Print software manufacturer Optimus will launch a modular web-to-print tool, which integrates with its existing Optimus Dash and 2020 MIS software, at Fespa next month.

Optimus Cloud will enable print buyers to order standard products with one click and order variable data products with full access to the product’s template, regardless of its complexity.

Optimus group managing director Nicola Bisset said: “As with all Optimus development, we carried out extensive research, talking to a wide variety of customers worldwide. “We incorporated this research and produced Optimus Cloud as the one complete solution, meeting the needs of the market to negate the need for multiple solutions.”

To read the full article and more online news from Printweek please click here 

Cloud Suite is een set online tools voor de grafische onderneming die een totaalpakket ‘cloud-diensten’ wil bieden aan zijn klanten. Dit pakket bestaat uit web-to-print, geautomatiseerde offertes en orders, voorraad en fulfilment, en orderstatus en historie, waarbij de tools volledig zijn geïntegreerd met pre-press en het managementinformatiesysteem (MIS).

Henny van Esch, directeur van Optimus: “Optimus Cloud is uniek omdat het voor onze klanten de complete oplossing is om een geïntegreerde online functionaliteit te kunnen bieden aan hun klanten, waarbij echte productie-automatisering te realiseren is omdat de volledige kracht van Optimus Dash en Optimus 2020 wordt benut.”

Offerteprijzen zijn vanuit de offertemodule direct inzichtelijk zonder interactie met de back office. De offerte is met één druk op de knop om te zetten in een order waarbij een eenvoudige bestelprocedure wordt gevolgd. Met Optimus Cloud, die uit diverse modules bestaat, kunnen openstaande offertes, orders en facturen worden bekeken. De klant kan bijvoorbeeld de status van zijn opdrachten zien en controleren of er nog openstaande acties zijn, zoals het accorderen van proeven.

Maar ook reeds geleverde opdrachten kunnen worden bekeken en een herdruk is eenvoudig gemaakt. Met Optimus Cloud is het ook eenvoudig om beschikbare voorraad te bekijken en te bestellen. Buiten het feit dat dit werknemers ontlast doordat de klanten met Optimus Cloud werken, wordt de klant ook gestimuleerd om met Optimus Cloud te gaan werken omdat er complete transparantie wordt geboden.

http://sign.nl/signnieuws/

Optimus, stand C22 (Fespa Digital)

Optimus introduceert Optimus Cloud Suite tijdens de FESPA in Barcelona op Februari 2012 en toont de preview op de Grafische Vakbeurs in Hardenberg.

Van offerte naar order

Offerteprijzen zijn volgens Optimus vanuit de offertemodule inzichtelijk zonder interactie met de back-office. De offerte is met één druk op de knop om te zetten in een order waarbij een bestelprocedure wordt gevolgd. Met Optimus Cloud kunnen openstaande offertes, orders en facturen worden bekeken. De klant kan bijvoorbeeld de status van zijn opdrachten zien en controleren of er nog openstaande acties zijn, zoals bijvoorbeeld het accorderen van proeven. Maar ook reeds geleverde opdrachten kunnen worden bekeken en een herdruk is volgens Optimus eenvoudig gemaakt.

Met Optimus Cloud kan ook beschikbare voorraad worden bekeken en besteld. Buiten het feit dat dit werknemers ontlast doordat de klanten met Optimus Cloud werken, wordt de klant gestimuleerd om met Optimus Cloud te gaan werken omdat er complete transparantie wordt geboden.

Optimus Cloud Suite bevat de volgende modules:

• Optimus Cloud Variabele Data
• Optimus Cloud statische producten
• Optimus Cloud voorraad producten
• Optimus Cloud offertes
• Optimus Cloud offertes
• Optimus Cloud klantgegevens

http://www.signpro.nl/nieuws/

Colyer London operates in three distinct areas: Computing, which supplies Apple computers, Xerox printers and Adobe applications; Stationery which provides creative stationery products and Printing, which is an all digital operation based around cut sheet and large format inkjet.

While the first two divisions are straightforward to manage in terms of costs and margins because they are based on products with known costs and prices, the same does not apply to print where every job is different. “Print has been very difficult to quote for. It can cover brochures to pop up stands and banners,  reports to canvas prints. The biggest issue we had was that we really didn’t have much clue what the cost was because there are so many different elements involved. We worked on assumed margins, but we didn’t really understand how profitable each customer or each job was,” Southey says. And nobody, himself included, liked producing quotes.

This could not go on and about 18 months ago Southey started to look for an MIS to bring this under control. The problem he quickly found was that MIS for print was designed for sheetfed litho, not for digital where the materials could be film or canvas rolls as easily as they could be cut sheet papers.  “Until we saw that Optimus was developing Dash for the digital environment there was nothing that came close to what we were looking for. Dash was the first that ticked all the boxes I wanted.

“We needed something that was server based, that could be accessed from anywhere because we have people that work from home, and that would hold all production and job data in one place so that everyone was looking at the same information.”

Implementation of Dash began in June with the steady building of job templates over the summer.  Templates are crucial to Dash. There is a template for each type of job that the company can  produce on its range of equipment. In Colyer London’s case this includes a flatbed Océ Arizona inkjet press, Esko cutting table and the latest Xerox 8080 cutsheet colour machine. The parameters for each machine are included to prevent jobs being offered that is the wrong format or unsuitable materials.

There is a big investment in time in creating these templates, but once completed the quoting  process is simplicity itself. It is a matter of pulling the customer details from the system, adding a job reference and then filling in the required fields for that job. Dash works out the best way to produce it on the given equipment and comes back with a true price, taking account of allocated time,  depreciation, labour and material costs. It is simple enough that anyone can generate a quote in minute.

For the first time Colyer London can see clearly what each job is costing. There’s a suggested price   and break down of all the cost elements so that any negotiations take place with real understanding of their impact on the business. “We had one regular job which we had priced on the assumption that we would print it two-up, but when checking through Dash we discovered that we could only get one set out of a sheet, so were using twice the machine time and twice the paper we expected. We discovered instead of a good margin we were losing money on the job,” he explains. While it could be argued that this sort of issue ought to be sorted earlier, Southey points out that with the sheer number of jobs passing through and the short run nature of each, this simply is not possible in a small business.

Previously with instruction sheets for each job it was difficult to know how many jobs were in the  building. Dash has solved this, each job is tracked and its progress shown on screen using colour to highlight any issues.

Dash has also delivered on the first aim of providing a real view into the cost side of the business and in generating quotes rapidly and easily. The speed of delivering a quote can make the difference  between winning and missing a job Southey says, especially when his customer base is creative agencies and companies used to expecting everything “yesterday”. It has also taken control of material usage and costs. “We didn’t know what we were using on any one job so needed something that would give us an understanding of wastage levels and what was in stock at any one time. The materials used on the wide format printer can be very expensive and even on the Xerox some papers are more expensive per sheet than the click charge,” he says.

Dash has delivered here. Once a quote becomes a job, material is allocated or if not in stock, will be ordered from the supplier. For example Colyer now knows how much wrapping material is used per job and can include this in its price. “We use a fantastic amount of bubble wrap,” Southey continues.

The stock system is now live and the links to the Sage accounts has gone live with the new financial year. The future could include web to print portals, CRM for the sales team and even more  sophisticated tracking. For now Southey is delighted that Dash has put him in control of the business.

“We are going to make more profit,” he says.

22-26 Vine Hill
London
EC1R 5LJ

t: 020 7833 0888

For more information about Colyer visit the website at www.colyer.co.uk

Article cortesy of Print Business Magazine 20th January 2012

Below are the links to the several press articles over the last two weeks if you haven’t seen them yet, just click to view!

5th January – Image Reports Magazine – UK:

Image Reports magazine is an information resource targeted at those that produce and sell wide-and grand-format digital print. Relevant for businesses from lone owner-operator start-ups through to multi-million pound heavy weights, Image Reports addresses all market sectors within the digital wide- and grand-format arena from the view of the producer. Dedicated entirely to the wide format digital print provider, Image Reports presents information via three main filters – business, technology and the environment, providing information that is genuinely useful to the reader, which can be applied to grass roots, everyday business practice, as well as medium to long-term strategic forward planning.

6th January – Graphics Repro Online – South Africa, Sourthern & sub-Saharan Africa:

2010 marks our 25th Year of publishing for the printing and graphic arts industry in South Africa, Southern and sub-Saharan Africa. Graphic Repro On-line  has become an acknowledged and leading daily news and information resource for management in printing worldwide – by providing up-to-date daily news and information – as greater use of the Internet continues in our daily business lives in the industry.

The Website has now published more than 16,000 news items since its inception – and this doesn’t include feature articles, or the specialist technical features in association with Digital Dots and the Verdigris environmental initiative, introduced in 2008.

7th January – Wide Format Online – Australia and New Zealand

The online magazine for the wide format printing industry in the Australia and New Zealand region. This online magazine is promoted twice weekly via our newsletters. Monday’s newsletter includes a weekly industry survey and the Wednesday newsletters include the most recent news stories for the industry.

9th January – i-grafix.com – Australia, New Zealand & Asia Pacific

Printer Magazines Group publishes hard copy magazines: Australian Printer, New Zealand Printer, Asia Pacific Packaging and Inky Fingers.

11th January – Africaprint.com – South Africa

South Africa’s fast moving online print publication covering the print, signage and design industries.

12th January – Print 21 Online – Australia and New Zealand

Print21 Online is the premier online news and information portal for the graphic arts and printing industry in Australia and New Zealand. The web site and e-mail news bulletin is published by Sydney-based media and communications group, Blueline Media and is part of a media matrix that includes Print 21 magazine; the official publication of Printing Industries.

17th January – SignAfrica.com – Africa

Sign Africa online – your concise source for all things signage on the African Continent.

19th January – Proprint – Australia

ProPrint is the leading monthly magazine for the Australian printing industry. We keep our readers informed on the issues and news affecting their businesses and the sector. ProPrint covers the business and technology issues of print with broad-reaching editorial coverage that includes news, comment, features and product reviews. Our sister titles include PrintWeek magazines in the UK, India and the Middle East and Druck & Medien in Germany.

Our website – www.proprint.com.au – provides the industry with must-read news as it happens. We have the highest page impressions and most unique browsers of any title in our sector. We offer the only daily email news bulletin in the industry, going out to nearly 5,000 subscribers every day.

…

Nicola Bisset, group managing director commented, ‘We are very excited about our new product launch as Optimus Cloud is unique in being the complete solution for an integrated on-line trading experience; whilst harnessing the full power of Optimus dash and Optimus 2020.’

Bisset stated, ‘Optimus Cloud was borne out of extensive research and demand from different print sectors worldwide. We are entering a new age, whereby a seamless and intuitive approach to simplifying and automating print purchasing and having instant access to information, is increasingly being considered by print buyers as mandatory not optional. Equally print providers continue to look at finding solutions to assist them in cutting unnecessary costs through automation, plus finding ways of keeping customer loyalty.’

Optimus Cloud has been designed to combat issues faced by print providers using traditional on-line ordering tools which are largely used in isolation. Although a good experience for the buyer, the print provider incurs enormous hidden costs in unnecessary administration and duplication which is error prone and costly. Optimus Cloud seamlessly integrates with Optimus dash and Optimus 2020 thereby eradicating these issues.

Optimus Cloud takes a holistic approach to viewing stock availability and ordering stock items, the raising of fully specified production jobs, the automated production of fast quotations and the automatic receipt of orders. Optimus Cloud also allows customers to view previous jobs and invoices, plus the status of active jobs. This all adds up to an automated system for the print provider with significantly less drain on staff resources; and for the printers’ customer, a completely transparent and fully functional system that covers every aspect of their dealings with their print provider.

Optimus Cloud is the next generation of complete on-line trading for print providers and their customers.

Optimus Cloud Suite of Modules includes:

Optimus Cloud Variable Data Orders powered by NxPublisher

Going far beyond business cards and stationery products, Optimus Cloud Variable Data Orders offers seamless integration with Adobe InDesign by using idml, the xml-format of Adobe Indesign. Ordered products can be downloaded as PDF’s or Adobe Indesign files, thereby ensuring that the print provider can post-process with Adobe Indesign. The intelligent image server can handle most formats; gif, png, jpeg, bmp and even vector-based eps.

Print providers are able to import and export their customer specific Indesign templates into Optimus Cloud Variable Data Orders Module. The customer can access the templates and directly edit, save, delete and order their products. Copy, paste and undo/redo, make the editor suitable for complex designs with all changes being immediately visible in WYSIWYG.

Optimus Cloud Variable Data Orders editor’s possibilities are almost limitless and support editing of: text, polygons, transparency, alignment, rotation and a lot more.

After the customer has completed modifications of the template, they simply click the order button; the product is then ordered and moved to their shopping cart for final order submission. The order is then automatically converted within Optimus dash into a full production job. A print ready PDF file is also generated and is submitted to the print providers prepress system or digital press; the customer then receives notification that the order has been received. All processes are completed with no intervention from the print provider.

Optimus Cloud Fast Orders

To unify and give customers complete control of their branding, Optimus Cloud Fast Orders allows the print provider to ‘post’ thumbnails of standard static products. The customer can search and identify the products they wish to order, complete the number required and click to order, these items will then appear in their shopping cart for final order submission. Once submitted, the order is then automatically converted within Optimus dash into a full production job. The customer then receives notification that the order has been received. All processes are completed with no intervention from the print provider.

Optimus Cloud Stock Orders

This has been specifically designed to enable print providers to offer finished goods available to order on-line. The customer is able to view stock levels to ensure there are sufficient finished goods available for their order, if not; the customer can simply re-order the items required. Again, the items will appear in the customers shopping cart for final order submission. Once ordered, the requirement will appear within Optimus dash or Optimus 2020 with an order confirmation going back to the customer. A sales order will then automatically be raised within the Optimus systems ready for fulfillment. All processes are completed with no intervention from the print provider.

Optimus Cloud Fast Quotes

The award winning attributes of Optimus dash have been incorporated into the user experience for the print buyer. Harnessing the power and unrivalled flexibility of the dash Sales Enquiry System, Optimus Cloud Fast Quotes provides instant, accurate and consistent quotations of products specified within Optimus dash, to the print buyer.

Optimus Cloud Fast Quotes provides the print buyer with a price on screen; the print buyer can request a hard copy or place the order with a simple click. The order will then appear in the customer shopping cart for final submission. Once submitted, the order will automatically appear in Optimus dash as either a full production job or can be held in an order queue for a final check. All processes are completed with no intervention from the print provider.

Optimus Cloud Customer View

Optimus Cloud Customer View provides simple and easy access for the print buyer to view anything that has happened, is happening, or is planned. A full and comprehensive view of sales, financial or production information including: invoices, jobs in production, jobs finished and delivered, quotations, stock levels and job history is available; with the ability to re-order against a historical job.

All information available to the customer is a filtered and controlled view of the information which resides within Optimus dash or Optimus 2020. All customer views and access are completed with no intervention from the print provider.

Optimus Cloud has been built as a modular system, in keeping with the Optimus ethos that one size does not fit all. However Optimus have ensured that in designing the system, the end user experience is completely seamless. This means the print buyer is able to complete multiple tasks and order multiple products from each part of the system easily and intuitively, all within one order.

For more about Optimus, visit: www.optimus2020.com.

The Optimus Christmas Party held last week at the local watering hole had a Wild West theme about it and thank you to everyone who joined in the fun.

In true cowboy tradition there was the Good, the Bad and yep some of it was Ugly! The Good people of Optimus were deputised by Sheriff Midson and are pictured below all proudly wearing their badges.

Now there were a few Baddies amongst us for crimes such as Biscuit Rustling, Morning Grumpiness and Month End Misdemeanours to name but a few… and here they all are holding their wanted posters.

After the deputising and rounding up the wanted we all had some of the fabulous food courtesy of The Sands at the Bleak House in Woking… everyone commented on how absolutely fantastic the chilli was.

After the food and a beer or glass of wine or two the evening got quite ugly…. Line Dancing! To say it was chaos is a little of an understatement and may we take this opportunity to say Thank You to Paula for her patience as she was both our choreographer and instructor…. not an easy job I can tellyou!

There is a YouTube video of the event thanks to our resident photographer… however we thought it might be a little too ugly for general public consumption …….. so here’s a couple of pictures instead.

Once again Thank You to everyone for taking part, joining in and making the night one to remember and may we also once again say Thank you to all the staff at The Sands too.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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If you have forgotten your login details please contact our support team on +441483 732600 or email helpdesk@optimus2020.com who will be happy to provide assistance.

To proceed with an upgrade to this release, which of course is free of charge for  all customers paying annual maintenance, please contact our support team who will be happy to arrange this for you or alternatively contact your  local Business Manager for further discussion about the recent changes or if you require additional training or  to discuss procedural changes.

The Power 50 deserve our continued support and praise as trailblazers in the industry. They consistently demonstrate true entrepreneurial spirit and success is never by chance! All nominees are vital to the continued growth of our industry in these challenging times.

Optimus believes these people continue to succeed because they have a clear and distinct vision of where sustainable business and growth can be made. We want to congratulate all nominees.”

Optimus' Con James and On Demand Printing managing director Bruce Peddlesden (#7)

ProPrint editor Steven Kiernan gave a short speech, saying: “I am proud of the fact that we, as ProPrint, can bring people of such calibre together in the same room and I hope we continue to serve the industry as an essential business companion in the years to come.”

Click here to read the entire speech.

Look out for the December issue of ProPrint, which includes the entire Power 50 list, with write-ups and photos of everyone named on the list.

Click here to download a PDF preview of the 2011 ProPrint Power 50 feature, including the full list.

Optimus have been providing MIS software solutions for the Irish & UK Printing communities for nearly 30 years now.  Since the launch of Optimus dash at IPEX 2010, the worldwide install base has grown significantly; as customers have been provided with much greater flexibility to accommodate the needs of print businesses across all sectors, and this now includes Print Finishing Houses.

PMG Laminating were looking for a system to automate many of the manual administrative processes in the generation of quotes, booking in of jobs, printing job bags, raising purchase orders and generating invoices.  This was not only to increase efficiency and accuracy of the data, but also to provide the essential management information that is imperative to the success of any company, large or small.

Patrick McGann, PMG Laminating Managing Director states: “We looked at the MIS vendors and having shortlisted two we decided to choose Optimus for two key reasons. Firstly the Optimus dash product was demonstrated to us using our business logic and way of working that made good sense to us; there was no compromise or workaround for us to have to navigate, which we had found with other MIS systems! So we could see very early in the sales process, that Optimus dash could accommodate our very specific business needs and at a very competitive price. Secondly we felt that the personable approach of the experienced sales team and the sales process was indicative of the long term partnership attitude Optimus has to its customers.”

PMG Laminating has been trading since 2006 and started in a 1200sq ft unit with just one laminating machine. They are now sharing premises in Kylemore Park South, Ballyfermot, Dublin with P2 Finishing who provide Die Cutting and gluing services. PMG provide an extensive range of services for large and small companies based in Dublin and throughout the whole of Ireland including:

• Water based film lamination
• Spot UV Varnishing – with full stencil making facilities in house
• Foil Blocking
• Die Cutting and B1 Hand Platen
• Gluing for presentation folders, CD Wallets, Key Card Holders and various styles of cartons

Optimus Business Manager, Sharon Mordey states: “It was a pleasure to help find the right solution for PMG Laminating as the whole team will benefit enormously on a day to day basis using the Optimus MIS. Optimus dash was a clear product choice due to the flexibility of the Optimus Calc engine and the highly configurable nature of the Optimus dash enquiry system to accommodate only the specific business needs of PMG as a finishing house only. I am very excited to be working with the team at PMG during this implementation project and ongoing long into the future.”

PMG Laminating

Unit 4F Kylemore Park South

Ballyfermot

Dublin 10

Tel:  01 623 6489

Website: www.pmglaminating.ie

Email: pj@pmglaminating.ie