In this video, Sarah Gossett, President of H&W Solutions, discusses the company’s switch to PrintVis. The move allowed them to dramatically improve the operations of their company, improve client service, expand the company’s product offerings and grow their company. She is interviewed by Jen McCallister, Operations VP at Wye Print.
H&W Solutions transformed from a basic print shop to a multi-faceted print solution partner, offering a suite of products that satisfy their client’s evolving needs.
While investing in equipment was one part of the change, they realized that in order to grow and deliver complex products for their clients, it was essential they also invest in the processes to support scalable growth at every stage.
What Drove H&W Solutions to Look for an Enterprise-wide Solution?
Initially, H&W Solutions operated solely as a print shop, with the primary focus on the physical print jobs production being taken on an order-by-order basis. Like many print shops, H&W relied on print estimation software for bid-creation and acceptance.
However, there was also extensive non-billable administrative overhead that was an issue. Tracking inventory was done via spreadsheets. Shipping relied on Access databases. Accounting was done in QuickBooks. Each of these systems worked independently, with each system only recording specific parts of the overall process. This resulted in a lot of duplication in data input, with no way to connect the individual systems.
READ: How Efficient is Your Estimating Process?
As the company began expanding its offerings, such as printing on apparel and promotional items, they realized that standard print estimation software could not accommodate the expanded product line, resulting in an inability to correctly determine profitability.
Having outgrown their print MIS, they looked for a replacement to better meet their current and future needs. They concluded that what was needed was a single, centralized system that everyone could use versus many disparate ones.
The Print ERP/MIS Options Considered
In 2015, the company actively began searching for a single system to incorporate all of their processes. And it was not simple, as Sarah Gossett explains at 4:15.
“We actually chose a couple of other companies before PrintVis. We chose a few different companies, EPMS, Monarch, which is now EFI, I believe. We looked at a number of solutions, and like I said, we actually did choose a couple, tried to use them, and they just weren’t a good fit. Then we finally found PrintVis, and that was a good fit for us.”
LEARN MORE: The Power of One Solution
How Has H&W Benefitted from the Switch to PrintVis?
The benefits of having a single system became apparent very quickly.
- Elimination of data entry into several systems
- Easy access to an integrated system, leading to better customer service
- Consolidated and simplified access to information improved decision-making and opportunity creation
- Vastly improved ability to identify pricing and profitability
- Strengthened customer relations by offering integrated ordering and administration processes that also improved administrative loads for their clients
Most importantly, the cumulative benefits of using PrintVis created a new foundation for growth.
One example of a key client benefit was the ability to add a customized client interface, storefront XMPie. As Sarah summarizes at 6:05, the company experimented with different mechanisms to interface more easily with their clients, but once they found a storefront system that could fully integrate with PrintVis,
“That totally changed how we were able to sell to our customers, how we were able to fulfill orders, how we were able to track inventory, all of that. So it helped us set business objectives, achieve them, recognize that we were achieving them, see what our profit was, many things that we just had never had here before.”
Another example of an important business benefit is the ability to make better buying decisions. Having current and accurate information on inventory and supplies is critical to running an effective operation. But it goes beyond that.
In the printing business, appropriate capital equipment purchases are key to productivity and growth. At 11:05, Sarah describes the process behind the decision to buy a new HP12000 printer as an example. And she describes one of the ancillary benefits of PrintVis:
“We could easily pull the data from PrintVis that we never would’ve been able to pull. I mean, it would’ve taken us a year to find all of that information in all the different places we would’ve had it. With just a few strokes of the customized reporting in PrintVis, we were able to pull that data and make a good decision on buying this piece of equipment and understanding what the return on it would be.”
Comprehensive, accurate, and readily available reporting should be an essential factor in all print shop technology purchases. Not only for planning and cashflow but to help negotiate better pricing as well.
Choosing the Right Partner to Make to Move to PrintVis
As noted, H&W Solutions worked with several companies in the process of switching to PrintVis. Along the way, they dealt with hesitant employees, incompatible or inappropriate add-ons, and even got side-tracked in their initial implementation of PrintVis with unnecessary customizations that ended up holding them back.
But they eventually found a solid business partner in Wye Print. The key difference was in the relationship and the Wye Print approach.
Wye Print assigns a relationship manager at the outset who gets to know the entirety of the client’s business in order to understand how to best leverage PrintVis and work through the transition.
As Sarah explains at 15:30,
You all have been patient with us, and you haven’t made decisions for us or telling us what to do. You’re helping guide us to our decisions and giving us a really great foundation for growth… You all have shown us how … if we set this up right, the foundation for this company will be great so that we can continue to add new verticals in here. We continue to see a great overview of the system.
To learn more about H&W Solutions switch to PrintVis and Wye Print, watch the entire interview with Sarah Gossett here:
Talk to Wye Print
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