You are a printer that supports several manufacturing processes (digital, litho, and wide format). You currently run two shifts and then add a third during your peak production months. If you lost a key press operator from the digital manufacturing group, you would make it a top priority to hire or train another resource for this role. At this point you’re probably saying to yourself, no duh?

Here’s the kicker. This same thing happens ALL THE TIME when it pertains to “running” your software solutions. You lose your Print MIS administrator and what happens? From my experience, in many cases nobody reacts. There is no sense of urgency to replace that person, probably because there was a lack of understanding at the leadership level what this person was actually doing. All print owners understand what a press operator does. It’s in your face. It’s big, it’s an expensive machine, it doesn’t make you money unless it’s running. It makes you a lot more money if it’s run well (aka by a skilled operator).

Guess what? Your Print MIS is as important. It is expensive, it doesn’t save you, make you, or help you accurately track money unless it’s running. It can save you, make you, and help you track your money a lot better when it’s run well (aka by a skilled operator). Who is staffing your software solutions? Who is in charge of optimizing them? When they aren’t working, who is in charge of getting them running again? Start there. If you can’t answer that question, then get to work making that someone’s job. Oh, and the answer cannot be “that’s the vendor’s job.” It isn’t.