Our entire sales approach is now based on the ways in which MIS can help improve our customer's service and, by extension, generate revenue. Customer relationship management is at the core of this philosophy. Even if you don't think you need MIS, my advice is that you should still ask your staff about how they feel that CRM works in your business? You might be surprised by what you lind.

A printer, of whatever size, has four assets that are essential to its existence: customers, employees, leadership and machines.

Depending on the management guru you favour, the prioritisation of these will differ. Just like the chicken and the egg, it can be hard to imagine one without the other or indeed which should come first.

One thing is certain, however. A business that places the customer at the centre of everything will have a greater chance of survival in tough times and real prosperity when things begin to look up. It comes down to understanding and delivering what the customer wants and this is where MIS can help you.

A well-implemented management system can bring consistency, accuracy and knowledge to every single transaction.

The best systems will offer a centralised database that will become the very heart of your business, bringing control and accountability to sales prospecting, estimating, purchasing, production, invoicing, complaint handling and the myriad other administrative tasks that accompany the handling of accounts.

Nowadays, all of these tasks are unified under the term customer relationship management (CRM) which touches every aspect of your business and, by definition, must be a central component of any MIS. As internal customer service executives or account handlers start to assume more responsibility for the overall processing of any given job, it is critical they have access to all the up-todate and relevant information on every quote or job.

This can only be achieved with an integrated software solution that can gather all job related data and present it as and when required.

Our entire sales approach is now based on the ways in which MIS can help improve our customer's service and, by extension, generate revenue. Customer relationship management is at the core of this philosophy. Even if you don't think you need MIS, my advice is that you should still ask your staff about how they feel that CRM works in your business? You might be surprised by what you lind.