UniGraphic Uses Top Technology To Lead Industry
Amid the fierce competition of the New England and New York prepress and printing industry, UniGraphic Inc., a $16 million company, has made their name by offering professional service and high-quality work for some of the largest companies around. Founded in 1963 as a prepress operation, UniGraphic currently processes 12 to 14 thousand jobs per year for ad agencies, packaging and catalog companies, and corporations. How full-service is UniGraphic? They have the capacity to provide design, prepress, printing, coating, and bindery services for their clients.
UniGraphic insists on staying on the leading edge of technology. According to VP of Operations Bob Valeri, "It is vital for a company's equipment, whether hardware or software, to keep up with the changing demands of the industry."
But all of this technology is simply a means to an end, according to Valeri. UniGraphic employees never forget that their main emphasis is on providing quality service to the clients. "We use the best technology," says Valeri, "to accommodate the client's needs, which often includes a very tight schedule. The key, however, is not compromising quality for speed." UniGraphic purchased MetaCommunications' Virtual Ticket and Job Manager for this very reason.
Over the last five years, management at UniGraphic has seen their industry change in dramatic and demanding ways. The Macintosh grew as the platform of choice for graphic arts, and printers and prepress companies found themselves working closer than ever with their clients. The most dramatic change, however, was the introduction of digital asset management. UniGraphic Inc. found themselves in need of an electronic job ticketing and management system that could keep up with their flexible workflow. Valeri puts it this way: "With four primary types of customers, we find ourselves needing at least four primary workflows. We tailor our workflows to the client, and we need versatile software to meet those demands."
Enter MetaCommunications' Virtual Ticket and Job Manager software products. UniGraphic Inc. looked into every job management/ticketing software package they could find; all of them were lacking in any number of areas. Most were either too rigid, making the user conform their workflow to the system, or offered strictly PC clients, with no cross-platform functionality. For UniGraphic, Virtual Ticket and Job Manager were the lights at the end of the tunnel.
We finally have the ability for real job tracking against a multiple workflow shop with impossible schedules.
Bob Valeri, VP of Operations
Virtual Ticket and Job Manager are everything UniGraphic's old system was not. Both products fit into the workflow at every step of the process: job entry and ticketing, job scheduling, tracking, costing, and billing. UniGraphic has been able to completely recreate their pre-existing job ticket, which meant less time for employees to accommodate themselves to the system when it was first implemented. The versatility of Virtual Ticket's electronic job ticket allows UniGraphic employees to run their company the way they always have, with the confidence that their ticketing system can handle any job-specific changes they need to make.
"The electronic tickets are so easily customizable," remarks Valeri, "that we can quickly make changes to a form, even create a completely new job ticket if we need to, for the non-standard cases that come along."
If customizing job tickets is easy, archiving and attaching digital resources to job tickets at UniGraphic is now almost automatic. No matter where the physical files are located, Virtual Ticket seeks them out, and users can simply drag and drop the files directly onto a new job, including thumbnails and notes right on the electronic or printed ticket. The assets can be managed individually or by folder, and Virtual Ticket keeps track of all the necessary information automatically.
But the most important benefit in Bob Valeri's eyes is the improvement in communication within the company that the MetaCommunications products have allowed. Using less detailed systems, UniGraphic wasn't able in the past to so closely monitor company expenses and employee time. In a company that processes thousands of jobs a month, being able to track one particular job down to the dollar is valuable indeed. Says Valeri, "We finally have the ability for real job tracking against a multiple workflow shop with impossible schedules. With 40+ system users per shift, that is vital."
Job tracking is made even easier by Virtual Ticket's ability to instantly notify the necessary employees of changes or additions made to the system. Notifications can be sent to all UniGraphic employees, a small group, or to just one employee, depending upon the action involved. Virtual Ticket brings the changes to the people at UniGraphic who need to know.
While continuing to expand their commercial printing capability, UniGraphic plans to lead the way for digital asset management on the East Coast. Bob Valeri knows that these goals require efficient, effortless electronic management and ticketing, and he considers MetaCommunications' software to be "the backbone we will build everything off of." For a full-service company like Uni-Graphic Inc. where any two jobs could have widely varying needs, Virtual Ticket and Job Manager are a perfect fit.
