Printing and Marketing Group, Inc. Sees the Big Picture with Avanti Slingshot A family-owned business, Printing and Marketing Group, Inc. (PMI) specializes in print-on-demand and fulfillment solutions. PMI’s head office is located in Union City, CA, with a sales office in San Diego. They employ a full-time staff of 17, in addition to seasonal employees. Like most commercial print shops, PMI got its start in traditional offset and color work. Today the majority of work comes through its digital storefront, where they help real estate agents create materials and sell properties. Its niche is digital printing, with a large percentage of work coming through print brokers and resellers in the B2B space. “We saw a shift in the industry to print-on-demand and realized it’s where we needed to be in order to grow our business,” states Armando Pena, COO and self-professed Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, of PMI. “We still maintain a small offset press, but got rid of the large offset to concentrate on digital.” PMI got its start in traditional offset and color work. Today the majority of work comes through its digital storefront. This shift allows them to run campaigns with PURLs, as well as set up and manage storefronts for large, corporate clients. They also made a strategic move into fulfillment. The challenge One of the biggest growth challenges facing PMI was the level of manual entry required to fulfill all the orders coming in, particularly through their digital storefront. “On a typical day, we could get 50 orders between three storefronts. We average 1,000 – 1,500 orders a month,” says Pena. PMI needed to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, the breaks in the workflow, including all of the manual keystrokes, copy/paste functions, multiple spreadsheets, and other time-consuming methods, that were slowly eating away at the company’s productivity and bottom line. One of PMI’s key requirements was an open system that could communicate and integrate with their various W2P storefronts, including Page DNA, FOUR51, and PTI Marcom. Although they had a print MIS system in place, they had outgrown it and needed a solution that would not only meet their current needs, but help and support them through future growth. The solution The solution boiled down to their existing print MIS provider and Avanti (Booth 654). PMI’s experience with the incumbent was not a good one. Although integration was not an issue, once 3rd-party software was introduced, it “all fell apart.” Avanti Slingshot was selected because it had the most open architecture. Where historically other vendors would walk away, unable to meet the needs of PMI, or worse, offer a solution at a highly inflated cost, Avanti was willing and open to do what was necessary for a successful integration. “Despite the difference in time zones, the team was very responsive. I cannot express the difference it made to talk to, and deal with, live, real people.” The impact Since PMI went live with Avanti Slingshot, they have already seen a reduction of errors in order input. Order Entry and Shipping has resulted in the biggest time savings and they’re hoping to save as much as eight hours/day just in order input, tracking, and managerial tasks. With a new Print MIS in place, Pena and his team can focus on building business, rather than simply getting jobs out the door. “Everyone’s finally starting to see the big picture,” declares Pena. “Once you start working in estimating, you realize your true costs. We can look at history, particularly in outsourcing, and it’s all in one place. We no longer need to run around and find information. “The beauty of Avanti Slingshot is that it’s browser-based and hosted, so we’re not dependent on being on-site,” says Pena. “You can access it from anywhere. You can do a quote from anywhere. This has been a tremendous benefit to our customers and to us. “I’m seeing things I didn’t even consider; things that make you go, ‘Oh yeah, this makes sense!’” The continued development of new features, and Avanti’s proactive approach, has further cemented PMI’s decision in their purchase of Avanti Slingshot. The Stars Align for GRAPH EXPO 15 and CPP EXPO Attendees Unique opportunity for printers, packagers, processors, and converters to network and explore the global scope of the packaging/processing industries With many print service providers looking to tap into the lucrative sector of packaging, a new opportunity is now in play at GRAPH EXPO 15. Featuring trending industry issues and innovations related to food packaging, beverage processing, and packing, PROCESS EXPO, International Dairy Show, and InterBev Process Shows, are running concurently Sept. 15-18 in the North and East Halls of McCormick Place. GRAPH EXPO 15 attendees are able to take advantage of the two-day overlap, with single-pass admission to the exhibit halls for both events. PROCESS EXPO (implemented with support from its show partner, interpack), delivers a unique opportunity for printers, packagers, processors, and converters to network and explore the global scope of the packaging/processing industries, specifically as it relates to beverage, dairy, and food packaging. According to Smithers Pira’s The Future of Global Packaging to 2018, medium term forecasts for food packaging demand indicate a potential growth rate of 3.4% on average to 2018, by which stage it will be valued at about $284 billion. Consumption of drinks packaging over the period is projected to increase at a rate of 3.3% on average per year until 2018, reaching a value of $102 billion. PROCESS EXPO features exhibitors displaying the latest technology in food and beverage processing and packaging, highlighting packaging innovations for these industries. For GRAPH EXPO 15 attendees, PROCESS EXPO offers an opportunity to network with, and learn from, professionals in the global food and beverage industry. For GRAPH EXPO 15 exhibitors, it offers the opportunity to showcase the latest technologies in graphic communications to attendees not traditionally found at a graphics exposition. What is PROCESS EXPO? PROCESS EXPO is owned and operated by the Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA), the trade association for suppliers to the food processing and packaging industry with professionals from all segments of the global food and beverage industry attend the event in search of processing and packaging solutions. PROCESS EXPO is the nation’s largest trade show event dedicated strictly to the food and beverage equipment industry, strengthened by co-locating with the CHICAGO - 2015 International Dairy Show and InterBev Process. InterBev Process focuses on beverage processing, covering the entire beverage industry value creation chain, from raw materials to technology to packaging and logistics. Around 150 exhibitors are presenting their solutions to attendees of PROCESS Expo—as well as those of GRAPH EXPO 15 and CPP EXPO. The International Dairy Show displays the newest innovations in technology, packaging, ingredients and services for the dairy foods industry. The show is owned and organized by the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), which represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies within a $125-billion a year industry. 26 September 15, 2015 | GRAPH EXPO Official Show Daily | PrintingNews.com
GraphExpo Show Daily September 15 2015
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