“We never updated the manufacturing specifications for our presses when we migrated from Print MIS #1 to Print MIS #2 15 years ago because we were used to seeing the data in a certain way. So we’ve been handicapping our estimates ever since.”

This is a real quote. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this quote. This is a hard quote to start writing about. I’m going to resist my fast twitch reaction to this quote and first explain why it happens. People are busy, and people are under pressure to deliver on the immediate emergencies of getting estimates and jobs out the door for the customer. People get “comfortable” with software performing in a certain way, especially software they use everyday to accomplish their work. With that perspective you can see why a person working in a very busy estimating department at a printer who is going through another Print MIS transition might say they want to not update the press manufacturing specifications again—keep handicapping the estimates moving forward. It’s important to understand their suggestion from their perspective; now it’s time for leadership to step in and make the right decision.

The print estimating process can be the fulcrum on which the profitability of your entire print business rests. I would venture to guess that the best-run estimating departments in the print industry are inside the most profitable printers.