Cary Sherbrurne: Hi. I’m Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor at WhatTheyThink.com and I'm here with Judi Hansen who is Director of Information Technology at J.S. McCarthy in Maine. Welcome.

Judi Hansen: Thank you very much.

Cary Sherbrurne: So let’s start by telling our viewers a little bit about J.S. McCarthy.

Judi Hansen: J.S. McCarthy was established by the McCarthy brothers in 1947, so we’ve been around a long time.

Cary Sherbrurne: You’re older than me—not you, but your company’s older than me.

Judi Hansen: Not me, I’m not that old. But I have been with them a long time. I actually joined the company—well, I left for a few years to work at an ad agency, but I joined the company in 1977, so I’ve been there a long time. And I have watched it grow over the years under the leadership of the McCarthy brothers, and now the Tardiff family. The Tardiff family bought the company from the last McCarthy brothers and have revolutionized the company as far as growth. We run—we’re a sheet-fed printer. We have digital press capabilities too, fulfillment.

And, you know, the management system that we put in, the Monarch system, has really helped us out with some heavy-duty management needs, because it’s allowed us to respond to our customers faster; it’s allowed us to meet a variety of their needs. Our slogan is “one source one solution.” And what we feel for us in this industry, and especially in Maine, we want to be able to have the customers come to us and be able to solve all of their needs right there.

Cary Sherbrurne: So it really helps the customers, but also it helps you internally in terms of being able to manage the business.

Judi Hansen: Yes, absolutely. I mean the Monarch system is a key feature for us to do our accounting and especially analysis, analysis on how the company is doing. When we bought—we bought a new Komori color UV press. It’s one of the first ones and had it installed. And, you know, when we were looking at new presses we could go back to the Monarch system and analyze all the printing we’ve done and what press would be the right fit for this company. So having that MIS tool really helps us manage our business.

Cary Sherbrurne: And what would be your advice to printing companies who have not implemented, or have not fully implemented, an MIS?

Judi Hansen: Well, you know, I think today with the economy the way it is that you really have to be ahead of the game. You can’t be catching up later on or you’re not going to make it. And I think that you see a lot of people consolidating and acquiring other companies that didn’t get ahead of the game and put an MIS system in. You know, you look at the size of your company and Connect’s a great place—the conference is a great place to see all the different software that’s out there. But I think it’s a critical tool for managing a business, you know. The days of being able to piece together two different solutions and sort of run your business, you need to be able to make quick decisions and to do that you have to have the latest technology.

Cary Sherbrurne: And real time data.

Judi Hansen: And real time data.

Cary Sherbrurne: And so what’s next for J.S. McCarthy?

Judi Hansen: Well, I think over the next couple of years, you know, definitely looking at acquisitions, what would fit our needs. We’ve really expanded in the last 12 months going to the new virtual technology, virtual servers. And just being able to be at the leading edge of technology and meeting our customers’ needs, going into unique businesses, you know, and that whole concept of “one source one solution,” I think that’s probably the direction we’re still going.

Cary Sherbrurne: And when you talk about acquisitions, are you limiting yourself to Maine?

Judi Hansen: No, not at all. In fact, we’ve only made one acquisition in Maine. We acquired a company in Boston, another one outside of Hartford, and so no, I think it’s more of a New England base.

Cary Sherbrurne: That’s terrific. Great.