12 December 2022

PrintIQ - a different kind of experience

As companies in the POS and display sector face dramatic increases in energy and fuel prices, many are also looking to achieve a greater degree of automation and efficiency as they work with reduced staff numbers following the Covid pandemic lockdowns.  PrintIQ’s cloud based MIS system, with its capability to factor in every aspect of time and costs, therefore, offers an ideal all round solution.

One of the first totally cloud based systems, and already well established in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, PrintIQ is currently seeing significant take-up in the UK sign and print industry.

Aaron Klewchuck, Managing Director of Ballyprint, in Ballymena, observes: “What drew my eye to PrintIQ was the simply navigated design and uncomplicated user interface. Once I had a closer look, I was very impressed with the pricing engine and the end-to-end management, which could help us grow as a business.”

Each PrintIQ package is bespoke and developed in partnership with the PSP, ensuring that it provides exactly the range of information required by each individual business, from small single site operations to those with multi-site manufacturing.

“PrintIQ really did treat us as actual partners to make the flexo components more than we could have asked for,” comments Mandy Hansen, Operations Manager of Colorado’s CPCneutek. “They looked at the big picture of my suggestions and have added many of the things I requested. They treated the suggestions as a win/win for both CPC and PrintIQ.”

Aaron Clewchuck adds: “I have to say the support on the build has been the highlight of PrintIQ as a company. From initial build meetings to check-in meetings from the managing staff, PrintIQ has been great to work with.”

Based on Microsoft’s Azure platform, from quote through to shipping and invoice payment, PrintIQ’s 100 per cent cloud based MIS for print suppliers is designed with speed and simplicity in mind.

PrintIQ’s easy to navigate solution offers a different experience from most standard MIS systems. It has a user-friendly retail website feel to it, to the extent that it is built around a ‘shopping cart’ with drop-down Q & A tabs for different options, such as materials, size, colours. This means that accurate quotes can be produced much more quickly, often taking only seconds, and estimators do not necessarily require in-depth knowledge of the print industry.

When creating a quote the system will also plan the job through production, showing the cost for various manufacturing routes (including across multiple localities), incorporating relevant energy and fuel costs, and providing details of profit margins for each route, thereby enabling production decisions to be made quickly. The quote can then be e-mailed to the customer for approval, directly from the system.

Once the quote has been accepted and the order confirmed, IQ creates a job bag and plans the whole process into production, and work can be assigned to individual operators.  IQ also has the capability to group jobs, based on parameters such as materials, machines, and priority. Furthermore, should the need arise, for example due to a changed priority, machine downtime, or cost increases, new parameters can be fed into the system which will then re-route production accordingly. Outsourced processes can also be tracked.

In addition, customer portals can also be integrated into the system, allowing the PSP’s clients to access jobs directly to upload artwork, check progress, give approvals, and make payment online.

“This has definitely been a big talking point with our sales department, as this will give us greater opportunity and time to better service other customers while increasing our top-line,” notes Aaron Klewchuck.

For those operating paperless businesses, PrintIQ can be accessed via both Android and iPhones, iPads, and barcode scanners. This also means that work progress can be tracked 24/7 from anywhere.

Furthermore, PrintIQ allows business owners and senior managers, who need facts and figures at their fingertips, to access a dashboard that that is automatically updated minute by minute, showing what jobs are in hand, together with information on, for example, materials used over a specific period of time, or variables in energy and fuel price. It further enables the business owner to make quick decisions regarding efficiency and production planning, where issues such as bottle-necks and ‘dead time’ can be seen.

PrintIQ can be used as an overall business ‘housekeeping’ tool, with visibility of costs across the business, and cross-referencing between quotes and invoices, allowing total cost control to maximise efficiency and profit margins.

PrintIQ is compatible with and can be integrated into a wide range of commonly used software and hardware. Once developed in partnership with the print business and installed, customer support is constantly available from PrintIQ, and updates are provided on a quarterly basis, with up to 60 new features a year. This is included free of charge for the first year and thereafter as part of a maintenance agreement. 

“Our goal is to increase our bottom line by 15 to 20 per cent by the end of the year. With the help of PrintIQ, I am totally confident this is achievable,” concludes Aaron Clewchuck.