Southern Graphic Systems Streamlines Order Entry With MetaCommunications' Virtual Ticket
Efficient Manufacturing Order Entry System Benefits Employees, Management and Clients by Speeding Time to Market and Enhancing Customer Service
IOWA CITY, Iowa— August 1, 2005 – MetaCommunications, Inc., a leading developer of business management and workflow solutions for the graphic arts industry, today announced that Southern Graphic Systems, a division of Alcoa, is using its Virtual Ticket™ production platform as the basis for its centralized and common manufacturing order entry system. Virtual Ticket enables Southern Graphic Systems, the leading solutions provider to the graphic arts and packaging printing industries, to speed time to market and enhance customer service for major consumer product companies. MetaCommunications will discuss this and other related case studies September 9-15 in booth #6258 of the Print 05 & Converting conference in Chicago.
Southern Graphic Systems serves multiple markets with diverse needs and requirements. The company is comprised of multiple locations, each with a unique focus and distinct set of clients. Varying legacy systems installed at the company’s twenty eight North American sites made it difficult to effectively centralize, organize and share critical business information across the entire organization. The company sought a solution that could provide a common manufacturing order entry system.
Southern Graphic Systems reviewed all six legacy systems used throughout its locations, including MetaCommunications’ Virtual Ticket. After a thorough assessment, Virtual Ticket, a platform for electronically managing and automating production processes, was selected as the solution of choice. Many factors led to the selection of Virtual Ticket, including MetaCommunications’ solid development and management staff and Southern Graphic Systems' ability to quickly and easily customize the platform to handle the requirements of its different locations, focus areas, markets, and clients. Additionally, MetaCommunications’ JDF-enabled version of Virtual Ticket enables Southern Graphic Systems to share information with other members of its supply chain in a more consistent and timely manner.
“Virtual Ticket’s ability to allow locations to define and store specifications for jobs that are recurring has been key in reducing order entry time and elevating quality,” said Gary Bernier, Corporate Director of Technology & Innovation for Southern Graphic Systems. “Our employees like the very simple and fast order entry system, which has been crucial to gaining acceptance and getting work out. Our management likes it because they get detailed analysis of what occurs in their business. Our clients like it because work is done quickly and accurately. Overall it has been a win-win for everyone.”
Virtual Ticket is a powerful integrated solution that enables organizations to centralize information, eliminate paper job tickets, manage production files, traffic and schedule jobs, notify and alert users to changes in production information, manage digital assets and automatically archive files. Used as a stand-alone system or seamlessly integrated with other management and enterprise software, Virtual Ticket is the only product available today that combines electronic job ticketing, workflow, digital asset management, and archiving in one scalable and customizable production platform.
About Southern Graphic Systems
Southern Graphic Systems, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, supplies photographic
and digital images and manufactures flexographic printing plates and rotogravure
cylinders for the packaging printing industry. The business has grown to more than 30
locations in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Through its growth, Southern
Graphic Systems maintains its dedication to providing exceptional value and service to its
clients and employees.
About Alcoa
Alcoa is the world's leading producer and manager of primary aluminum, fabricated
aluminum and alumina facilities, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa
serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial
transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other
capabilities of Alcoa's businesses to customers. In addition to aluminum products and
components, Alcoa also markets consumer brands including Reynolds Wrap® foils and
plastic wraps, Alcoa® wheels, and Baco® household wraps. Among its other businesses
are vinyl siding, closures, fastening systems, precision castings, and electrical distribution
systems for cars and trucks. The company has 131,000 employees in 43 countries and has
been a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for 45 years and the Dow Jones
Sustainability Indexes since 2001. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com.
About MetaCommunications
MetaCommunications is a leading software developer of workgroup and enterprise business management and workflow solutions for the graphic arts industry. MetaCommunications’ products include Virtual Ticket 6.0, Job Manager 3.5 and Digital Storage Manager. These cross-platform products are customizable and scalable from five-user workgroups to hundreds of users in an enterprise environment. MetaCommunications has more than 750 installations of its software worldwide, helping some of the world’s top creative agencies, corporate marketing groups, printing and prepress firms, and publishers work more efficiently and profitably. MetaCommunications was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa. For more information, please visit http://www.meta-comm.com.
For more information, contact:
Mike Wilson
MetaCommunications
1210 S. Gilbert Street
Iowa City, IA 52240 USA
319-337-8599 x187
mwilson@meta-comm.com
© 2007 MetaCommunications, Inc. All rights reserved. MetaCommunications, the MetaCommunications logo, Approval Manager, Virtual Ticket, JDF Solutions Framework, Digital Storage Manager, and Job Manager are trademarks of MetaCommunications, Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.