Estimating Advances: You Can Quote Me on That

Every printing job starts with a price quote. So ideally a printer wants the best estimating solution for the specific needs of his/her firm in order to win new business or satisfy return customers. A look at some of the new products hitting the market this year helps owners and managers find the right estimating solution for their type of business.

AACRO Computer Systems

The company’s Print Shop Manager product was designed from the ground up with speed and ease of use in mind. “Our last update was a major step towards implementing digital printer pricing into the estimating process. Our estimating system uses specialized templates to accommodate the various types of jobs that a printer sees from day to day,” said Rich Giles, president of AACRO.

“For example, there is a template specifically for envelopes, another for carbonless forms, one specifically for printing pads and one for all general work like brochures or newsletters. These templates allow the selection of any print device that has been defined as available whether it is offset or digital or a combination. This gives users increased flexibility. For example, in the booklets template, a cover can be designated to be printed on a digital device while the pages are printed offset.

“And it’s all defined under one job number. It has made life much easier for the person defining and estimating the jobs,” he added.

For more information, call (770) 592-2028 or visit www.printshopmanager.com.

Estimator Corp.

“Using Estimator in the everyday working environment allowed us to develop and apply scores of specialized features unique to this program,” said Estimator President Mark Myers.

As in most available programs, the quote starts with the selection of the customer from an existing list, or by adding the new customer information. From that point Estimator becomes noticeably different. A single screen in front of you at all times becomes your working platform. All required information is easily accessed from this single location. Changes are viewed instantaneously and the thousands of interactive formulas automatically create all required downstream changes, without your having to think about them.

“What’s unique about Estimator is the fact that 90 percent of the questions asked by other programs are already answered automatically in this program,” noted Myers. “Hundreds of jobs can be estimated in one day,” because it is faster and easier to use.

He added that the product prevents mistakes by letting the user know automatically that a three-page book can’t be done. Estimator also helps the user with unique jobs. “If you have an oblong book, it will automatically make adjustments for stitching, folding, binding, etc.”

A few significant features are:

• More than 2,700 interactive formulas and algorithms
• More than 5,000 pages of mostly original source code, which condenses to an executable file of 5MB
• Press Select: Selects the top three presses with pricing from your list of active presses
• Job Locator/Scheduler lists all active Jobs, the due dates and client name and job title
• Controlled data access by the administrator
• Controlled access to employees only
• Pre-loaded Press, Prep and Bindery selections to simplify setup
• Able to easily handle an unlimited number of different presses

For more information, contact (203) 682-6436 or visit www.estimatorcorp.com.

Franklin Estimating

After two years in development by print industry experts, Franklin Anywhere, a new management information system, will be unveiled at Print 09. This innovative solution is designed to provide small to mid-size printers with functionality found only at much larger companies.

Franklin Anywhere is a modular, standards-based solution providing powerful tools for today’s facilities and scalability for future requirements. As a cross-platform product accessible from any Web browser, Franklin Anywhere’s secure modules provide functions such as job estimating, project scheduling, accounting, customer development, staff administration, asset oversight, and reporting. And because this system was designed for printers by printers its simple, intuitive interface is ideal for integrating and maximizing the use of print facility resources.

Greg Harrison, president of Franklin, said, “Our system saves an average print facility both time and money to say nothing of the potential for recognizing additional opportunities for revenue. We feel this system, a first of its kind on the market, is a revolutionary breakthrough in print facility management, providing smaller organizations with the ability to compete with the very largest players in the print industry. This technology will help to level the playing field for printers everywhere.”

In reviewing this next-generation technology, printers have expressed enthusiasm for the potential improvement of productivity and management oversight at their facilities. “We look forward to the possibility of integrating Franklin Anywhere,” said Jack Kemp, general manager of the Communications Delivery Center at Datamark, a marketing company that was among those chosen for early review of Franklin’s new print management system.

“We’re particularly excited about the ability to oversee all pricing and production management functions at our facility from a single system, and that this system is accessible from browsers on Macs, PCs or even mobile devices.” Customers who have been surveyed about these tools have responded very positively and, according to Harrison, Franklin Anywhere is expected to release in the second quarter of 2010.

For information, call (800) 346-7363 or visit www.franklinestimating.com.

PowerQuote

New PowerQuote 12.5 printing estimating and management software from PowerQuote Software offers the choice of accounting, offset, digital, and large-format print estimating modules that run on Mac OS X, Windows XP and Vista.

The new release brings new features and performance improvements to nearly every function. Job tickets and written quotes have more detailed information. Delivery tickets and invoices now have more flexible customizable layouts.

“A new help system makes learning the system easier. A new price analysis report assists managers in evaluating the accuracy of their prices and the performance of production cost centers,” noted PowerQuote President Bruce Moore.

New features have also been added to accommodate the rapid paper price changes in the industry.

The accounting/enhanced capability module adds scheduling, invoicing, accounts receivable and accepts job specs over the internet using MyOrderDesk from PagePath Technologies. All systems include e-mail quotes, written quotes, easy tracking of file correction charges, instant recall of jobs for reorders and the unique job SAVe job ticket.

Standard rates are pre-installed and easily adjusted to match any cost based pricing system. The software is affordable for small print shops yet powerful enough for commercial printers with up to 20 employees, according to the company.

More info at www.pqprintestimating.com or call (800) 686-0067.

Printer’s Plan (Softuse Inc.)

“This fall, we will be introducing Printer’s Plan 2010, our newest version,” noted company representative Yesim Edev. “Based on the suggestions of existing and prospective Printer’s Plan users, this new version allows for unprecedented flexibility in defining services, making Printer’s Plan 2010 suitable for a greater variety of print shops.”

Other highlights of the software include a renovated user interface for digital printing, including wide format, greater cost and price control, improvements to its Web-to-print tools, and the option to integrate with Customer Pulse by Survey Advantage to monitor customer satisfaction.

“Scheduler lets me know what the priorities are, assign tasks to individuals, and know what the current production capacity is so that we can make commitments that we know we can keep,” said Printer’s Plan user Michael Brown of Sir Speedy Printing Center in Havertown, Pa.

For more information, call (800) 638-7526 or visit www.printersplan.com.

Unitac International Inc.

The two new products the company will be introducing in just a few weeks are the Passport and Express editions of its estimating software Morning Flight.

Morning Flight Passport includes bonus features not found in the Free Edition. The Free Edition already lets users create an unlimited number of products and paper items. Morning Flight Passport expands on that by also giving users unlimited prepress, postpress, and packaging.

“If you can name it and price it, you can now quote it,” said Unitac representative Hal Heindel.

In addition to the full-featured help system, the Passport Edition comes with tutorials and simulations, all built in so users don’t have to go on-line to access them. If users have a question that someone else may already have asked, they can look it up in the included Forum Archives.

The Morning Flight Express package expands on the Passport Edition by adding a Booklet Module, Memo Writer, and Jet-Entry Quickprice.

The Booklet Module: It’s easy to find requests for quotes on booklet jobs: Just go to the bottom of the in-pile. The Memo Writer: Names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of contacts are readily available in Morning Flight, so users don’t need to load a word processor just to write a short memo. Jet-Entry Quickprice was specifically designed for working up quotes while customers are on
the phone.

For more information, visit www.printfire.com.