Browning Communications
Client Business
Browning Communications provides quality, full-color printing services coupled with attentive, professional sales and customer service, culminating in a state-of-the-industry printing source serving Central Florida. Browning Communications strives to deliver the highest quality products possible to enable their clients to reach their goals and objectives.
Browning Communications offers a full range of services, including not only high-quality printing, but also layout, design and photography. Clients can choose to provide their own art and layout, which they can submit to Browning Communications for printing, or the company can service a full printing project from conception to implementation.
Business Challenge
Browning Communications was already using FileMaker to collect and store information about customers and print jobs. However their solutions did not leverage the capabilities of FileMaker, especially the newer capabilities of more recent versions.
The solution, while adequate for day-to-day operations, did not allow for easy user training, quick retrieval of data for reporting or significant security. Simple changes, such as adding new users, adding new services, or changing prices required the help of a developer, since there was no easy way for a user to change these items. The solution was also inadequate for print jobs that had multiple parts, such as when a job included a cover and pages that would be printed separately, or included other parts such as an insert or wraparound.
Solution Provided
Extensitech created and implemented an extensible business solution, called xPress. The xPress solution is a robust, fully relational, more extensible system. xPress incorporates all the operational functionality found in the legacy system but also integrates other functional areas such as sales and customer relationship management. The solution also provides a foundation for additional functionality in the future, including accounting and inventory.
When defining a job in xPress, the user can identify different elements, such as a cover and pages that may have completely different printing requirements. For each of the elements, the system assists the estimator in determining factors like the number up, the number out, the number of plates, the number of make-readies, the best press for printing the element, and so forth. Once a quote is accepted and the job is released to production, the system automatically creates and assigns the various required steps to the appropriate departments for scheduling and processing.
In xPress, an administrative user can add users and add or update the company’s service offerings. An estimator can create quotation templates for easy re-use. Salespeople can enter their sales orders directly into the system, eliminating redundant, error-prone data re-entry.
The xPress solution gave Browning the ability to more clearly define a print job and to schedule and track production. Administrative screens allow management to update information that changes frequently, like users and service offerings, so that the solution can keep up with Browning Communications’ anticipated growth.
Browning Communications has recently been changed to Browning Marketing Services. Under the new ownership, Browning Marketing Services is no longer using the Extensitech database.
