Founded in 1991 as a screen-printing business in Australia, Mezographic has evolved through three decades of print industry change to become one of the country's most respected large-format digital print specialists.
Owner Frank Mezo started the company printing t-shirts out of his father's garage while completing a screen-printing apprenticeship, purchasing old machinery at auction and building a client base one job at a time.
Today, Mezographic operates from a 2700 square metre facility running from 4am to 10pm, employing 65+ people across production, signage, and support roles. The company runs a fleet of Durst and SwissQ machines, including a P5 flatbed and multiple wide-format roll-to-roll units, and has built its reputation entirely through word of mouth, with no sales representatives.
Mezographic's capabilities span large-format digital print for indoor and outdoor signage, vehicle wraps, building graphics, exhibition displays, and point-of-sale materials. A significant portion of the business serves print management organisations, handling high-volume, multi-site campaigns with precision and consistency.
The company also holds a strong commitment to sustainability, offsetting 100 per cent of its operational carbon and recycling 50 tonnes of plastic waste in 2023 alone.
The challenge
As Mezographic grew through the 2000s and 2010s, the limitations of its legacy quoting and management system became increasingly apparent. The company had relied on an older quoting system for over 15 years. While it served well in its time, the system had become a bottleneck for the growth of the company.
The core pain points were clear:
Quoting for complex, multi-component jobs required manual calculations using spreadsheets and calculators, as the system could not handle the level of complexity Mezographic's work demanded.
Job tracking was largely manual, meaning production managers had to chase updates rather than access live status in real-time.
Invoicing was a separate, labour-intensive process disconnected from the quoting and job card workflow.
Clients had no visibility into where their jobs were in production, leading to There was no integration with the company’s long-standing accounting software, Reckon, meaning data had to be re-entered manually at multiple points.
Mezo evaluated a wide range of MIS platforms before making his decision. Many were heavily report-focused or overly complex. What Mezographic needed was a system built around production and one that was intuitive enough for the entire team to adopt without friction.
Adrian Fleming, general manager, Australia and New Zealand, printIQ, says that while an MIS can be complex – and sometimes needs to be – a MIS is a vital part of the business, controlling quoting, production, inventory, invoicing, and more.
“The information entered into an MIS must be accurate, which is why considerable time is spent during the build testing to ensure the data produces the correct results. However, all that information is stored in the back end and does not need to be accessed by everyone daily,” he tells Print21.
“This allows us to keep the front end user-friendly, while the system handles the heavy lifting in the background. If it isn’t easy to use, people simply won’t use it.”
Why printIQ?
Mezo first encountered printIQ through Justin Webber, sales manager for printIQ, in 2020. After reviewing multiple options, the decision came down to one defining quality – printIQ made sense.
“It's user-friendly. Everything made sense. It wasn't like a lot of the other things I saw, which were very reporting-focused,” says Mezo. “printIQ is more production-focused, and that's what we needed.”
Beyond usability, printIQ's ability to handle complex, multi-component quotes was a decisive factor. Mezographic regularly produces display stands with multiple components printed across different substrates, exactly the kind of complexity that had previously required workarounds in their old system.
As Mezo puts it, “You can build quotes and all that information is captured while you're doing it. So, when it comes to being put into production, they've got something to reference and it's already there.”
“Efficiency improvements with printIQ span multiple facets of print operations. From the initial quoting stage, businesses benefit from faster turnaround times, streamlining the process and reducing manual effort,” Webber tells Print21.
“During production, seamless integration with other systems eliminates redundancies and enhances workflow transparency. Invoicing is also simplified thanks to automated data flows and connectivity with accounting platforms.
“Mezographic experienced significant efficiency gains in their pre-press department after integrating Enfocus Switch and Ultimate Impostrip with printIQ. These integrations automated complex pre-press tasks, minimised errors, and freed up staff for higher-value activities, ultimately boosting overall productivity and operational agility across the business.”
Implementation and integration
Rolling out printIQ at a busy 65-person operation running nearly around the clock could have been a significant disruption. In practice, the transition was smoother than anticipated, particularly on the shop floor.
“I was afraid about our staff actually doing what they were supposed to and logging onto jobs and logging out of jobs,” Mezo admits. “I was shocked that there was no pushback at all. The barcode scanners are incredibly easy to use, and staff across the business, from production through to packing, took to them immediately.”
A key part of the implementation was the deep integration printIQ's team built with Mezographic's existing ecosystem.
Reckon accounting integration: printIQ worked directly with Mezographic to build a custom integration with Reckon, a platform printIQ did not previously support. The result is a seamless flow from quote to job card to invoice, eliminating hours of manual data entry each week.
Switch pre-flight integration: Mezographic's pre-flight workflow via Switch (Enfocus) is now connected directly to printIQ, streamlining file handling and approvals.
Ultimate imposition software integration: printIQ and Mezographic collaborated with Ultimate Tech to extend the integration to support guillotine trim workflows, a feature that was not previously available but was developed at Mezographic's request.
Client portal setup: Several of Mezographic's print management clients are now set up with dedicated portals, allowing them to book campaigns, place orders, and access standard product catalogues without needing to contact Mezographic's team directly.
Results and efficiency gains
Since implementing printIQ, Mezographic has seen measurable improvements across quoting speed, production throughput, and administrative efficiency.
Complex quotes that previously required manual calculations across multiple tools can now be built entirely within printIQ, with all parameters captured and carried through to the job card automatically. For clients with portal access, many orders are placed entirely self-serve – Mezographic never touches the quote at all.
The end-to-end workflow – from quote to job card to production to invoice – is now largely automated. This has materially reduced the time production managers spend chasing information and provided clients live visibility into job status.
The Reckon integration alone has saved Mezographic's accounts team hours every week. Purchase order reconciliation, billing, and invoice generation – previously manual and error-prone – now happen within the system.
Print management clients using the portal can log in, check job status, access their product catalogues, and place orders independently. This reduces inbound queries and frees Mezographic's team to focus on production rather than account management.
A collaborative partnership
One theme that emerged consistently from Mezo’s experience is that the printIQ team approaches the relationship as a genuine partnership rather than a vendor arrangement.
When Mezographic needed custom integrations, the team found solutions. When features were missing, they were built. A freight carrier integration was completed at a lesser rate because the printIQ team recognised the broader value it would bring to the platform. A printIQ technical lead has also attended client onboarding sessions in-person to help Mezographic's portal clients get up to speed.
For Mezo, that collaborative mindset has been as important as the software itself. “The printIQ team is always trying to make their product better, which makes you realise they can see the big picture.”
According to Webber, with MezoGraphic being a major supplier in the large format industry, some of the customisations printIQ developed during the build will make it into the next release, strengthening its offering in the wide format industry.
“Custom integrations are part of this industry, there are a lot of variables in print, and no two companies do things in the same way with the same software and equipment,” he continues.
“We pride ourselves in the fact that we can build these custom integrations in a timely manner through our dedicated development team based in Wellington NZ.”
Looking ahead
Mezographic continues to work with the printIQ team on active development projects, including further freight and workflow integrations.
Mezographic is already at practical capacity within its current 2700 square metre facility. With two major paper suppliers located within two kilometres in either direction, a dedicated power substation on-site, and a growing portfolio of portal-enabled clients, the business is well positioned for continued growth.
“The opportunities for automation are endless, and we are constantly building new integrations, as well as updating our current integrations. As other software and machinery that companies use evolve, we need to evolve with it,” says Fleming.
“Then there is AI, and that will mean a lot of different things. What can we use AI for to help with our builds versus what AI can we add to the product to assist the end user and their customers? We have a team investigating all of this, and AI in some form or another will make its way into our future releases.”
For a company that grew from a garage, through a mortgaged factory, to a 65-person operation running nearly 24 hours a day on reputation alone, printIQ has become the operational backbone that streamlines each step of the workflow – reducing manual touchpoints and increasing efficiency.
This article was first published in the March-April 2026 edition of Print21, page 10.
