Management Information System Improves Estimates

EFI is now despatching its new upgrade to Hagen OA management information system (MIS).

EFI is now despatching its new upgrade to Hagen OA management information system (MIS).

On display at Connect 2006, the printing industry user conference on May 3, version 9.0 has tighter integration with EFI's Printersite products, a more robust desktop interface and estimating enhancements to handle multi-web and grand format printing capabilities.

Hagen OA is an enterprise level MIS for printing operations of all sizes, from small commercial printers to multi-plant enterprises.

Claimed to provide a robust accounting package with high-end applications for estimating, job management, scheduling, purchasing, inventory and fulfillment, Hagen OA is said to allow users to collect, share, analyse and respond to information in real- time.

Jay Katzenberger, EFI Hagen OA product manager, said: "EFI is dedicated to ensuring our customers will have the latest and most flexible systems available in the printing market and the upgrade to Hagen is no exception.

Version 9.0 builds on the major enhancements we delivered at last year's Connect, including continued enhancements to JDF and Printersite Fulfillment, as well as the initial integration to Printersite Exchange and Manhattan Associates, all aimed at helping customers streamline operations and increase profits." The new Hagen includes enhancements to version 3.0 of Printersite Fulfillment and version 2.0 of Printersite Internal, as well as the new integration to Printersite Exchange, EFI's web-to-print system.

The integration, which is provided by an MIS connector in Printersite Exchange, lets printers' customers submit jobs from the popular web application and then enables the printing plant to manage the planning, production, scheduling, invoicing and accounting of those jobs from within Hagen MIS.

Hagen OA now has integration to Manhattan Associate's Integrated Logistics Solutions (ILS) for warehouse management and theat company's Outbound Shipping software.

Hagen OA customers needing an integrated system for finished goods and fulfillment inventory control with warehouse management can take advantage of the in-bound receiving, put-away, wave planning, warehouse slotting and billing management facilities.

Manhattan ILS is configurable to support the needs of Hagen customers and is scalable from small, single-location operations to large multi-company facilities, said EFI.

The Manhattan Outbound Shipping software will provide Hagen OA users with cost and process management for all out-bound shipments, added the company.

The software includes real-time access to freight and parcel carrier information, including automated rate comparisons, shipment processing and vendor compliant labelling of product, as well as providing automatic updates back to Hagen when shipments are confirmed.

A new desktop has been created to allow better access to data in the Hagen OA system.

The main menu of Hagen has been revamped in to the Hagen desktop, allowing users to create customised views of data that enable them to launch in to the application from the desktop.

Additionally, icons have been incorporated in to the desktop to enable navigation from the main menu, facilitating ease of use for novice and new users of Hagen OA, said EFI.

The estimating module now supports different stock and inks standards for multiple web or multiple signature press runs, as well as allowing for the entry of different stock and ink for a single press run.

Additionally, changes have been made to the estimate-merge workflow, enabling separate job specification information based on each multi-web press run in a segment.

Jamie Bush, IT administrator for V G Reed, said: "The new Hagen multi-web estimating and job management features enable communication of precise press run specifications to our pre-press, litho and digital press departments.

And offering a group field in job specifications gives our report writers the flexibility to clarify press run information to users, including customer service reps and press operators." As part of the integration of EFI MIS systems with Vutek equipment, Hagen OA now has the ability to estimate wide-format work.

Specifically, standards can be established to calculate printer production time based on square feet or metres per hour.

In addition, the user can now control multiple default settings to simplify the estimate entry process, added EFI.

At the request of several clients, version 9.0 includes an enhancement to the production material linkage.

This feature is claimed to allow users to create a list of items for each work centre and operation combination that will be posted to a job when a production transaction is created.

The enhancement will save production employees time since they do not have to post materials as a separate function from the labour posting, believes EFI.

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