IMS Printing & Signs in Lone Tree, CO, Now Manages 98% of Its Orders Via SmartSoft's MIS Solution

AGOURA HILLS, CA—October 16, 2014—PressWise by SmartSoft announced today that IMS Printing & Signs in Lone Tree, CO, has successfully implemented PressWise—the all-in-one, cloud-based Print MIS, Web-to-Print, and Workflow Automation solution—to manage 98 percent of its orders.

IMS has a blended workflow; 70 percent of its business is wide-format jobs such as banners, tradeshow displays, and retail signs, while digital and small-format pieces make up the remainder of their work.

PressWise has published a new case study detailing how IMS has implemented PressWise across all departments and will have it available at the Specialty Printing & Imaging Technology annual conference (SGIA EXPO) in Las Vegas, Oct. 22-24, 2014. PressWise by SmartSoft will be in booth #4116.

"PressWise has revolutionized the way we operate as a print provider. It is the ‘brain’ of our organization," explained J.J. Heim, president of IMS. "It helps us track everything from proofing and production to accounting and inventory."

In addition to managing orders within the production shop, IMS has also utilized PressWise to launch several private ordering websites for select customers and three online storefronts that target specific segments of the IMS customer base:

1. IMS Colorado for existing customers to submit orders that need graphic design assistance,
2. IMS Wholesale for receiving orders from other print and sign shops, and
3. QuickPrintingandSigns.com, which is a full service online storefront open to the general public.

In response to customers, including IMS, running wide-format work through PressWise, SmartSoft has introduced a number of enhancements to the system to manage unique facets of wide-format jobs that most traditional MIS systems find challenging, such as less standardized dimensions, huge file sizes making real-time online PDF proofing through a storefront extremely difficult, and more wasted substrate.

"At SmartSoft we pay close attention to what our customers tell us about their experience with our software," noted Eric Wold, vice president of SmartSoft, who heads up the PressWise team. "We identified a number of areas where we could make that experience much better for wide-format work. Our development approach is such that we have the agility to quickly implement new product features, and since PressWise is a cloud-based service, we can distribute product updates quickly to our customers, so everyone has access to the most current version of the software."

IMS has found the product enhancements well suited to both their wide-format and conventional workflows. "We don’t work around PressWise at all," added Heim. "Prior to PressWise we were sending old school proofs. Now estimating, quoting, proofing, production, and billing are all produced out of PressWise."

Heim appreciates the pay-as-you-go business-model for PressWise, a SaaS platform with servers hosted and managed by SmartSoft remotely. While he notes that “we treat the expense as one additional employee,” the PressWise system is able to accomplish much more than just one employee could. 18 months after adopting PressWise, IMS is processing 20 percent to 25 percent more jobs. Heim credits the ability of the company with less than 10 employees to handle such an increase in sales to the implementation of PressWise—both and the resulting reduction in manual touches during the production process and online dashboards that put every detail and asset immediately at the fingertips of every employee.

Heim summed up IMS Printing & Signs’ experience with PressWise by saying, "We are thankful to have the PressWise team in our corner and love having the system in place."

About PressWise
PressWise is an end-to-end MIS and Workflow Automation solution that comes complete with robust features such as web ordering, unlimited templates, estimating, quoting, order processing, workflow management, complete shipping integration, fulfillment and the ability to integrate with most third-party Web storefronts (including PTI, Pressero, PrintNow, PixFizz, PageDNA, RedTie, Prisme and more) and existing back-end accounting systems.

About SmartSoft
SmartSoft provides desktop and enterprise-level workflow solutions for print management, postal address correction and postal discounts. Its products include the AccuMail suite of address hygiene software, the all-in-one mailing software solution, SmartAddresser 5, the IM barcode mail tracking service MailSpotter, and the end-to-end print workflow solution, PressWise. SmartSoft is a privately-held company with offices in Agoura Hills, CA, Santa Barbara, CA, Salt Lake City and Montréal.

Source: SmartSoft.