Good Morning

The big news this month is about a project taking shape in our hangar: A whole new way of estimating both offset and digital printing with Morning Flight.

Don't worry, we're not abandoning our innovative traditional pricing model. Product-centric estimating has proven itself in more than 6,000 installations worldwide. But soon you'll have a choice. Full auto, or completely manual, all leading to the same estimate.

Overshadowed by this major event is that we've had to prepare for it with yet another brand new feature, the ability to install multiple, user-defined presses.

Did I mention that we're also readying a plug-in for wide format? And that our flagship product, the Gold Edition, will be rolling up to the gate in three months?

It's going to be a hot, interesting summer.

Hal Heindel
Unitac International Inc.

When you take pictures of friends and special events these days, how often do you manually set the shutter speed and aperture? A better question might be, are there times when you need to?

More often than not, the full-on automatic mode will yield a better picture, reliably and hassle-free. Just the ticket for cousin Mel. But now and then you'll want to control the focus and depth of field, and the rays of the early morning sun at the water's edge breaking through the fog.

Our new manual pricing mode offers exactly that. Instead of starting the quote or order entry process by selecting a product which then picks the most suitable press and dials in the run specs, you begin by selecting a press and then manually enter imposition, makeready, and impressions per hour.

There's a screenshot of the new manual pricing option on the Morning Flight Forum. We expect to have a demo version available for downloading from the printfire web site in July. Read more

Cons? Sorry, I couldn't come up with any. If you're billing paper at the price you pay your vendor, it may look like you're giving it to your customers at cost. But what you're really doing is selling every sheet at a loss.

Let's do the math:

Write-Offs. On average, 2% of all the bills you send out don't come back with a check attached. ka-ching!

Reruns. Somebody read the job ticket wrong and you have to order the same paper twice to do a rerun. ka-ching!

One little Mistake! You ordered a bunch of paper and had it cut to size - the wrong size. ka-ching!

$%!#&* You ordered enough paper to run the job, but there was more than the usual (wrinkling, ink setoff, ill humor on the part of the press operator), and now a good portion of it is littering the pressroom floor. ka-ching!

I could expand the list, but only with examples you already know. The point? Even if you don't want to make a profit on paper, consider adding 5% just to break even.

Is there a time and place for zero markups? Yes, if you're running an in-plant shop and it's not a profit center.

Video demos are a great way to learn how to use Morning Flight.

Click here to watch this month's Morning Flick on how to price and mark up paper.