i-grafix.com

IT 
Roper is not just another print management company. The Auckland-based business has a reputation for using technology to take it to new levels. Roper is truly a unique company. As a print management company using a print MIS, they are unusual enough, but they were also the first user of TharsternSQL’s e-commerce solution. Clearly, technology has played a central role in Roper’s success since its beginnings in the early 1980s.

Gary Roper, who started the company 24 years ago, has developed a reputation for adopting technology to give his business an edge as soon as it became available.

The fact that Roper provides customer-centric print solutions across all print categories with literally hundreds of user locations across New Zealand using a print MIS is testament to the flexibility of the product. The Roper solution centres on having a job/accounts/reporting management system fully integrated into the TharsternSQL online e-commerce solution, e4print.

e4print is the second generation web-based solution that replaces the older product, Customer Online. The engine behind this comprises of several modules of the TharsternSQL MIS, sold and installed by Mosaic.

Three years ago, Roper was the first company in NZ to adopt the TharsternSQL e4print module.

From the outset, the team using the products and bringing customers online, could see that TharsternSQL was going to carve them a unique position in the marketplace. After the system was setup it immediately generated more business through automated processes that meant that the staff at Roper were able to
provide higher service levels to our customers while reducing Total Cost of Ownership, with the transparent model for Roper and their customers.

Customers are able to log in on-line and create RFQ (Request for Quotes), track orders, see stock levels, create artwork online, pull off customised reports, view invoice histories, receive goods online and email account managers about specific items. With secure log-ins and user-defined settings, orders can also go through multiple approval processes to conform to the processes expected within many corporate organisations.

Roper attribute their success partly to the early adoption of the technology; to the hard work of the team at Roper to configure the product to match their business requirements and those of their customers; and to a close relationship and good communication with Mosaic.

“When we investigated the TharsternSQL solution, we knew this was the best solution in the market, that we should get into it immediately,” says Rachel Arlidge, Roper general manager. “Roper installed the Tharstern solution two months after we first saw it.

“We believe by moving quickly we could provide the right solution to our customers. Waiting was not an option. By bringing this level of technology to our customers, we had immediately set ourselves apart. We built huge customer loyalty but more importantly created new business with creative solutions to our customers’ requirements.

“Creating our own software was never an option. We’ve seen others do that and fail. Becoming a Tharstern customer provides us with up to minute R&D, utilising the IP and stability of multiple users using the product around the world, with low support fees compared to developing and maintaining our own software,
so the solution we have today is another leap ahead of the one we started out with.

“TharsternSQL isn’t a ‘technology liability’ that we have to continue
to pour funds into to try and keep ahead. We are constantly delivered innovations and have directly contributed to product improvements ourselves, by putting forward suggestions that Mosaic channeled back to the development team in
the UK.”

Arlidge says that the decision to put in an MIS in the first place was based around customers and for the benefits those customers can gain from online access to Roper’s services.

As a print management company using an MIS, it wasn’t simply a matter of plug and play for Roper. There was considerable work that needed to be done in order to ensure a good fit between Roper and the MIS, and Arlidge says that Mosaic came up with the solution that made it all possible and made Roper the first print management company in the world to use the TharsternSQL solution.

“Mosaic have been very proactive in helping us to push the system to the limit to provide services to customers.”

The fluid and dynamic nature of Roper’s operation meant that Tharstern had to be prepared to work quickly and ensure the system fitted in straight away. It was not a problem, according to Arlidge.

Easy set-up
Compared to the competition, Tharstern is very easy to set up and manage internally. It is not a complicated MIS. It has a very clear logical flow. If you’re logical in your thinking, then it’s very easy to work with. We’ve had new staff join us since we installed TharsternSQL and we only have to give them one day’s training and they’re straight into it.

“It’s a very easy user interface if you’re familiar with Windows. It has a very flat, very simple structure. You don’t have to continually drill down to get useful information. It’s all right there and it’s very simple.”

Arlidge says that, overall, TharsternSQL has made a major difference to Roper’s business: “It has reduced our costs dramatically and has meant that we can buy much better for our customers and allow us to pass those savings on, so that everybody benefits.

“Roper are constantly challenging, improving and leveraging supply chain relationships, with a clear focus on continual improvements within the IT and online procurement models, ensuring value added solutions.”