Is MIS a misnomer? Management information systems may well have started out as a means of collecting information to be fed up to the top so the managing director could make a decision on improving the company.

　　They have moved on from that to the point where a printer is hard pushed to run his business without one. Business analysis systems may be a more accurate term.

　　Streamlining and automation

　　However, it goes further than that. Streamlining and automating procedures can save time and therefore money. MIS applications can automate certain tasks, eliminating human intervention completely. There is a trend towards Internet interfaces that customers can log on to and request quotes. The request is sent to the MIS system and can either be dealt with by an estimator or can be processed automatically, with the quote being sent back to the website and the customer alerted by e-mail.

　　With Optimus 2020 from Optichrome Computer Systems, a customer requiring a quote logs into an Internet interface and is presented with a form to fill. When he submits that, it is linked back to Optimus and added to the system ready to be quoted.

　　Says Bill Liddell, consultant at OCSL: "Customers want the quote to come straight back. They don't want manual pricing. Optimus then chooses the most economical way of working. The estimator then checks that he is happy with the basic mark ups and generates the quote. Optimus sends it back to the website and the customer gets the e-mail alert.

　　"Some companies are receiving requests for 200 estimates per day. We are going to automate that process. It will not be touched by human hands. The customer will feed the information into Optimus which will generate the quote and send it back. It's a case of trusting what the system is telling you is correct. But there are always going to be more complex questions that need human intervention," he says.

　　Scott Marienthal, marketing manager at Shuttleworth, is more sceptical about automation. He says: "Although it is technically possible for the price to be automatically confirmed using Shuttleworth's RFQ (request for quote), our users have told us that automated quoting is not an accurate or acceptable way to conduct their business. By automating the quoting process you miss the chance to steer the customer towards your specialist skills or away from ineffective methods. The automated RFQ presumes some knowledge on the customer's part or else there must be financial allowances made for misunderstandings. In an industry where margins are under extreme pressure, who has the luxury of being able to factor in costs like this?

　　"In a few areas, particularly print management, I can see RFQ applications offering some benefit but the human interaction is what differentiates one printer from another and this is vitally important. That said, some large print buyers demand a facility to generate their own quotes and these same print buyers will not be satisfied with a limited product selection and a few variables."

　　To meet this demand, Shuttleworth developed the concept of components which act as the building blocks for a quotation. By selecting components, customers get an accurate price and simultaneously construct a detailed works order.

　　Expert intervention

　　Lance O'Connell, prepress marketing manager of Heidelberg UK, agrees: "In the vast majority of cases there will always need some expert intervention from the printer's end. Producing printed products is quite often a very complicated process with certainly more than one way to achieve the same finished product. Choosing the most cost-effective route is quite often the greatest challenge. There are of course simple repeat jobs, like business cards with simple name changes for example, that could be quoted and ordered online as part of an automated process."

　　At Tharstern, sales director Abdul Kassas is firmly on the side of human intervention. "The Tharstern RFQ relies on human interaction and rightly so," he says. To turn a quote around without human intervention is, in our opinion dangerous, not just because of the relationship building element with the customer, but I wonder how many quotes are sent out by printers and as a result of human intervention and negotiation, deals are done rather than lost."

　　Profits are maintained

　　Automation of quotes is a viable option says Sharon Hodgson of Printcafe. "Many printers are already doing this with contract work," she says. "It's also useful if you have standard products on a website solution. In fact, profits are maintained as they have been pre-calculated and prevent any mistakes in estimating. Printcafe's Logic Quick Quote works in this manner. It has predetermined prices for standard products. The problems arise when you have ad hoc work and that will always mean human intervention."

　　David Dunbavand, general manager of Prism Europe, says: "As standard we would expect to show efficiency gains in estimating with models ­ or templates ­ although we also find many customers copy quotes to ease estimating time and improve throughput.

　　"We have developed 'style sheets' that mean users can define the entry screens rather than fit a 'standard' framework. This could vary by user, by type of work in the company, or both depending on the customer need. A style sheet for an eight-page, four-colour brochure, for example, might be prepared for a printer that produces a lot of this type of work. Specific variations ­ such as paper type and run length ­ can then be added as an estimate is required," says Mr Dunbavand.

　　The full automation of RFQ is difficult to realise by all printers across all methods of print and converting, according to Terry Daly, sales and marketing manager at Imprint Business Systems. "The complex nature of some print and converting processes can make it unrealistic for the client to be expected, or be able, to answer sufficient questions to allow for an accurate specification to be taken on which to create an estimate or quotation," he says.

　　But it is not the automatic calculations of estimated costs that is an issue with online estimating systems, according to Mr Daly. It is pricing where many systems fall down. "Imprint's 'smart' sales acquisition system goes a long way to overcome this potential shortcoming," he says. "It utilises an algorithm covering potential turnover, value added and credit risk assessment, together with historical mark up achievement by customer, product range and plant utilisation etc to guide a suggested mark up. Ideally this suggested mark up maybe automatically e-mailed to the sales director, for example, for final agreement prior to automated return with final price to the customer. This extra feature may again be dependent upon a range of criteria."

　　Two sides of the same coin

　　So does automating estimates sacrifice accuracy of quoting for speed? It would seem that most estimates require some form of checking. The answer is neither speed nor efficiency but a mix of both.