Enterprising Canadian printer releases Docket Manager print management system in U.S.A.

Chock another one up to Canadian ingenuity:  Mark Darling (left), who with his wife Deborah owns Track21 Graphix Inc., an Ontario printing company, has just released Docket Manager, their relatively new, Web-based print-management and estimating system, in the United States.  The announcement of this international development came at the first annual conference of the National Print Owners Association (NPOA), now taking place in New Orleans.  Currently more than 30 companies in Canada use the Docket Manager system. 

The Darlings say it works because it was created by print shop owners for print shop owners.  According to a news release dated yesterday, Mr. Darling began developing the system in 1999 after he couldn’t find a sales-and-database-driven equivalent that would fit the needs of his own company and be scalable to today’s Web-connected mobile devices.  Docket Manager is platform agnostic and runs on any computer or mobile gadget with a browser, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

The news release also quotes the Darlings as saying:

“We wanted a very open system that would be friendly to other systems.  [It] had to be fast, it had to be scalable, it had to be able to easily integrate with external systems such as CRM, accounting,  company Websites, Web-2-print, workflow,  imposition, social media, e-mail marketing, and preflight, to name a few.”

"We therefore built the system in a .NET/SQL framework.   We purposely avoided technologies like Flash that have proven to be a problem with mobile devices.”

“After we integrated Docket Manager, we actually went from 10 employees down to 4 employees and amazingly increased our productivity and reduced waste. Other users have shared similar experience regarding the ability to reduce staff after the implementation of the Docket Manager system.”

Besides continuing to grow their customer base in Canada, the Darlings will now also be expanding into the U.S. market through a new partner, Chuck Lobaugh (right), a fellow print-shop owner of Curry Printing in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  Their Canadian headquarters is is located in Dashwood, Ontario, approximately 50 kilometers northwest of London, near the resort village of Grand Bend.

MyPrintResource.com has reproduced their entire news release at: http://www.myprintresource.com/product/10924411/docket-manager-docket-manager

http://www.docketmanager.ca/

http://www.track21.ca/
http://curryprintinghhi.com/

http://graphicartsmag.com/articles/2013/03/the-wonders-of-workflow/

Update on the current state of trade associations

 Although 2013 is still young, one of this year’s most remarkable stories has been the sudden birth of the U.S.-based National Print Owners Association, Inc. (NPOA).  When the status quo failed to meet the needs of 19 small-business entrepreneurs, they launched their own self-support initiative—and in the process have ended up helping a lot of other printers as well.

 

Their resulting dialogues have also helped to clarify what many printers need, want, and expect from a trade association these days.

To date, by my reckoning, NPOA's achievements include 261 association members in five countries, a growing roster of membership benefits, a very active LinkedIn discussion group with 374 participants, and a sold-out April conference in New Orleans.   

Recently three of NPOA’s officers, President Jace Prejean (left), Treasurer John Henry (top right), and Conference Co-Chair / LinkedIn moderator Scott Cappel (bottom right), weighed in with me in detail on these recent developments.  My report of our discussions is available at:  https://www.box.com/s/1q8sm8r949s6m26zv67b

For further information:

http://www.printowners.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTnllmBGcWc

http://vicg8.blogspot.ca/2013/01/new-us-association-for-small-and-medium.html

http://www.myprintresource.com/article/10853083/national-print-owners-association-takes-root

http://whattheythink.com/articles/61618-national-printowners-association-launched/

http://industryanalysts.com/w/2013/01/11/veteran-printers-unite-to-create-new-national-printing-association/

CPIA faces uncertain future after CPISC closure

On 22 March 2013, the Canadian Printing Industries Sector Council (CPISC) in Ottawa closed down, after the Canadian federal government terminated its core funding (along with funding for all Sector Councils.)  CPISC’s Website will be operational until the end of June 2013.  The HR resources CPISC developed will be transferred to and maintained by the Canadian Printing Industries Association (CPIA, also based in Ottawa.)

In 2012, CPISC had announced plans to form a new national association, called Printing Industries of Canada (PIC), by amalgamating with CPIA. However, a statement issued this month by Sandy Stephens, chair of CPIA’s board, said the demise of CPISC has rendered the future of PIA uncertain. 

CPIA’s related scholarship trust, (the Canadian Printing Industries Scholarship Trust Fund, CPISTF, that provides scholarships to students in post-secondary graphic communications programs in Canada) has always been a separate legal entity from both CPISC and CPIA.  Accordingly, CPISTF Chair Don Gain has confirmed that CPISTF will remain viable for those students already supported and to new students for the upcoming 2013/14 school year.

http://www.printaction.com/News/20130312-cpia-pic.html

http://www.printaction.com/News/20130305-cpistf.html

http://www.printcan.com/news/2013/20130312714.shtml

http://www.printaction.com/News/20121126-pic.html

http://www.printaction.com/News/20121102-cpia-cpisc.html

http://www.printaction.com/News/20120321-cpia-cpisc.html

http://www.cpisc-csic.ca/eng/index.cfm

http://www.cpia-aci.ca/home/index_e.php