In our rush to be optimally efficient we try to standardize our processes at the expense of tailoring our products and services to our customers. Not surprisingly I want to talk about the implementation process of Print MIS/ERP solutions. This topic seems to never leave my mind because it literally causes so many people so much frustration that it continues to be worth talking about.

In the last few months, I have personally heard the following feedback about Print MIS/ERP implementations across many vendor platforms from printers who are in the middle of them or just completed them.

As Print MIS/ERP solutions mature, they gather so many features from so many customers. Customers use software in wildly different ways. For those of you who have spent all your time inside print businesses, you would be amazed at the different interpretations that very similar businesses take on software utilization. A single field can be used in so many ways. Some printers stick to the original intent of the software, others try to flex it to fit their existing processes, and still others try to do surgery on the software to bend it to their will.