You need an MIS Manager in your print business and here’s why

Investing in a new press is a big deal for any print business, and when we go on site visits we can see how much time and effort is put into maintaining the new press and ensuring the maximum return on the investment. Unfortunately, we don’t always see the same level of care being taken when it comes to a company’s software investments, despite ROI being a big topic of conversation during the initial sales engagement process.

The problem here is that, like a printing press, a print MIS needs continuing care and attention to keep it optimized. And to ensure this happens, you need to give someone overall responsibility for its continuous improvement – a line manager, if you will. That’s why your business needs to appoint an MIS Manager who will oversee the software and continually improve how it’s used in the business. This should be someone with strong technical knowledge and a good understanding of your corporate objectives and strategy.

4 major pitfalls of not having an MIS Manager

1. You miss out on new features and functionality that could really benefit your business.
   
   
2. Your data becomes inconsistent, with everyone developing different ways of inputting the same data.
   
   
3. Users will ‘bend’ the system to make it do what they want e.g. doubling the run time of a press so they can calculate a cheaper price than what they think the work should be done for.
   
   
4. Duplicate records for contacts, companies, materials or products will appear when users decide it’s easier to create new ones rather than searching through existing ones.

4 major benefits of having an MIS Manager

1. One of the biggest benefits is of course that an MIS Manager will take responsibility for any MIS related projects, e.g. a new implementation, an upgrade, new add-on tools or integrations. The benefits of this shouldn’t be underestimated – one of the biggest issues we see printing companies face is a lack of resource and time to carry out software related projects. So having someone responsible for this will release the pressure on the rest of your business considerably.
   
   
2. They will make the most of the Management Information inside your MIS and use it to create reports for things like sales forecasting, inventory planning and opportunity analysis. Having someone who is able to interrogate your MIS data will also help your executive team when making strategic decisions.
   
   
3. They will ensure your costs are kept up to date and compare actual job costs with estimated job costs, highlighting areas of concern and opportunities for improvement.
   
   
4. They will stay in touch with your MIS provider and build a relationship with them, attending user events and educational sessions to help your company make the most of their MIS. A great example of this is the Tharstern INKspire User Event, which we host every year for our customers to attend, and at this event we share the latest and upcoming developments for our software, along with other educational content that will benefit our customers.

It’s important for printing companies to acknowledge that the work you put into choosing and implementing a new software solution doesn’t end once the implementation is over. Keeping up to date with technology is like walking backwards on an escalator – if you want to get to the top, you really have to give it everything you’ve got. But if you stand still, you’ll end up at the bottom.

By choosing someone to take responsibility of your MIS and giving them time away from their usual duties to work on continually improving it, you will make it that much easier to reach ‘the top’ and maximize the return on your investment.