Keeping Track With Management Software Improvement

Improvements to EFI's Printsmith printing management software have been launched to upgrade cost tracking, profitability analysis, and decision making.

Improvements to EFI's Printsmith printing management software have been launched to upgrade cost tracking, profitability analysis, and decision making.

EFI believes that the most significant addition to Printsmith version 7.1 that is due to be distributed later this month, is a complete shop floor data collection system named 'Tracker'.

Tracker enhances Printsmith's ability to collect costs related to each step of production, such as how much paper is used, the amount of make-ready, and running time.

It works with the Printsmith barcode system, which prints a barcode on the job ticket for greater speed and accuracy.

"The new features in Printsmith further enable printers to easily and accurately manage their businesses so they can focus on maximising profits," said Marc Olin, vice president and general manager for EFI Commercial Print Systems.

"In particular, the shop floor data collection added to Printsmith will help customers understand their costs of doing business at a much deeper level, allowing them to make decisions based on actual data.

That's a powerful tool to have in today's competitive environment," he added.

Other additions are to the reporting capabilities, which now include 'due date' reminders to help ensure on time job completion.

The accounts function now enables add-on items (such as discounts, mark-ups and shrink wrap instructions, for instance) to be attached directly to a customer record, saving time and ensuring the customer request is fulfilled correctly.

Printsmith works with EFI's Fiery production servers for digital printing, in a two-way exchange between the Fiery print controller (System 5 and higher) and the management system.

Digital Color Graphics, a commercial printer near Philadelphia (USA) has been a Printsmith user for more than seven years.

"I couldn't run my business without Printsmith - it just makes everything easier and more efficient.

The product enhancements are always welcome, and with the latest release we've found the Tracker tool to be a tremendous asset.

It was easy to set-up and integrate into our workflow and will allow us to get smarter at estimating and to understand our true costs for each step in the print process," said Jim Rosenthal, vice president and chief operating officer ay Digital Colour Graphics.

EFI is offering a free bundling of Tracker to Printsmith customers on a maintenance program with a multi-user upgrade.

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