To the outsider, it used to look like a black art: scribblings on the back of cigarette packets, tight, illegible handwriting in day books, prices plucked seemingly from nowhere and the minutiae of a job stored only in the deep recesses of the print boss’s brain.
But then MIS came and demystified the process, displaying that business minutiae in charts, tables and graphs for all to understand, and breaking down quotes to the smallest quantum of cost. Computers took over – and not just in the estimating department, every facet of a print business could be broken down into binary code and calculated with cold, electronic precision. Massive benefits were accrued as a result; so much so that it is now commonly held that for all but the very smallest print businesses, an MIS is an essential business tool.