MIS Applications Update

Greg Garlich, CFO of Garlich Printing, St. Louis, will be accompanied by three of his company's managers when he travels to Las Vegas for Connect 2008 at the end of this month. As recent adopters of EFI's Logic print-management system, the Garlich execs will be among nearly 1,000 EFI customers, partners and suppliers expected at the ninth annual Connect conference.

Beginning July 29 at the Wynn Hotel, the four-day gathering is both the print industry's largest conference and its largest users group. Attendees will learn from the leading innovators who'll share best practices and real-world stories on how they have lowered costs, generated new revenue streams, increase productivity and profits and improve customer satisfaction using EFI business applications..

The theme this year is “Discover, Innovate, Integrate.” In addition to top EFI executives, keynoters include Jacques Mallette, CEO of Montreal-based Quebecor World, covering the trials and successes his firm as it undergoes massive business and operational transformation.

The opening session will feature EFI CEO Guy Gecht presenting his vision of the future for printing businesses. The morning of July 30, EFI general manager Marc Olin will address the industry's successes and challenges of the last year—and unveil EFI's Advanced Professional Print Software roadmap for the coming year. His presentation will include a look at how individual clients have leveraged their business applications software, shop floor data systems and scheduling to take their operations to the next level.

This year's event will feature more personalized education, EFI officials say, consolidating more than 130 hands-on training sessions into the conference, with an emphasis on print-management solutions and related tools. Past attendees requested deeper dives into subject areas, so classes will be longer and will concentrate on more focused topics.

The Connect 2008 schedule also includes more time for the ever-popular computer lab, and to visit and learn in the exhibit hall—and more time to network in a series of product-focused user meetings.

Garlich Printing is a family-owned, 80-year-old sheetfed Heidelberg shop that added an HP Indigo 5000 for variable data 13 months ago. One of its 40´´ Speedmaster presses has hybrid UV capabilities. The company also became FSC certified last July.

The firm went live in December with the latest version of Logic, EFI's SQL-based program for network print management. The software combines the intuitive Windows desktop interface with Microsoft's SQL database management system to achieve high-performance applications that are scalable and secure.

“We use it plant-wide,” Garlich says of EFI Logic, adding that the QuickQuote function has a digital quoting element for the new Indigo press. He has integrated a shipping program from SmartLink, a Milwaukee, WI-based vendor exhibiting at Connect's expo.

After shopping for a year, Garlich picked the brains of some printers at the 13-member Print America, a national peer group. “The guys I talked to gave Logic a good reference,” he says.

Updates on the range of EFI business applications offerings will be presented, from small-shop PrintSmith to PSI for large users.