Reprographic
Systems
4.
Decision
The management team spent much of 2000 identifying the various options
and weighing up the pro’s and con’s of introducing the 3
new working practices into the organisation. It was fairly obvious
through increasing pressure from clients that they should progress
with the eProofing program. “We could have lost clients if we
hadn’t put this technology in place”, commented Greene.
A lack of talented operators in the market also made them progress
the option of working remotely with one of their current staff. Following
further consultation internally and attendance at an Enterprise Ireland
sponsored Web Strategy and Design course it was decided that a web
site was not a sound way for the company to proceed. The management
team came to this decision for a number of reasons:
- In
reprographics, it was difficult to set up one standard template
(or even set of templates) as no two jobs were ever the same.
- The
company had a varied mix of clients from large organisations to
small printers, not all of whom had access to the Internet .
- The
company had a small client base and a web site seemed inappropriate
“we didn’t need an info site as all of our customers
knew who we were”.
-
It was likely that a Reprographic Systems’ representative
would have had to have called a client to clarify the order and
it was felt that this negated the benefits of implementing the
system in the first place. In hindsight, the decision not to proceed
with the web site, at a time when they were a corporate ‘must
have’, was the right decision to make.
In
September of 2000 Reprographic Systems secured funding under the
Enterprise Ireland eBusiness Accelerator Fund. Though the management
team was fairly advanced in its plans for the eProofing and eWorking
programs, there had been an investment constraint following the
MBO 2 years previously. The funding from Enterprise Ireland gave
them room to breathe and the funding to fully implement and focus
on the project as it stood.
|
