You’ve known for a long time that your current Print MIS/ERP is holding you back. It might be really obvious you need a different software solution because the vendor has stopped supporting yours or your company has simply outgrown your current solution. Or it might just be an opinion that you and your colleagues have that your current Print MIS just doesn’t work for you. For many of you, your business is being run outside your current Print MIS (in spreadsheets, on paper, and in the heads of your trusted employees) because your current system is being “worked around.” There are hundreds of printers in some version of this “state of affairs” with their current Print MIS/ERP. 

Nearly every printer I speak with who are in this “state” feel their next step is to start shopping for an alternative solution. This article is going to try to convince you NOT to start with shopping. In our personal lives with inconsequential purchases (e.g. more dog food), when we see the need, we can take immediate action, place the reorder, or go to the store with little or no thought. The Print MIS purchase is very far from inconsequential and the purchase is a process not a single event. The purchase is also a collaboration with a company and typically a commissioned sales representative whose primary job is to get you to make a favorable decision as soon as possible.

I’m not saying you aren’t going to have to make a purchasing decision at some point. I’m simply arguing that once you enter that “sales process” it introduces people who have other agendas which you then have to protect yourself from. I prefer that printers get some critical work done before they enter the sales process, and for a couple of reasons. This purchase is about your business; you should be driving the agenda. I want you to be ready to start implementation at the end of the sales cycle because software vendors are going to take some money at the end of the sales cycle. I want the “letting go of your money” to line up with the “starting the return on investment” to be in alignment. One of the things I see that cause so much chaos and failure in Print MIS implementations is that the product is purchased and the printer is not ready to start implementation. You can save a lot of stress by being ready for implementation before you start shopping.