Quote & Print Newsletter for June 2004
Volume 14 – Issue 2
- A word from Dave’s desk
- Self evaluation can hurt
- Does your web site count?
- Product of the month PAYROLL
- Accounts End of Year
- Dealer news
- Support hints & tips
A word from Dave’s desk
Welcome to the winter edition of the Q&P newsletter.
The last six months have been very busy for the Q&P development team. Extra fields were added to the Q&P data dictionary. This was needed to lay the foundation for further developments and the addition of new features for the software for the next three years. Data conversion programs have been written and our Q&P distributors have been out in the field converting customers’ databases.
In addition to this Soft Velocity, the developers of our database software, released an upgrade which we needed to incorporate into Q&P. When you get your next Q&P update remember to look at the What’s New screen to check out the latest features.
One new module which had been awaiting the new data dictionary is the Q&P Bin Manager. This module has now finished beta testing and is ready for release. Basically the Bin Manager allows you to keep track of your finished goods on a bin by bin basis. Typically each bin would represent goods produced in a different job run or batch and hence could have a different price. The Bin Manager will help ensure that you always sold the oldest stock first.
Another anticipated use is to keep track of stock that is stored on pallets which can be placed anywhere in your factory or production area or warehouse. Your forklift operator updates you with the location of each pallet. Some months later when you need to find that stock the location of each pallet is displayed on your screen so you can easily locate the stock.
Our personalised stationary internet online entry and ordering software has had a major upgrade with the ability to upload and incorporate into the pdf files image (jpg) files. This means that it can now be used to produce items like auction notices for real estate agents where house pictures can be up loaded and previewed.
A visit to drupa
In May I spent a week at drupa looking at how far companies had come in implementing JDF technology. The product development is still in early days . It was only at drupa that the specifications for JDF 1.2 were announced. Quote & Print like all other manufacturers is in the process of implementing JDF within its software. This is expected to be ready by the end of the year.
It was great to meet up with a few of our users in Düsseldorf. Like most printers they are aware of the need to keep up to date with current developments in printing.
It was also good to meet up with Rohan Holt at drupa. Rohan has spent the last few years developing a product called METRIX, an automatic layout calculator which can be used to calculate the optimum way of ganging different jobs together. Rohan’s company LITHOTECHNICS was one of only seven Australian owned companies exhibiting at drupa.
Later in this newsletter Chris Clear gives his impressions of drupa.
Don’t forget to read the section on End of Year procedures . It contains useful information for all Q&P users.
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Self-evaluation can hurt but it’s necessary to stay ahead of the pack
Chris Clear, Sales Director, Q&P Solutions, went to drupa to discover how Quote & Print Solutions measure up against the best in the world:
I went to drupa2004 with two specific things in mind. Firstly to benchmark Quote & Print Software and Q&P Solutions against the 35+ companies providing similar products. After extensive reviews I can honestly say that the functionality of Quote & Print Software (Q&P) is equal to any of the systems on show.
In most cases it set a standard of market appeal far beyond those I visited. Most of the systems could handle one or two and sometimes three types of printing well; Q&P has functionality for all styles of print production and can easily accommodate mixed process. This is coupled with the fact that Q&P is one of the few systems in the world that can truly make the claim to be fully integrated, by this I mean that all modules are designed, developed and programmed by the same provider.
Good software is only part of successful products and services. I saw software and systems that did come close to matching the functionality of Q&P and I wondered if these products would still be on show at the next DRUPA because some seemed to lack depth. For an excellent product to succeed it needs to have support, training and people that have capabilities that exceed those of the product. Most importantly these people must be available so the end users can work on their business and not the shortcomings of a system or service provided by the supplier.
I truly believe that Q&P Solutions is providing a level of training, support and after sale value second to none in our industry. Of course there is still room from improvement and that improvement comes from listening to customers and responding in a positive, proactive manner.
The second thing I wanted to do at drupa was to learn more about and spend time reviewing JDF. I was excited to see that the Australian printing industry as a whole has a better understanding of the implications of JDF/JMF to improved workflow and competitiveness than our American & European cousins.
This is likely as a result of our markets being smaller and printers more responsive to change. One thing that was highlighted was the need to have an effective management system capable of providing the required information from the start of the job. Again I was pleased to see that everything that Q&P has done in the past two years has been right on track and forward looking (I tip my hat to David Bell and his team for the willingness to embrace the challenge).
I am sure there will be much written on these topics over the coming weeks and months as a result of drupa and I would urge companies to embrace these emerging technologies sooner rather than later.
It was easy to be impressed by the size and scale of drupa and to be amazed by the speed and capabilities of some of the presses, but the things that struck me were the advances in the production support equipment. The advances in materials handling have been nothing short of mind blowing.
These technologies need to keep up with the advances in production and where packing and dispatch could have had two or three people in the past it is now possible to have one very intelligent robot doing the work. Even the simple and necessary pile turner is now able to do amazing things such as detect and remove spoiled sheets, count and split stacks into counted sheet ready for either wrapping or dispatch.
Finishing lines too have made silent advances that now stay ahead of the short run fast turnaround market that is common. All the fast make ready, reduced down time, whiz bangery of the press manufacturers would amount to little if these processes just left the printed stacks sitting on the floor waiting for the next process to catch up.
As a final word I was proud to be part of the large Australian attendance at drupa 2004, and I believe that our innovation and use of technologies is equal to anywhere in the world.
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Does your web site count?
The new financial year is here and the need to “count” things is in the air! So, how can you count your web site?
Web Site Stats- Track Visits: Visits to your web site are typically monitored by your web host. Accessing this is informative as it records how many people came to your site, when they came, where they came from, what pages they visited, what browser they use and lots more.
- Track Activity: Having cookies or a login area (for members or clients) allows you to track where and what these people do on the site.
Return On Investment- Investment: Web sites are just as much a part of your marketing investment as part of the sales funnel. Just as a Yellow Pages ad or signage contributes to your professional image, so too does a web site.
- Income: Counting how many orders or requests come from online is obvious. But this is not the whole story as you need to count how many contacts that are made through non-web means (eg, telephone, visit in person) are a result of the site. For a true indication, returns are optimally calculated in terms of overall benefits to the business.
Ranking on Search Engines- Goal: You want to be number one when people search – but first, what is your web site’s current position?
- Current Position: People are looking for hits in your category, not a particular company. Search for yourself using the keywords likely to be used by your prospects in order to truly assess your ranking (see last newsletter for our searching tips article).
- Prime Position: Well of course number one is best and everyone is trying for that! Realistically page one is fantastic and pages two and three are great. With a customised and systematic approach there is every possibility this ranking can be achieved.
Vanessa Dillon 1300 761 167 vdillon@invisibleink.com.au
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Accounts End of Year
Payroll: All companies using the Payroll program should have loaded the update, completed EOY process and commenced pays in the new financial year. Note: The ATO clarified the position for Superannuation on Allowances late in 2003. Check with your accountant to confirm your set ups are correct. If you have not received the Payroll update and are on a current support agreement then please send an email to judy@quoteandprint.com.au.
Debtors, Creditors and Cashbook: There is not a separate EOY process for these modules, simply ensure all transactions you wish to enter for the financial year ending 30/06/04 are dated on or prior to 30/06/04. When all transactions are entered, print June reports, reconcile to Balance sheet if running General Ledger then back up and run End of Period as usual.
General Ledger: It is usually some months before companies are ready to close the financial year. Ensure all transactions and journals to be included in the financial year 30/06/04 are dated on or prior to 30/06/04.
When the final accountant’s journals are ready, enter those again dated 30/06/04 (remember you cannot journal to “stock” accounts) print all reports relevant to that financial year. Then back up and perform End of Year process.
*** NOTE: The End of Year process in General Ledger is not reversible so take care and always confirm with your accountant that there are no more transactions to be entered for that financial year ***
Support Hints & Tips
A common support call is something like “it prints fine from my computer, but not for other users”. This is because some of the print options apply to the local workstation only. These are the Formatting Options during invoicing, Report Options during Deliveries and Orders. Also in Admin/Set Up/Accounts/Accounts Information, the choices of Always Print Heading/Never Print Heading/Use a Bitmap Image are separately on each workstation. It is done this way because different workstations may have different stationery loaded in their local printer. These settings can be set on each workstation to avoid the problems.
Another common related call is “bitmap images only appear when I print from my own screen”. The location of the images is full pathname which included the drive letter. This is best avoided by having each workstation using the same driver letter to map to the QPW directory on the server in the same way and it often occurs when a new workstation is connected to the network. Contact your dealer for assistance if necessary.
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Dealer news
PRINT MIS SA Ph (08) 8344 1043 Recently I have set up Q&P Shop Floor Management for a company here in Adelaide.
This was the first one that I had been involved in setting up and I have been suitably impressed with what we have been able to achieve so I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you a little about it. At this site we have used Bar Code readers to collect the actual times against jobs. We have also set up what we have called ‘Tracking Bar Codes’ for job processes (Out on Proof/ In for Corrections/ Outwork etc).
This information is then included in a ‘Daily Production Briefing’ report designed and set up using the Q&J Report Generator. Sales staff at this company can view a job’s process via a display screen, they can see what machine it is on and who is working on the job (no more chasing the Production Manager around the factory to find out how your job is going). If you have not got this module then you seriously need to be talking to your Q&P Distributor about it.
PRINTEC SOLUTIONS VIC & TAS Ph (03) 5967 2488
"Nothing is Set and Forget" Too many companies believe that once a program is set to automatically perform a task, that the software is actually performing that task. This is a very, very dangerous state of mind to get into. If you rely on automated backups, or rely on automatic virus checking, then you are bound to get burnt. There are two cases in point. Backups – if you have an automated backup system, it is imperative that you actually check that it is working. This means verifying that the backups are being completed, and that all files are being backed up. In our experience over the years I would give the automated backup systems a score of two out of 10 for reliability and actual performance of its designed task. So if you are relying on a system like this, you need to be concerned whether it is doing its job properly.
Virus Checking – we live in an age where virus software is absolutely essential, however most of us don't really know whether the virus scanners are doing the job properly. Go on, be absolutely honest, are you 100% confident that your anti-virus software is stopping all viruses from getting through?
Case One – in our office, our computers are set to automatically check and download the latest versions of VET, however the other day our PCs started re-booting themselves, and sure enough after forcing an automatic download of new anti-virus software, we found a new virus infecting our network.
Case Two – a large user of Quote & Print was having huge problems with Q&P crashing all throughout the program. The IT staff were confident that the anti-virus software that they had implemented was doing the job, and that it was set to pickup all viruses. On closer inspection it was realised that a number of virus's were still infecting the network. Once these viruses were deleted manually, Q&P didn't have another problem.
So the lesson is, do not rely on software which is set to perform tasks automatically. For your own peace of mind, I would recommend you manually check that these tasks are actually happening. Better safe than sorry, hey!
CALPRINT SYSTEMS Qld Ph (07) 3325 2739 There was a reasonable attendance at the last user group meeting with attendees gaining something from it. The next meeting will be held in about three months and users will be notified of details closer to the date.
Product of the Month – PAYROLL
Are you happy with your existing Payroll package or perhaps you are still doing pays by hand. The beginning of the financial year is always a good time to implement a new Payroll system. Call your local Q&P distributor now to get a presentation of the Q&P Payroll.
The main benefits are fast and accurate processing of pays, electronic banking, plain paper Pay as You Go Summaries, ability to send yearly summary to tax office by floppy disk, top level Q&P support. Very handy if your regular pay person is off sick or on holidays and you have to process the pays.
Beloran Pty Ltd
Developers and Distributors of Quote & Print Software
Virus Checking – we live in an age where virus software is absolutely essential, however most of us don't really know whether the virus scanners are doing the job properly. Go on, be absolutely honest, are you 100% confident that your anti-virus software is stopping all viruses from getting through?