Prepress
Franklin Combats Economy with Tools to Manage Resources & Grow Revenue
Thursday 10. September 2009 - One of the major challenges facing the print industry today lies in dealing with the economic downturn. Current conditions have lead to industry consolidation, plant closures, and widespread lay-offs. To combat challenges related to the economy companies are reducing budgets, attempting to locate additional opportunities for revenue, and maximizing the amount of revenue generated by each employee and by each piece of equipment.
In addition to facing an extreme economic environment, competition among printers is such that any mistake can prove fatal to an organization. Yet todays technology can sometimes inhibit the competitive capability of an organization. The price and complexity associated with existing print management systems and the limited integration available among other technologies have actually lead to increased operational costs and limited the potential of many small to midsize print facilities. A fast, accurate, and integrated solution is essential to both managing resources and increasing revenue.
Enter Franklin Estimating Systems: a ninety-five-year-old, leader in providing print estimating books as well as powerful, easy-to-use applications. After two years in development by print industry experts, Franklin Anywhere, a new management information system, will be unveiled at Print09. This innovative solution is designed to provide small to midsize printers with functionality found only at much larger companies.
Franklin Anywhere is a modular, standards-based solution providing powerful tools for todays facilities and scalability for future requirements. As a cross-platform product accessible from any web browser, Franklin Anywheres secure modules provide functions such as job estimating, project scheduling, accounting, customer development, staff administration, asset oversight, and reporting. And because this system was designed for printers by printers its simple, intuitive interface is ideal for integrating and maximizing the use of print facility resources.
Greg Harrison, President of Franklin, said, “Our system saves an average print facility both time and money to say nothing of the potential for recognizing additional opportunities for revenue. We feel this system, a first of its kind on the market, is a revolutionary breakthrough in print facility management, providing smaller organizations with the ability to compete with the very largest players in the print industry. This technology will help to level the playing field for printers everywhere.”
In reviewing this next-generation technology, printers have expressed enthusiasm for the potential improvement of productivity and management oversight at their facilities. “We look forward to implementing Franklin Anywhere,” said Randy Sparrow, president of Reflections Press, a print company that was among those chosen for early review of Franklin’s new print management system. “We’re particularly excited about the ability to oversee all management functions from a single system, which will be accessible from any of the leading Internet browsers.”
Customers who have been surveyed about these tools have responded very positively and according to Mr. Harrison, Franklin Anywhere is expected to release in the second quarter of 2010.