Users of the Optimus 2020 MIS systems will gain unprecedented insight into their business performance with the launch at Drupa of the new Optimus 2020 Vision KPI module.
The result of a six-month development programme and with the active support of Vision in Print (ViP), Optimus 2020 Vision overcomes a significant hurdle printers face when maximising their MIS investment – translating the wealth of data captured by the system into the key performance indicators (KPIs) that identify the all-important trends within the business.
Nicola Bisset, Optimus Group managing director, says that the combination of the Optimus 2020 Vision and Optimus Analysis modules responds to the key recommendations of ViP’s widely-praised Best Practice Study of MIS – available to download free from ViP’s website (http://www.visioninprint.co.uk/). “Everyone acknowledges that while MIS solutions can generate a continuous flow of information, this is wasted if managers don’t have the tools to interpret the data quickly.
“ViP rightly identified the priority for suppliers to incorporate KPI reporting into their MIS solutions in such a way that users can quickly grasp what the data means and act on it. Optimus 2020 Vision does this by making the data accessible on the users’ desktops. It enables users to focus on the indicators that really show what is happening in the business – not just what is happening hour-by-hour or job-by-job, but what is changing. In fact, it lets managers see both the wood and the trees.”
KPIs across all key operations
Optimus 2020 Vision, which will be incorporated as standard with all Optimus 2020 MIS systems, provides a macro-level overview of the KPIs across all key operations in the business – financial, sales, production and customer service – via clear, easy-to-understand graphics that refresh with updated data every three minutes. The user-friendly, click-and-view interface enables managers to see their KPIs at a glance. For those managers who need to analyse the data and look at trends in greater depth – perhaps year-on-year or month-by-month - Optimus has linked the Optimus Analysis module to Optimus 2020 Vision, so that users can drill down and interrogate the data at micro level, then customise its presentation as bar charts, pie charts, and so on.
Using these tools, users can tailor how they evaluate each KPI to their specific requirements. Performance on estimates can be benchmarked against criteria such as speed of turnround, percentage of conversions, the average time elapsed between estimate and decision, and jobs the company is most, and least, successful in winning. Productive resource utilisation can be evaluated not only by department and by period (weekly, monthly, etc), but also by combinations of operator, machine and type of work. Data on non-productive time can be analysed to show how much downtime is due to machines waiting for work, materials, or approvals, and how much to breakdowns or maintenance. The customer service overview includes the ability to identify and analyse customer loss against factors such as turnover, job value and type of work. A variety of printing and export options are available to enable managers to share information between departments – a key factor in effective MIS implementation.
Richard Gray, chief executive of Vision in Print, welcomes this latest enhancement to the Optimus 2020 MIS. “Optimus 2020 Vision is a good example of a supplier responding to the findings of our MIS study and developing a solution that enables printers to really exploit the potential of MIS to measure, control and develop their businesses – in this case, by concentrating on the performance indicators that really matter. I would also like to compliment Optimus on their wholehearted engagement with our efforts to encourage printers to use MIS to the full. For example, the ease of sharing data shows that they have taken on board key aspects of our thinking.”
Optimus
www.optimus.co.uk
