It’s been about three months now since we launched, and I thought I would run through the tools we’re using now, and how they’ve impacted our business. We’re always evaluating new (different) tools, but so far on our list there hasn’t been a compelling reason to look for something else.
PageDNA – Web2Print. Overall, we’ve been very pleased using this product. The technical support is very responsive, and the ease in which we can create new products or tweak our website is phenomenally easy. My last bill from them was reasonable.
Dynagram – inp02. One of the easiest to use imposition programs. Has a built-in wizard that made it easy to get started with it, and they have numerous webinars and training sessions available that we can utilize as we hire new production operators. Imposition is a critical part of our success, so that we can maximize sheet size and toner cost.
MGI – DP60 Press. We’re very pleased with the press, and the cost associated with producing work has been very good as well. We ran an envelope job the other day, sold it for $199 for 1000 envelopes, and our cost was $24 for stock and about $10 for toner. And it ran in 30 minutes without jamming or mashing the envelope. While the SPE is not making money right now, it’s not because of the press but due to a lack of enough work to keep the press busy.
Outright – It’s our bookkeeping software, and as a traffic cop pulling in data from the other programs we use, like MailChimp, Shoeboxed and Freshbooks, it works well. Our only issue is that we have been unable to complete the widget needed to allow you, our viewers, access to the accounts without revealing who we do work for. Outright is making this custom for us, so we’re at their mercy. Soon, they tell us, it will be done. The Outright service is free.
Ironsides Technology – Camera system for the press. We’ve meet with Ironsides several times now and they are working on an installation plan for us. It will help us with tracking the work we do in terms of data printed on sheets, but it will still be a few weeks before we have a report on it.
Business Development – We have a few programs we are looking at, to determine if they can help us grow our business substantially in the next 9 months (and beyond). They are: IKON Business Development; Kodak MarketMovers; and Marketing Mentors. I have familiarity with each of the offerings, and we’ll report on each of their programs in the next few weeks, as well as associated cost. We may also opt to just continue to do it alone, as none of them seem to have a good grasp (yet) on social media and how it plays into print business.
Color Management – We have an interest in tying all of our output devices and digital press on to one color management system, to make the proof match the press. We’re considering the ORIS system, but haven’t closed the door to anyone else just yet. We’ll have more of a report on our findings in the next 30-45 days.
This is still a work in progress, as you can see. And as always, we welcome your input for the products we should be considering.
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Have you thought about using TGLC’s device link pro software? The IPA Technical Roundup just concluded and they rated CGS, TGLC and FineEyes as the top three ink/toner reduction tools. You can set up a relatively simple hotfold program to color manage the documents or use the device link profiles indvidually. I’d be happy to show you some of the options. It may be less expensive than ORIS and just as effective.
That would be interesting to see, how can we set that up? We have a demo coming in next week as well for Remote Director from ICS Color that looks interesting, too.
I just skimmed your article and some of the comments. Are you into digital publishing (books) as well? And what successes/failures/near misses have you encountered?