it stays pegged, that particular quote is numbered, serialized and tagged to that customer by whatever product or service that we are addressing at that particular time.
At that point, if one of our CSR people receives the phone call or some type of an information from this particular customer that they want to move ahead with that quote, Thoroughbred alerts them that a quote exists in the system. So we know without having to have too much handshakes with our sales reps that there's an active quote for that particular service and this is the way we are supposed to proceed with that. And that quote can then be turned into an order, the order then, can then be turned into an invoice. And that's all automated within the system if the quote was created within the system.
Mark Luncsford (Cyrious Control): We're using Cyrious exclusively to prepare bids and work orders for all large format color graphics work that we do here. It’s very clean, very seamless, very effective. We're using it as a cost-based, estimating and pricing system so all the pricing that goes out, is based on what are costs that are running the job, to produce the job. Their support is based on the hour so the software's relatively inexpensive to get into. Where the cost start to become a factor is when you want extensive training or extensive customization.
Cory Deermount (MVS Profits Plus): MVS handles the process of quoting and bidding almost identical to the way it handles order entry. You just enter it as a quote rather than a sale at the time. And you are able to, obviously, get a quote number that you can tag to the client and they can consider that. And when they come back, you've got the option of either turning that into a sale or actually tracking it as a lost sale and why.
Question: How does your system track jobs and manage inventory?
Pam Turner (e-Automate): We do inventory every month so we make sure that our inventory is up to date on a monthly basis and its very easy to keep up with. We can move inventory very easily. With this system, it does allow you to give specific access to anyone in the company. We even have a set up so our technicians can move inventory amongst themselves which takes that burden off a dispatch person or someone handling service.
Kevin Anderson (Thoroughbred): Thoroughbred does indeed have an order tracking capability that could be picked up at any workstation with the work order number in hand or you could query the customer or project. We have found that we can move jobs faster through our shop without this input because at the end, the information changes.
Managing inventory … We use the purchase order system, the items come in tagged by part number, by size, by last cost, with suggested list price. And then we also have what we call our street prices that we put in there so with the order tracking, the job tracking, the managing inventory, Thoroughbred handles it very well. Making adjustments to inventory which is always necessary 'cause we maintain two warehouses.
Cory Deermount (MVS): My shop is a giant square. I can see what's going on in each corner so to speak but there are locations obviously that have larger facilities and so if you want to track a job from coming in to when it arrived to department-to-department, you can do that through the customer service module and even get it out for delivery and such.
And then with regards to inventory, it is the same. We have three warehouses as well so they can be transferred, you know, internally through basically a work order. And as we purchase those items, they are added to inventory, and as we sell them they are taken from inventory as part of that sale process.
Question: How does your system handle accounting functions?
Pam Turner (e-Automate): It handles our general ledgers and that the cash book system, the balance sheet, accounts payable/accounts receivable, keeps up with our fixed assets and general ledgers. It's very easy system and that once you learn it and you utilizing, you can set it up and make it work for you the best way. You can give access again to anyone that you would like to have access to a particular area.
It's easy for me when I need to go in and make a manual, financial adjustment. Let’s say someone coded something incorrectly, I can go in and reverse that code. You can close out your general ledger…and once we close it out, we can still go back and open it back up and go in and make an adjustment.
So it's very user-friendly, I think because I can do it. I don't have to be an accountant and I can do it. If I need to set up different codes, it's very easy to go in and create a new code as long as you know where it needs to fall in your financials.
Kevin Anderson (Thoroughbred): The General Ledger is what it is if you create your Chart of Accounts, you find certain products, product codes and certain GL numbers. It has payables, of course, accounts receivables, order processing, inventory control, purchasing, bank reconciliation.
Moving forward, some of the other functions that it has within the accounting itself are voluminous. There's terminal controls, web applications, web development database accesses. Other different tools, back ups and of course ERP Vision's Management General Accounting solutions that they have.
Cory Deermount (MVS): MVS will handle everything from payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, your general ledger, inventory control even processing the order obviously through, so that you could get your sales into what you are going to create at the end of the month, purchase order. We do work with an outside accountant to audit but otherwise everything is done internal. So it's a simple module system so you've got a module set up free with one of those categories and once you learn how to basically manipulate through the system, you are able to go ahead and do the interactions.
Question: How does your system help with equipment leasing and sales?
Pam Turner (e-Automate): When we are selling the equipment, of course we run it through creating a purchase order and track it that way to the delivery. Mainly I think what we utilize in this area is the maintenance portion of the sale and the equipment.
And under the maintenance sub area, there again, it's very simple once you learn it to set up the equipment, you can set up multiple pieces of equipment within one customer file. You can set up multiple meters whether they're black and white or color. The system does give you the opportunity to set it up and look at profitability a lot easier than the older system that we had.
Kevin Anderson (Thoroughbred): Thoroughbred has real robust equipment tracking sales system. We've got 75 machines down there that are either owned by a customer where we provide service or in most cases, we own the piece of equipment and we have it out on a cost per copy. A monthly fee, a meter fee, certain aspects of the machine, the inventory is paid for so they get all of their media and some of the ink at no cost. And we use a meter-based system within Thoroughbred to keep track of that. Once a month we run a report, we get the new meter reads in from an agent client that we had install.
It also allows us to track service calls. When we need a service call, the client either installed on the printer or the client himself can contact us. We track our equipment by inventory, by serial number rather when it's in a cost per copy basis so we can keep track of who's using it, when they're using it, what they are using them most. We offer technology, information management services for our customers where there is monthly billing fee for the use of a database, an information management database. And we also can create billing formulas where for every file that we put in to their database, that they can view online, there's a fee for that or if we scan, vectorize or somehow put in some type of intelligent information to their system. It allows us to track to that billing as well.
And as for sales of the machines, as Pam had mentioned, we bring the item into inventory, track it by serial number, sell it to the customer but we also put a service contract on that serial number so we can track it. So when that particular customer calls us for service, we can enter in the service code, modules, any part numbers that we put into it and have a history of the service on that particular machine.
Cory Deermount (MVS): You can track your list of equipment, your monthly billing or meter base charges, your billable or non-billable consumables depending on the programs for cost per copy and its included. You can then take all that information again and like I said, export it and use it in whatever other specialty items you want it to report back to the client but for the most part, we do some of that external and we could actually do it internal.
In addition from the service side of things, you can get down to tracking those service calls by serial number of equipment. And you can either track the cost and possibility of specific FM or specific piece of equipment. It can get down to that detail for you and obviously electronically you know, bill the client as needed.
Question: What are the strengths and weaknesses of your system?
Pam Turner (e-Automate): One of the strengths and one of the things that really push me towards the e-Automate was the ability to do reports. The ability to disseminate information out of the system and into a report was very important to me.
We have an area within the system called e-Agent, that allows you to set up a process of reports and also other things but it will automatically add a selected time of your choice. There's also an area called e-Views. And the e-Views is what really caught my attention because it allows you to go in and select from all of the different areas that you have within the system to create your own reports.
Weaknesses, I would say weaknesses is that there is so much involved that you really have to be specific and have enough people involved in the training and the transition. That was a big part of what I was involved in, in the very beginning, converting all the old data into a new system. You really have to be prepared and have enough people.
Kevin Anderson (Thoroughbred): Cost of it was the most attractive part of it. You can get into it very easily and have it paid for on a monthly basis by just saving money on distribution of invoices. We've actually recouped about $500 a month in postage. That adds up and the system doesn't cost anywhere near that much money depending on how many modules that you buy.
Implementation is one of their strengths as well. Peter with Thoroughbred will not leave your place until you are balanced to the penny of that [inaudible] and that you have a full understanding of how the system works. Come-back visits and the support are incredible.
The functionality is a great strength of it as well. We spend a lot of our time labor-wise, trying to collect receivables. And we actually came up with an idea for Thoroughbred. What if we automated a collection process by mailing an invoice or generating another invoice in our customer space at 30 days or at 45 days you offer terms? So by the time you pick up the phone and have to make a phone call in the 45 - 60 day range, that customer had seen that invoice three times because our system automatically generates an email or a fax or a printed copy with a Past Due stamped in.
I think the largest weakness that I have with them is it's kludgy. That means it's not very intuitive, 'what am I going to do next?' You actually have to have training on it. You have to know where the short cut keys are. I know that they exist or you going to be reading a whole lot of menus from the top trying to find out what you are doing. But once you get up and running, your figures can just slide through Thoroughbred.
Mark Luncsford (Cyrious Control): Cyrious does an excellent job of allowing us to do cost-based quoting and invoicing. Cyrious has approval tracking and proof-of-approval process that's tied in to every order that you've got in the system. It does a very good job of allowing you to convert quotes to orders, automating the process so you are not doing double entry. Editing or revising quotes or revising orders, automating the quoting and the order entry processes, a lot of great simple customization that you can do yourself.
Cory Deermount (MVS): The thing that always impressed me the most was the fact that I could get literally the developer or the vice president on the phone and talk to him regularly if I had to fix a problem. When I say a problem, just something I typically couldn't figure out. They're flexible, you're dealing with a human being every time.
I was trying to think of a weakness and it's hard when you have a good partner but I would say that what makes them difficult at times is that people outside of our industry haven't heard of them. Now it's not a software that's familiar to anybody unless they've been in this industry so right now, we're actually hiring somebody to senior accountant in the office. And where she maybe familiar with QuickBooks or Peachtree, or you know some of the general software packages that are out there, this is a learning curve for her.
Question from attendee: Does the system integrate meter readings?
Kevin Anderson (Thoroughbred): The one that is being put up by Sepialine is called Printerpoint, which is an excellent meter read agent where it reads back and you get daily reports sent in to you. I get them daily, we use them monthly because we bill monthly and the transfer from the Printerpoint report to Thoroughbred could be automated but it takes just a few minutes a day.
Question from attendee: Does anyone use Jobtrack on Thoroughbred?
Mark Luncsford (Cyrious, but also uses Thoroughbred): It gives us a real time, live perspective of everything that's going on in our shop and in every single department, status of a job when a job's coming due. Allows us to click and do any job and see the detail of what's been requested, dispatching, tracking, shipping as orders move through departments, it tells us where the order is at. Everybody in our company lives and dies by the job tracking system. We have it displayed on monitors throughout our entire operation.
Kevin Anderson (Thoroughbred): It is robust, it is a very sane way of doing business. We are probably going to move into it as soon as I can get some more people trained on the system. My belief held over the last 15 years was I can have a job from door to door within our shop done faster than it would take to enter it within the system. Where we have more complex jobs as we're getting into more and more construction site designers and some more interior decor colored work, that's where I feed the Thoroughbred job tracking in the work of fast imaging and Thoroughbred has done, to be able to take advantage of that as well. So we use it when we need it, when it's a longer process to manufacture whatever our customers are doing at the time but if its our normal AEC CAD type work, we push it through the system and do a back end order entry and then invoice.
Where that finds us in the end is orders go through for customers that may have an account or customers who have exceeded their credit limit because Thoroughbred and other order tracking software will allow you the notification that customers over their credit limit or on credit hold or specific instruction is involved. So it makes more sense to go into an upfront order entry than to do a back end order entry. And we're going to slowly transition that into our group this year for the benefit of knowing who it is that you are dealing with and what their credit status is and those kinds of things.
Mark Luncsford: You know, if I can add something to what Kevin just said. Just briefly, the reason job tracking is so integrated in our operations and why it is so important to us, is because like Kevin said, there's a little bit of a process to the order entry. And you can definitely get out CAD work much more quickly than you can enter an order in. The concern that we had though was that the follow up wasn't complete and effective or if the follow up was even being done. We felt that jobs were getting delivered or going through the plant. And an order ticket never generated or an order ticket lost so when somebody wants something, everybody in our plant cannot process that order until a job ticket is generated. That was the reason we went through ... But Kevin is absolutely right. You know the five to 10 minutes that it takes to get that in and get it output and get it into the plant is definitely longer than you can turn some of those jobs so there is a little bit of process involved.