TECHNIQUE MIS SELECTED BY CAXTON & CTP Publishers & Printers Limited

Leading South African printer Caxton & CTP Group has chosen Technique to provide a new MIS system for their entire organisation.

Leeds, UK – Technique Group is happy to announce that it has signed an agreement with the South African print group giant Caxton and CTP Printers and Publishers limited. The deal is to provide a single MIS and Data Collection solution across all print production facilities. Caxton and CTP is involved in various fields of publishing and printing including newspapers, magazines, commercial print, book printing, stationery, packaging and labels. They are the largest printers of commercial and retail leaflets and catalogues in South Africa. The group has three heat-set factories, two gravure plants and 10 cold set factories strategically spread throughout South Africa.

Paul Cooper (CEO Technique Group): “I am extremely pleased that CTP have selected Technique to deliver a common fully integrated platform for MIS. Our solutions in the publication market are second to none, making complex processes, such as book estimating, quick and simple. We look forward to consolidating the business processes and delivering significant returns to CTP.”

The CRM, Sales Enquiries and Estimating tools from Technique will play an integral part in improving the commercial effectiveness of all printing plants. The Contract Management application will play a key role in the processing of the large number of periodicals including newspapers and magazines.

The new production solutions will replace the existing shop floor data collection systems with a fully integrated approach including real-time inventory control. This will also allow group wide management of paper stocks which will be accurate within seconds of the splices on the web presses. Accurate paper forecasting was an essential requirement and is provided as standard in the Inventory system.

TECHNIQUE MIS CHOSEN BY ROTO SMEETS GROUP

Major European printer Roto Smeets Group has selected Technique to undertake a Group wide implementation of a new MIS system

Leeds, UK - Technique Group is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with Netherlands based Roto Smeets Group for the implementation of Technique MIS throughout their entire organisation. Roto Smeets Group is one of Europe’s largest printers consisting of gravure, heatset, sheetfed and finishing plants. The project will include the installation of Technique MIS in all facilities, and Technique Data Collection on over 100 different resources plus JDF integration to Kodak prepress workflow systems.

Paul Cooper (CEO Technique Group): “Roto Smeets has a diverse set of sites and we are delighted to be chosen to provide a common solution that meets some quite demanding requirements. Already in the early stages we have created a wonderful relationship with the professional project team. We look forward to a successful partnership, working together with Roto Smeets to achieve their business objectives.”

Paul Cooper continues: “Due to current climate and significant changes in the market place Roto Smeets have been seeking ways to further improve their processes, even though they already have a reasonable level of automation. Technique will replace various systems, including 3 core systems for MIS, DMI and Logistics and remove the need for interfaces between these areas. This will not only reduce the complexity of their systems but it will also improve the stability and reduce the cost of maintenance dramatically.”

The entire sales team will be equipped with iTechnique, a native iPhone and iPad app. This will allow access to core information instantly, any time and any place. The new agile processes will help make better informed decisions improve the competitive position.

Technique’s JDF certified apps will be used to optimize the prepress and customer service workflow using the Connect adapter, capturing cost and providing real-time status of pages, proofs and plates.

In the production environment the completely integrated Data Collection Systems will be deployed to improve production performance and automated job costing.

Work smarter, not harder - Visit Technique at DRUPA 2012

At this year’s DRUPA, Technique MIS (hall 7a / stand D14) has definitely taken MIS to new levels. The key enhancements to Technique’s integrated MIS system will enable printing companies to further streamline their business processes, saving time and increasing profit.

> iTechnique MOBILE MIS
iTechnique is a completely new mobile management information system (MIS) and executive reporting tool running as a native App on the iPhone and iPad. Using cutting edge software it empowers printers, allowing them to work more effectively - providing better customer service and increasing profitability. Using the latest technology all significant information can be made available securely to staff wherever they are, promoting agile decision making and complete awareness throughout the company.

Andrew Barker,( Managing Director), Garnett Dickinson Print on iTechnique – “iTechnique is portable so you can use it anywhere. This is essential for any 24/7 business as it allows access to your core information in real-time and because of the technology it’s based on you don’t have to sit waiting for your laptop to boot up, it’s all instant.”
iTechnique is a fully fledged application with the ability to create and update information. Being a native application allows an amazing user interface experience together with the power of offline storage.

> FULFILLMENT (INVENTORY MANAGEMENT)
The new Fulfillment system from Technique provides a browser interface to enable customers to view the inventory that you are managing for them. It allows users to perform a full range of order and inventory transactions including; ship, replenish, back order, pick list and kit creation. Customer websites can be branded thereby providing a familiar look and feel for your clients. The Fulfillment system is seamlessly integrated with the rest of Technique MIS including Order Management and Inventory Management. Production and shipping departments work as normal without introducing additional overhead to manage fulfillment orders.

> AUTO SCHEDULING (PRODUCTION SCHEDULING) and CONTRACT FORWARD PLANNING (ESTIMATING)
For the last 15 years Technique has been a market leader with its easy to use but powerful Production Scheduling system. This system is now further enhanced with the release of Auto Scheduling. This major new additional feature provides complex business logic to enable automatic forward or backwards scheduling of orders while still considering the impact of the critical path and key events.

The Contract Forward Planning is a ‘must’ for the publication printer who produces repeating orders. The forward planning lets contracted work be repeated at whatever interval the contract requires e.g. weekly, monthly etc. All material and scheduling requirements are calculated and loaded providing an unprecedented forecast of material and resource requirements, revenue and costs.

> DC ink monitoring and speed display
Technique Data Collection keeps evolving, with real-time Ink monitoring taking signals directly from the ink pumps the system can monitor usage job by job. This gives you a wealth of information from what jobs use more ink than expected to which operators waste the most.
The New Technique Speed screen displays are designed for office or factory mounted screens to see the real-time feedback from the shop floor Data Collection, large screen updates show exactly what’s happening in the factory.

> CRM marketing / campaign management
CRM has become a key component of MIS, Technique now features campaign and marketing capabilities allowing you to build up a campaign, assign to contacts or customers, export lists and create email blasts directly from the system. Technique CRM also has an email blast editor, which allows you to design the perfect layout also giving you the ability to see who has opened the email and how many times.

> ABOUT TECHNIQUE
Technique MIS offers leading Print MIS solutions that meet a company's precise business requirements. Its feature-rich set of modular applications can be implemented either standalone or as an integrated suite. Technique MIS modules encompass everything from web-based sales enquires and print crm, to print estimating, print ordering, production / print scheduling and shop floor data collection. With world leading DMI, coupled with advanced JDF integration to prepress, press and post-press systems, Technique's solutions provide dramatic improvements in efficiency. Technique MIS customers are some of the world's most successful web, sheet-fed, packaging and publication print companies, across more than 20 countries.

www.technique-mis.com

Dutch Newspaper Group - Rodi Media - choose Technique MIS

As part of Rodi Media’s growth plan the management are increasing the amount of commercial work produced. In order to achieve that Rodi Media wanted a system that offered a powerful set of tools to achieve more throughput in the commercial areas and help improve their production workflow. Technique will implement a full set of modules from CRM, Estimating through to DMI (Direct Machine Interface) Shop floor Data Collection on their Waterless Cortina press.

Rodi Media will make good use of Technique’s new iTechnique iPhone/iPad app for sales and production people alike giving them complete control to produce quotes and see press feedback whilst on the move.

Paul Cooper (CEO Technique MIS) - Rodi Media is a really good ‘out of the box’ fit for our system. We have a proven track record in the coldset arena and I think this was one of the major factors that Rodi Media were looking for - a straight forward implementation without the need for development. Rodi Media has a strong team and our combined knowledge will lead to a good implementation and a strong return on their investment in our products.”

Martijn Boereboom (Operations Director, Rodi Media) commented “We had a good feeling about Technique from early on in our selection process and quickly built a good relationship with the Technique team.” He went on to say “During our search for a system we looked at many products, Technique stood out for several reasons. One was that their user interface was very modern and easy to follow, we felt our staff would find the system easy to get to grips with.”



About Rodi Media
Rodi Group is a privately owned Print and Media group. It started with Rodi Media which was founded in 1970 by Dick Ranzijn. In 1986 Rodi Verspreiding – the door to door distribution company- was founded, and in 1989 Rodi Rotatiedruk – the printing facility- was founded. Rodi group publishes prints and distributes 22 local weekly newspapers in the north of Holland as well as doing a large amount of commercial work – focusing on high printing quality and levels of service. In 2005 Rodi Media bought the first waterless offset press in the world – the KBA Cortina – which was the first ever built. Rodi Group employs roughly 275 people with an additional 3500 delivery men and women for the distribution.

www.rodimedia.nl

About Technique
Technique MIS offers leading Print MIS solutions that meet a company's precise business requirements. Its feature-rich set of modular applications can be implemented either standalone or as an integrated suite. Technique MIS modules encompass everything from web-based sales enquires and print crm, to print estimating, print ordering, production / print scheduling and shop floor data collection. With world leading DMI, coupled with advanced JDF integration to prepress, press and post-press systems, Technique's solutions provide dramatic improvements in efficiency. Technique MIS customers are some of the world's most successful web, sheet-fed, packaging and publication print companies, in over 20 countries.

www.technique-mis.com

Technique Inc., announces its sponsorship of two of the Printing Industries of America premier conferences; the Continuous Improvement Conference being held in St Louis, April 1st - 4th, and the Offset and Beyond Conference, also in St Louis, June 4th – 6th.

“These two events are great opportunities for printers and vendors to listen and learn about the trends and technology that are or will be important to their businesses. This is always important, but even more so in a Drupa year when many new developments will be released. Technique is committed to a thriving print industry and we are proud to be able to be able to support both of these conferences.”, said Chris Wood, President, Technique Inc.

Times Citizen an Iowa Falls, IA, Newspaper Publisher and Printer has implemented the full Technique MIS and is already seeing the benefits

Three years ago Times Citizen moved into their new expanded plant and in doing so acquired additional printing capacity. Along with continuing to print their own newspapers, management wanted to increase the amount of outside commercial work including newspapers, inserts and publications. In doing so, the company recognized that the internally developed management systems were inadequate to support their growth plans. A decision was taken to find and implement an integrated print management system that was particularly suited for the newspaper printing industry. After a comprehensive selection process the Technique MIS and shop floor data collection was selected and implemented and Times Citizen are now seeing major benefits.

Jay Luther, Project Manager, Times Citizen “One of the big things we like about Technique is that from the moment we quote a job to completion everything is in one place and can be easily accessed. With Technique we can also turn our quotes around quickly which gives us a competitive advantage. We have empowered our sales people to produce their own quotes using the estimating module of Techniques, which again helps our responsiveness.
The scheduling module makes it easy to see at a glance what is on the press and what is coming up. Also, what step we are in the printing process, for example, have we received the plates yet? It is also a simple matter to make changes to the schedule.

The inventory module has been a big time saver and has helped us to keep better track of paper coming into the plant. We are now able to scan the rolls directly to the software and then keep track of what is being used.

On the shop floor we are using Technique DC Simple software . This has been helpful in keeping track of our press runs and materials being used. We expect this feature to help us continually reduce waste and keep better track of our expenses.”

About Technique
Technique MIS offers leading Print MIS solutions that meet a company's precise business requirements. Its feature-rich set of modular applications can be implemented either standalone or as an integrated suite. Technique MIS modules encompass everything from web-based sales enquires and print crm, to print estimating, print ordering, production / print scheduling and shop floor data collection. With world leading DMI, coupled with advanced JDF integration to prepress, press and post-press systems, Technique's solutions provide dramatic improvements in efficiency. Technique MIS customers are some of the world's most successful web, sheet-fed, packaging and publication print companies, across more than 20 countries. www.technique-mis.com