Meeting of the Q&P Clan

24 July 2006

The Q&P team met together early this month in Sydney to review the industry and look at new developments and future plans to keep Q&P ahead in meeting the changing needs of the industry.

Those attending included Terry Gallagher, Chris Clear, Ron Pelley and Brad Trudgen from Beaut Solutions (NSW, SA and Malaysia), Phil Hayes from Orelia Management Systems (WA) Davin Hamnett from Printec Solutions (VIC & TAS), Alan Alexander from Calprint Systems (QLD) and Rob Taylor from Taylored Systems (New Zealand) as well as our Development team members Dave Bell, Judy Bell, Louie Xu and Joy Trasler

It was good as always meeting with the distributors, commented Dave Bell of the development team, they each have a range of industry related backgrounds and we all benefit from the interaction.

Following a state-by-state review the following were seen as some of the trends across the country:
  • The majority of all non face-to-face communication is now done by email with a corresponding decrease in the use of the fax
  • The increased use of digital printing for wide format print jobs
  • Increased use of warehousing of print for clients by print companies of all sizes.
  • The ongoing mergers of companies as well as companies going into administration, while reducing in number, continues as the industry adjusts to the ongoing low margin environment.
  • The acceptance by printers of all sizes that the increased use of the Internet will be a natural method of doing business with their clients in the future displays the preparedness of the industry as a whole to use the technology. Printers are seriously looking at, the specifics of what they and their clients need to achieve with use of the web and the realization of the need to integrate this with their production/accounts and sales system to keep the costs down

It was agreed that while all Q&P users are unique, they have common issues in servicing the expectations of their clients, and it is these common issues that Q&P needs to continue to be creative in addressing.

The release of the On Demand Printing Internet module at PacPrint 2005 will provide Q&P users with another internet tool. The On Demand Print module, like the three other available – Q&P Internet modules, Production Tracking, Stock Online Ordering and Personalised Stationery – is seamlessly integrated to the Q&P Management Information System

While use of new technologies is something to embrace, it is important to remember to check that it is functioning as you expect. This is especially an issue with ensuring backups are done, and can be restored if required, comments Bell.

Spare a thought…

At a busy print operation, the owner had decided to back up to a small and inexpensive USB Drive. His office, on the ground floor afforded a view of the street, and the server was kept there for security. Unfortunately, a smashed window, gave thieves access to the server and it disappeared. The USB Drive Backups could not be read – no checking that they could be had been done… Fortunately he was able to access a two-day-old offsite backup!

Moral: Not only do you need to backup, you need to make sure you can retrieve your data off your backups.