Make-Or-Break Factors - When Considering Estimating SoftwareWritten by Danny Tangredi
For quick printers, estimating can prove to be a major factor in success or failure of their business. When a customer requests a bid on a job, they need a fast turnaround, and best price. For a printer, there are two important issues; first of course is price and second profit. If they price a job too high they might miss out on getting job, and if they price it too low, this starts cutting into their potential profits. Estimating software is a tool that helps eliminate this margin for error and make every printer's job easier. This ease is why estimating software is becoming an integral part for many companies in printing and graphics industry. But what type of estimating software should a printer look for? With so many different companies selling estimating software it can become difficult to find a solution that is right one. For this reason Cyrious Software has taken on role of business software consultants rather then focusing strictly on selling. When looking for a business management and estimating solution, ability of a company to consult and guide you to correct solution, be it theirs or someone else’s, should be a major deciding factor. If a software company isn’t willing to work to find a solution that specifically fits their business, it might be wise to find a different company to do business with. Estimating software can range from a simple estimating calculator package, to a complete powerful, integrated estimating, job tracking & business management system, like Cyrious Software. The difficulty is figuring out which system is right for your business. How Much & For What Companies should look at money spent on estimating/business management software, as an investment and not an expense. Most complete software systems range from about $2,000 all way up to $14,000 depending on number of licenses, modules and different customizations. This somewhat large investment makes it vital for printers to find a system that they can not only use to increase profits and save time, but also one they have ability to continue to grow with. Many printers are looking for a system that not only has ability to estimate, job track, and do invoicing but also has ability to export to accounting packages, create reports, manage their customer base, and expand their business through target marketing. Because not all estimating software packages have this complete business management functionality, printers and similar businesses need to make sure estimating software they choose has functionality they need (i.e. Customer Management Tools, Marketing Tools, Shipping & Credit Card Integration) The last thing a company needs is to buy additional software after initial investment. Another aspect to consider when searching for a software package is accuracy it provides. Accuracy is one of most important features to look for in estimating software. The price of using inaccurate information can add up and become extremely detrimental to a business. Accuracy in estimating software depends on ability to customize software to fit printers pricing. With Cyrious Software, your pricing & cost structure is customized and built into software making it virtually impossible to have inaccurate estimates.
| | What Everybody Should Know about an Inkjet Printer: The One-Year Cost of PrintingWritten by Larry Andrew
You can purchase an inkjet printer for as little as $39. With a rebate, it may even be less. Not many people would argue about good deal they got when they purchased their printer. However, purchase price of an inkjet printer really doesn’t tell you much about your cost of printing. After all, you do need paper and inkjet cartridges to keep your printer printing. If you go to a local car lot and look at sticker price of a car, you’d see some of following items: base price of car, cost for each additional feature or package, number of miles per gallon for both city and road, and cost of gasoline for one year under normal driving conditions. What if you got this same type of information for your printer? Would you still buy same inkjet printer? How would you feel if you knew you would pay more for gas and oil, in first year you owned your car, than you paid for car? Well fact is, unless you do very little printing, you will pay more for your paper and inkjet cartridges in first year than you will pay for your inkjet printer. This is especially true for low cost inkjet printers. In some cases, cost of one inkjet cartridge is more than entire purchase price of an inkjet printer. If you look at an inkjet printer advertisement, you’d learn about some of following items: number of pages printed per minute in text and color, time to print a certain size photo in black and white or color, number of inkjet cartridges or tanks printer holds, near perfect quality of photo reproduction, outstanding resolution you’ll get from (so many) inkjet nozzles and a packaging list of items that come in box when you purchase it. However, in most inkjet printer advertisements, you will not see cost of premium paper needed to achieve that outstanding photo reproduction. The replacement cost for a black or color inkjet cartridge is nowhere to be found. About only thing you will see with a dollar sign is low purchase price of printer and possibly rebate. (They also don’t tell you all steps you have to follow to get your rebate and how it may prevent you from returning printer to store if something unexpected happened… but that’s another story.) Now, if you look at some of most popular inkjet printers, here’s what you will find about their inkjet cartridges. On average, a black inkjet cartridge costs between $22 and $30 to replace. A color printer cartridge normally runs between $35 and $60, depending on size.
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