Quote & Print Improves Profits, Improves Quality of Life

26 February 2007

An integrated management information system with appropriate local support adds more benefits to your business than simply boosting the bottom line. Dave Bell believes you must also factor in the lifestyle bonus and improved accessibility your clients have to you.

Quite often people make the decision to invest in an MIS system on a purely economic basis

  • “What will be the return on my investment?”
  • “How will it improve my profit or bottom line?”
  • “Can I maintain or increase sales by helping retain my existing customers and attract new ones?”
  • “How much extra work will I bring in because I can now turn around my quotes in two hours?”
  • “How many staff I will save?”

    What is harder to calculate and so often ignored is the many intangible benefits gained by installing an integrated Management Information System that has local backup, training and support. These intangible benefits apply both to printers who are still using manual systems (as there are still some), and to printers who are using a variety of non integrated computer systems (the vast majority of printers would fall into this category).

    Here are some of the intangible benefits. I am sure that most printers and managers will be able to identify with at least one of them:

  • No more long hours spent at the office after normal working hours catching up with the paper work

    An integrated MIS system automates many of the reports for you. For example, if your staff have already processed invoices and payments in Quote & Print you can print out your Business Activity Report in a few minutes.

  • Regular holidays

    With an integrated MIS system you will be able to start taking breaks. Using the internet it is possible to log onto your system from an internet cafe anywhere in the world. You can then see all the reports that you would normally see when sitting at your desk.

  • Happier staff

    Staff using an integrated system are not having to go between different packages to confirm if all required data has been entered and can instead view full history of data entered.

  • Less stress

    Using an MIS system ensures that all the information in your head or on a variety of spreadsheets is entered into the computer and the peace of mind that this can be protected by security settings ensures that pricing will be consistent based on your costings. You will then be surprised how quickly other staff will be able to pick up doing straightforward quotes or revisions on complex quotes.

  • Reduction of training time for new staff

    If you advertise for someone with the relevant MIS skills they will start the job pre trained on the software, with only the need to review with them your practices and processes.

  • Money saved by having your online ordering system and accounting system integrated with your production and estimating system

    The bottom line benefits of an integrated system have been well documented by those firms which specialise in helping companies to grow as well as those who are reviewing processes contributing to a company's failure.

  • Peace of mind

    Knowing that there are qualified support staff who are able to help you when you have a question and qualified trainers available to train your new staff. Also, knowing that your investment in your software is protected by the constant enhancements that are being brought out.