arifiQ, the technology that provides estimates and optimized workflows in seconds, today announces a powerful addition to its front-end estimating product family: the Large Scale Estimating module, capable of delivering hundreds of estimates in only a few minutes. Working in real time with PSPs’ actual device availability and inventories across any number of sites, the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module makes it possible for print buyers and print service providers to answer extensive RFQs immediately, and then execute orders – including recurring procurements – as fast as clients say “yes”.

“This new arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module eliminates the days and weeks needed to prepare and then calculate hundreds or thousands of entries at print buyer and print provider sites,” says Carina Karlsson, CEO, arifiQ Development. The Module will also prove especially beneficial to procurement staff at enterprises and organization sectors such as retail, real estate, financial, and insurance; where timing is critical to profit potential or compliance.

“arifiQ technology completely removes the greatest bottleneck in print production; which is the amount of time needed to calculate estimates,” Karlsson continues, citing the North American MIS/ERP Adoption in Commercial Printing report[1] issued last month.

How the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module works:

1. The product specifications (any number of products) are easily entered, in Excel sheets – connected to the arifiQ optimizing engine.
2. The pricing for each product, as well as the total of all estimates, is presented instantly.
3. The order placement is done in the Excel sheet or by submitting the data to arifiQ PRO (or other MIS).
4. The order is saved and managed in arifiQ PRO (or other MIS).
5. The Gang-Run option in arifiQ PRO combines jobs that can run at the same time. 

“Printers and buyers who use the Large Scale Estimating module can get orders on press before RFQs are even opened by their competitors,” says Karlsson.

arifiQ’s Most Recent Procurement Request:

A procurement officer at a large enterprise needed pricing on 2000 products. The estimator complained, saying, “It will take forever, and we might not even get the print order!”

Karlsson went over the job with the customer, and found that if they used a typical MIS to calculate estimates for all 2000 products, it would take 4 weeks at 5 minutes per. The other option that estimating personnel often employ is to take a “smart guess,” which includes few-to-no real calculations. In these cases, the PSPs have no idea if they will take a great loss on the extensive order.

Also consider that simple RFQs for one piece often demand many different estimates, such as numerous sizes and pages. For example, a customer can easily ask for 3 sizes and 3 different numbers of pages; which equals 9 estimates for only one quote. Imagine the number of estimates requested when a large procurement is sent out to numerous printers! 

With the arifiQ Large Scale Estimating module, the PSP provides the arifiQ Excel document to the print customer, who easily fills in product specs and sends it back upon receipt. The buyer can also get pricing in real time, while they fill in the sheet.

The Large Scale Estimating module is the newest addition to the arifiQ line of front-end estimating applications. The product family now includes: 

1. arifiQ PRO – this highly advanced estimating tool for professional print buyers and sales teams is arifiQ’s flagship product
2. Plugin for Adobe InDesign – for designers; allows creation of jobs while simultaneously staying within budget or other parameters
3. deQuote – for quick print jobs and Inplants
4. Customized Web forms created with arifiQ API – for a regular print customer and key accounts
5. New: Large Scale Estimating –

• for calculating estimates on any number of jobs,
• and each job estimated unlimited times,
• according to any number of options,
• for print buyers and any size PSP or organization, including large enterprises with extended RFQs

Close your eyes.

Throw out everything you know about estimating print jobs and optimizing workflows. 

Keep your hardware and software.

Now, open your eyes… and look at arifiQ.

arifiQ turns print buyers and print service providers into genuine heroes of efficiency and speed, because the arifiQ engine at the core of our product family:

1. keeps real time updates on everything:
   every printer,
   paper,
   finishing option,
   customer profile (including special pricing), and more,
2. at every site a PSP has access to, and…
3. can process, in real time,
   any number of jobs,
   of any complexity,
   with any number of variables for which the customer wants estimates,

in seconds.

(Or a few minutes, if it’s several hundred or thousand.)

Plus… arifiQ optimizes the workflow!

arifiQ calculates the optimal imposition/signature and production path required to attain the lowest cost. The finished quote holds all of this information, and can be used as the job order and job ticket whenever the customer is ready. Requotes/adjustments take seconds, and new quotes/orders are immediately generated.