technology to set you free

MARKET LEADER IN MIS PRINT SOLUTIONS

TECHNOLOGYTO SET YOU

FREEMANAGEMENT INFORMATION & WORKFLOWSOLUTIONS TO THE GLOBAL PRINTING INDUSTRY

Tharstern Main Brochure US_Layout 1 04/09/2015 17:20

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WE ARE THARSTERN

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We are a market leading soﬞware company providing Management Information Systems to the printing, packaging and label industries.

Our MIS solutions are used at nearly 700 sites and by more than 7,000 users worldwide. That’s why we put our customers first in everything we do - our products, our service, our support.


The Tharstern MIS is a fully integratedand modular Management Information

System that can be tailored to yourproduction workflow.

Our soﬞware has been driven andshaped by new technologies, changingtrends and user feedback to develop apowerful and comprehensive MIS that

can benefit your business from theonset and into the future.

OUR SOFTWARE

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WHO WE HELP

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PRINTING

Printers are operating in highly competitive market conditions and have been facing increasing pressure for the past decade.Our customers are now looking for ways to meet the increaseddemands for lower cost, quicker jobs and differentiate themselvesfrom the competition. We help them:

• Increase profits with accurate job costing and analysis tools

• Provide fast turnaroundsby streamlining their production workflow

• Stand out from the crowd by providing added value to their customers

LABELS

Label companies have unique specifications, workflows andstandards to the rest of the printing industry and are looking for someone who speaks their language. Like any print company,they’re looking to increase profit margins and drive more salesthrough their business, but they also have needs more specific to their industry:

• Drive sales by increasing $ spend per customer and targeting new sales

• Be quality-driven increased automation reduces manual errors

• Increase efficiencies by speeding up label production processes


CRMManage your interactions withprospects and customers.

• Get to know your customersGet more insight into your customers by viewing all customer and contact data in one central dashboard

• Identify profitable trendsAnalyse customer buying trends and highlight future sales opportunities

• Increase salesCreate targeted marketing campaigns based on customer trends and preferences and analyse ROI

• Empower your sales teamGive your sales team access to customer data on-the-go, including current and past estimates and orders

The Tharstern CRM has been designed specifically for printing companies and provides your Sales and Customer Service teams with access to valuable data, whether they’re in the office or out on the road.

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“Our sales, marketing andproductivity activities are

now much moretransparent.”

Paul Wilson, Financial Director, Nuffield Press.


• Easy to useOur user friendly interface requires minimal training, even for new staff

• Quickly create quotes Quickly and easily create production-ready quotes using templates

• Compare production costsInstantly compare costs and pricing between different methods of production

• Select best marginSelect from multiple solutions including best price and best margin

Our intelligent print estimating tool gives you confidence that you’re producing the best possible quote based on different production routes, processes and margins. The module supports all the major

disciplines of print including offset, digital, large format, continuous wide format and flexo.

ESTIMATINGQuickly and easily createbest margin quotes.

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"Margins on print work aretight as they are and I wonderhow other printers who don’t

have Tharstern get by.Without it we wouldn’t beable to do what we do.”

Keiran Bayley, Addo Printing.


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JOB MANAGEMENTKeep track of all aspects of a manufactured job.

• Increase profit margins Accurately calculate job costings to identify the most profitable jobs or customers

• Increase visibility of your businessSee where any job is at any time without leaving your office

• Save time with automated data capture Track proofs and capture shop floor data, enabling you to analyse labour and machine efficiencies

• Accelerate your workflowReceive alerts about missed milestones and the resulting consequences, enabling you to quickly get things back on track

The job management module is a central hub that captures and displays all information about a job. Your whole team will be able to view job components and production processes and instantly see where any job is in the production workflow at any time.

“Tharstern has helped the APSGroup to improve profits through

cost savings and recovery,improved productivity andstreamlined our workflows.”

APS Group.


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• Reduce administrationMaterial requisitions and outwork purchase orders are automatically created

• Save time and moneyGroup multiple purchase orders together. Any savings from bulk discounts are automatically apportioned back to each job

• Streamline your workflowStock levels are monitored and automatic replenishment orders are produced

• Reduce risk Set purchase authorization levels based on users, product types and services

Our purchasing module allows you to easily manage your purchases from within your MIS, puּמing you in control of the production and purchasing cycle and helping to reduce administration and production overheads.

PURCHASINGManage your supply chainand keep your productionworkflow on track.

“We now have real timeinformation at our fingertipsthat allows us to track andtrace the progress of sales

and purchase orders as theymove through the system.”

Nuprint.


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PRODUCTIONEmpower your planners with fullcontrol of your production capabilities.

• Identify problem areasUse ‘what if” and “what happened” analysis to compare actual production activity to planned activity

• Streamline your workflowMake every job workflow a smooth one by clearly identifying operations that are dependent on external events

• Increase visibility of your businessGet automated real-time feedback for up-to-the-minute job tracking

• Improve efficienciesJobs are automatically placed into the workflow based on the most efficient use of available resources

The production module gives you full control of production scheduling throughout your workflow, enabling your team to manage delivery deadlines, optimize capacity and react to ever-changing demands and priorities.

“Staff and machine performancecan be monitored and work

scheduled with ease. Tharsternhas worked with us all the wayto tailor the system and provide

the management informationand reports that we require.”

Nuprint.


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• Increase revenue per customerManage all the logistics of your customers’ inventory, including non-manufactured and bought-in items

• Optimize staff timeWith automated instructions for the pick, pack, assembly and dispatch of orders, including packs with sub-components

• Save timeBarcode readers speed up the pick and pack process

• Reduce adminThe kiּמing feature identifies external materials and checks stock levels, creates purchase orders and allocates required stock to the order

Our fulfillment module pulls together all aspects of production, storage, kiּמing and distribution to streamline your order processing workflow. Job bags, purchase requisitions and picking lists are automatically created depending on

the type of item ordered, meaning you can manage all types of stock requirements including outsourced items.

FULFILLMENTSpeed up your orderprocessing anddispatch workflow.

“With around 5,000 stocklines it’s essential that we

have a fully integratedsystem which keeps ouradministration time to

a minimum.”Kingsway Printers.


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INVENTORYHave the right balance of stock inthe right place, at the right time.

• Improve customer experienceTrack and locate stock over multiple locations and deliver real time movement analysis, financial details and trend information to your customers

• Increase efficiencyUse barcodes to manage goods in, picking, bin movements and stock checks from a single mobile device

• Free up capitalEfficient stock control means unnecessary capital is not tied up

• Reduce riskGet an extensive audit trail of receipt, allocation, issuing, movement and adjustment of stock

The Inventory module works together with the Purchasing module to offer a real-time facility for managing both finished goods and raw materials. The multi-location stock feature allows you to quickly and easily

manage inventory in multiple locations from a single dashboard.

“With Tharstern we’veeliminated human error and

improved control andefficiency without the needfor additional resources inour warehouse. By being

able to offer a turnkey stockmanagement service we‘ve

won new contracts andalready increased our

turnover by £200,000.”Craig Morris, Managing Director, Ortek.


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• Reduce adminStreamline sales and purchase ledger activity with dynamic nominal assignment and automated posting routines

• Reduce riskPowerful credit control integration performs credit limit checks and status against WIP

• Improve data securityMulti-level access rights and batch processing facilities for speedy processing

• Increase visibilityGain insight across all production processes using category based sales ledger posting

Tharstern offers seamless integration into not only the market leading Sage management accounts solutions but also enterprise level packages built on MicrosoﬞTM SQL Server. Accounts on hold or over credit limit are flagged and require validation at

key stages of production e.g. estimate generation. Sales and Use tax is fully supported by the Tharstern MIS.

FINANCIALSAchieve financialcontrol with seamlessaccounts integration.

“The integration with Sageis fantastic and has been a

real benefit for us.”David Jackson, Your Print Solutions.


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BUSINESSINTELLIGENCEUnderstand and manageyour business beּמer.

• Make beּמer decisionsGain insight into your business with tactical dashboards to monitor and analyse departmental processes in real-time

• Gain insight With operational dashboards to track and monitor operational processes

• Improve performanceStrategic scorecards help you manage the execution of business objectives

• Increase qualityCollating data into one central dashboard or report highlights any problem areas within your business

The Business Intelligence module is a dynamic reporting and dashboard tool that delivers critical at-a-glance information. It proves you with the ability to track Key Performance Indicators and communicate and align strategies across the business.

“We now have a KPI forevery aspect of the business

- I don’t think there’sanother MIS that would

work as well!” Harlow Printing.


WHY THARSTERN?

WE’RE NUMBER ONE

We’re a global market leader and number one inthe UK with more installations than any other UKprint MIS provider.

WE’RE INTEGRATION NINJAS

We’re the experts in integrated workflows andwe’ve been riding the JDF wave from the verybeginning. We’re the only MIS provider who has.

WE’RE GOOD LISTENERS

We listen to our customers, find out what problemsthey’re facing and develop soﬞware to help solvethese problems.

WE’RE EDUCATORS

We like to share our knowledge and we’ve built adedicated online portal to do this. On this portal weprovide our customers with educational contentthat helps them use print technology to its fullpotential, MIS or otherwise.

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We don’t mean to brag but we’re the experts in Mis integration. We have lots of experiencemaking inanimate objects talk to each other and we’re really very good at it. if your hardwareand soﬞware speaks JDF, CsV or XML, our integration experts can integrate it all together in

one automated workflow that will remove many of your existing touchpoints.

INTEGRATION, INTEGRATION, INTEGRATION.

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OPEN API

our APi has been built to be friendly to other soﬞware providers and developers. by making it possible for other applicationsto share data with our Mis and to takeactions on its behalf (and vice versa), our customers know that however theirbusiness develops in the future, their Mis can grow with them.

WEB TO PRINT

Having an open APi also means that we can integrate with leading web-to-printproviders such as Pageflex, Kodak storefrontand Apogee storefront or even any home-grown alternatives.

ACCOUNTS INTEGRATION

We also integrate with leading providers such as Quickbooks, sage and all generic sQL based accounts links that, with theappropriate consultancy, can work with many sQL based accounting solutions.

Press Pre-Press CAD ACCounts Web2Print


We’re very passionate about printing– it’s the industry from which ourcompany was created, where manyof our staff have worked and whereour family and friends still do. Sowe’ll always work our hardest toprotect and promote it.

We’ve been around since 1984 andwe intend to be around for a lotlonger. In 2014, Tharstern wasbought in a management buy-outfrom the family of the originalfounder, a move which providesreassurance about our commitmentto their business and to the industryin general – they know that wereally are in it for the long haul.

WE’RE IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL

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DEVELOPMENT

We pride ourselves on being aprofitable company because this means that we can reinvestthese profits in the continuousdevelopment of our soﬞware andprovide our customers with newand exciting features year-round.

And we don’t take developmentdecisions lightly – we’repassionate about making sure oursoﬞware solves real problems forour customers. So we activelyseek feedback from user groupmeetings and focus groups tohelp us understand what theseproblems and priorities are. Wethen take this insight and use itto plan future development.

SUPPORT

Our support team work reallyhard to provide fast and effectiveresponses to all helpdeskrequests. They’re experts on howto get the best out of our productand are on hand every Monday toFriday (excluding Bank Holidays)from 8.30am until 6pm.

CUSTOMER EVENTS

Being a Tharstern user meansbeing part of an exclusive club of innovative, tech-savvy printprofessionals. Through regularevents we harness thisinnovation and experience and create forums for ourcustomers to share best practice and discuss futuredevelopment ideas.

We also provide regularopportunities to meet theTharstern team, find out aboutnew developments and aּמenddrop-in support clinics.

RESOURCES

Our mission is to provideoutstanding information to our customers in the printing,packaging and label industries.Information that will enable you to make strategic decisions,allocate resources and focus you choices.

It’s true that our soﬞware doesall of this, but we don’t stopthere. So that we can expandour industry support to all thingstechnological (and not just MISbased) we’ve also created anonline Resource Centre that’sfilled with all sorts of incrediblegoodies including white papers,user guides, training materialsand online tutorial videos. Visitwww.tharstern.com/resourcesand see for yourself.

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"The technical team are fantastic.There’s always someone available

to answer any questions andsolve my problems.”

Maּמ, Hesketh Press.

"I find the help desk guys very pleasant to deal with.”Graham, Scarbuּמs.


In case you haven't noticed yet,we're preּמy fantastic. But don'tjust take our word for it, have alook at what our customers haveto say about us and what we’vehelped them achieve.

CASE STUDIES

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“We have a KPI for every aspect of thebusiness, we can check how many proofs

were supplied, how many days a job was inproduction, how many may have beendelayed. I don’t think there’s another

MIS that would work as well.”Harlow Printing.


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HARLOW PRINTING

Harlow Printing are commercial printers with two production facilitiesand a 35,000 sq. ﬞ. warehouse.

The problem• The company was growing and their home-grown

MIS was struggling to keep up• They needed to manage 7,000 stock lines and dispatch

around 6,000 parcels every month• They were initially running their storage and distribution centre

through a manual system which created an expensive paper trail• Harlow needed to give customers full visibility and

the ability to transact 24/7

How we helped• Automatic generation of documentation reduced

admin and saved time• Barcode tracking system added further efficiencies• Replaced the existing T card based planning board with

scheduling soﬞware to provide production efficiencies• Reduced errors with a high pick accuracy

(current error rate is just 0.1%)• Full management of the business from initial inquiry to delivery

ELEPHANT PRINT & DISPLAY

Elephant Print and Display offer large format, short run digital printingwith in-house finishing capabilities to a varied customer base acrossthe country, including trade, design agencies and print managementcompanies.

The problem• Elephant Print and Display were running business administration

through an accounts package and a mixture of manual processes and FileMaker databases

• Their workload was growing and they’d identified business administration as a potential barrier for growth

• The company were spending weekends manually re-keying information into their accounts package to get invoices out of the door

How we helped• Integration to Sage accounts means they can now invoice every day

– so no need for invoicing at weekends anymore!• All jobs now run through the MIS – from quoting and order

processing to dispatch and invoicing • All business admin information is now available in real time

“Tharstern has allowed us to compete, as speed is a big part of being competitive today.”


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CESTRIAN

Since purchasing their first digital machine back in 1994 Cestrian arenow 100% digital and specialize in retail, outdoor, exhibitions andevents. From their 58,000 sq. ﬞ. facility, they service customers fromall over Europe.

The problem• With a busy printing and production facility handling over

60 jobs per day, Cestrian were geּמing swamped in paperwork • Processing over 200 invoices, delivery notes and purchase orders

manually every week was an essential but time-consuming task• Staff were geּמing behind with their workload, documents weren’t

always filed correctly and month-end was a headache

How we helped• We integrated Cestrian’s document scanning soﬞware

with their MIS solution• Month-end now runs “like a dream”• Essential information is now accessible to any

member of staff electronically• There’s also extra room in the office – the numerous filing

cabinets full of paperwork are now redundant!• The automated process takes less than half the time

of the previous manual process

“We’ve saved half a salary and cut out a mundane andboring job. So we’ve saved money, staff are happierand the process is faster.”

HARRIER LLC

Harrier LLC is probably best known under the brand name Truprintand is owned by U.S. based company District Photo, one of the largestdirect-to-consumer custom product and photo fulfillment operations inthe world.

The problem• Harrier needed a web-to-print solution that would help manage

the new commercial printing side to their business• The company use seasonal staff so it was important that the

new MIS solution was quick and easy to pick up • Harrier also wanted integration capabilities that would

future-proof their business

How we helped• Harrier can now do over 50 quotes in less than an hour• Costing work is consistent with all sales people giving

the same prices• Their Tharstern MIS now does the work of over 100 people!• Harrier are now confident that their infrastructure and

technology will support them in large scale growth

“Could I imagine life without Tharstern? Yes, but it’snot a place I would ever want to be! Losing our MISwould be like someone losing their smartphone; we’vecome to rely on it completely and would be lostwithout it. We love Tharstern- we love our MIS!”


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“The system paid for itselfwithin a couple of monthsas without it, we’d have

had to employ at least twomore full time staff inadministration roles”.

Keiran Bayley, Managing Director, Addo.

ADDO

Addo Printing are a small but perfectly formed trade printing companyspecializing in producing high quality work for major printmanagement companies, design agencies and print brokers.

The problem• With only 3 staff at the time, the company was finding they weren’t

always able to respond as quickly as they would have liked • Estimating was being worked out on paper which was

time consuming and ineffective • Staff were only able to process on average 8 -10 quotes per day• Invoices were not going out as quickly as they would have liked

How we helped• The ability to produce estimates quickly and accurately

has been invaluable• Addo are now able to process 300% more estimates every day• They are able to respond to requests for quotes within the hour

and believe they’re winning a lot of work due to the fact they’re oﬞen the first printer to come back with a price

• Invoices are generated at the touch of a buּמon• They can now see a full overview of what’s going on in

the business at a glance

YOUR PRINT SOLUTION

Your Print Solution are digital printers based in High Wycombe andoffer printing, design and web-to-print services. Their impressive list ofclients includes Twentieth Century Fox, YMCA and Wimpy.

The problem• The company was using two systems to process orders

– Storefront for their web-to-print orders and the MIS for the rest • Too much time was being spent re-keying information

from Storefront to the MIS• With around 300 jobs passing through the production workflow

every month, it was vital that Your Print Solution could achieve full MIS to web-to-print integration

How we helped• 2 days a month saved on administration• One MIS manages web2print and traditional work flow• A more transparent production process• Reduction in errors• No more missed jobs

“Our new integrated system has made everything somuch easier. We can now see exactly what’s going onand make sure everything is invoiced at month end.”


MARKET LEADER IN MIS PRINT SOLUTIONS

[email protected]


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