Looking forward, looking back: Quote & Print reflections

As Dave Bell (pictured) prepares for drupa and its exciting range of new print technologies he looks back at some of the highlights in the development of Quote & Print over the years.

Some of Quote & Print's major achievements have been:

Development of the Windows-based version of Quote & Print. In 1995 we had a DOS based product.  We completely rewrote the Windows based version of Quote & Print from the ground up with a new database design and a completely new development language called Clarion.

Conversion of all existing users from their DOS system to Windows. There were over 300 users at the time.  We had planned to do it over a five-year period but with the introduction of the GST in the year 2000 we had to reduce the time to three-years.  We were averaging two conversions a week.

Development of QPONLINE - the internet interface to Quote & Print. Now in use with about 50 printers it has enabled them to offer a wider range of products and services to their customers.

Adding the ability to convert any report or document to a PDF file which could be optionally emailed to the customer.  In addition, any report can be exported to MS EXCEL.  (This last feature is known as Office Companion.)

Including a snapshot feature in Quote & Print which provides a management summary for business owners and manager when they log in.

Integration of Shop Floor Management with WorkFlow.  This will benefit all those printers who handle a large amount of short run jobs.

Ensuring the seamless integration of all parts of Quote & Print.  Some of our users are now processing more than 2,000 jobs per month through Quote & Print.

Giving the users the ability to select the font, colours and screen size that is best suited to them.

Expansion into other areas of the graphics arts industry in particular Print Procurement and Digital printing.

At drupa we will be examining the future trends in the printing industry so these can be incorporated into Quote & Print ensuring that all of our users and future users can maximise their investment in our software.