School District Adds Estimating Software
For years, Clark County School District’s in-plant was getting by using Filemaker Pro database software to handle its billing. There was one big problem, though.
“No one in the [organization] was here when that database got built, so no one knew how to go in and change it,” observes Shelly Severin, acting graphic arts supervisor for the school district, the fifth largest in the United States.
So this past summer, the 19-employee Las Vegas-area in-plant installed Avanti’s Litho Estimating and Demand Estimating modules, to provide more accurate pricing and better reporting.
Litho Estimating works with the shop’s four-color Shinohara, two-color Hamada and other offset presses, allowing Severin to input a job’s specs and quickly get an estimate. The module’s “Best Press” wizard lets her compare the cost impact of using different presses. Jobs can be segmented into sections and run on different presses, and the module will automatically calculate the accurate run time.
The in-plant uses Demand Estimating to build estimates for its Océ VarioPrint monochrome printers and Océ 665 Pro color printer. It supports digital job tickets and can easily recalculate a job with a different quantity. The new software can create a single, combined estimate with both offset and digital components.
With the new modules, the in-plant can provide information to customers more easily.
“If a customer calls me now and I need a report, I can pull up a report for my customer and say, ‘O.K., this is how much money you spent with us in the last month,’” Severin says.
The in-plant uses RSA’s WebCRD for online ordering, which reportedly integrated seamlessly with the Avanti modules.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
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