PressWise

PressWise

Pros:

Web-based, multiple users allowed, estimating tool

Cons:

Look of the store-front. Not very professional looking right out of the box.

Life Changing Upgrade for our center

Comments: Excellent - life changing really for our shop. Workflow significantly improved with print files going directly to press, ready and imposed. Has freed up our graphics team to do what they do best, and CSRs have more time to consult with customers versus just keying orders all day long. Support team has been amazing. Everyone is friendly and super responsive. They want to know about problems, issues, or wishes and resolve things quickly. I've never worked with a software company that continuously improves their product the way PressWise does.

Pros:

The estimating system is solid and intuitive. "Favorites" make every day jobs easy to write up. The most impactful parts however, are the asset management, integration with our existing online ordering system, and built in shipping module. Reorders are a breeze. Print files go right to the press device without ever having to touch the prepress department. Online order integration easily saves the work of a full time CSR every day. Ticketless workflow in production has taken our efficiency to the next level.

Cons:

Integration with Quickbooks was new way of doing business for us, but we have adapted. Initially we were missing some information in reports we were used to having on hand, but the PW team helped us develop reports to get us what we needed. Shipping module is really helpful but still waiting on the new version to allow for shipments with multiple boxes per location. This will be another big event for us when released.

Review of PressWise

Comments: We are 50/50. The QB integration is terrible. The ability to manage customer data and our team across multiple locations is very easy.

Pros:

Ability to manage multiple locations, teams, and customer files is very convenient. Our delivery team and customers love the electronic delivery signatures and tracking.

Cons:

Lack of integration with Quickbooks. Full data and descriptions do not import into QB. You only receive a brief line item. Orders are marked closed when data is sent to QB for accurate payment information and recording. The issue is that the order may still be in production and must be reopened. While this is a small step, it's doubling the manual actions needed to complete the order. Implementation was very slow. Even though you can "test", the issues did not show themselves until we jumped into using the software.

Great for Higher Education

Comments: Overall we love presswise. It allowed us to work with fewer staff members and helped make online ordering a breeze for clients.

Pros:

We really enjoy being able to use the system to place our orders and to process the mail list. It allows for the shop to be able to easily and effectively work together.

Cons:

Kitting in the storefront. We would also like certain requests to be taken with more attention. I understand there is a lot of different ways to use the system but we have to create workaround in order for it to work how we want.

Why we changed to PressWise

Comments: overall experience has been great. We procrastinated on our end and it was great having their team nudge us a long to get this software up and going.

Pros:

Being on the cloud has been very useful to our sales and PressWise just fits our shop very well for digital and large format. If you are looking for a system and changing from an old software I would highly recommend PressWise simply how it easy it is to navigate through it coming from an old system.

Cons:

Just like any new change it just took time getting use to. There are some items we liked a little better on our old software, but the pros defiantly out way the cons.

Review of Presswise from a print perspective

Comments: average at best - The support team needs training on customer interaction

Pros:

Favorites - Shipping - Credit Cards - Able to see old files from past orders

Cons:

Not very easy to use - Lots of bugs -Support needs better training on how this system is used in a print environment- The supports does needs to understand that not all problems are black and white - Better integration with Decoration

It's like it was developed by someone who had worked in the print industry ;)

Comments: Very Happy :)

Pros:

The Storefront, the shipping module, the ability to work in multiple windows simultaneously. Top of the list though is their support! Fast and effective response.

Cons:

You need to run a CRM separately. Presswise should partner with a CRM provider and create an all in one Web-to-Print/MIS/CRM system.

Great Production Software

Comments: The touches needed from quote to order to invoicing have decreased substantially. The addition of online storefronts for our clients help keep them engaged with us.

Pros:

We use a lot of features making our day-to-day operations run more effectively. Reporting and admin tools are great.

Cons:

A CRM tool would be great considering all of the client data is in PressWise. Need to make sure the "new" reporting features are all working

As moxy ox has grown, our scaling has been made easier with additional modules offered by PressWise.

Comments: 1 Cost monitoring
2 Order tracking
3 Online customer ordering
4 Daily reporting
5 Sales tracking
6 Inventory control
7 Shipping made easy
8 Auto batching
9 Client correspondence monitoring
10 Major time savings across entire team

Pros:

The fact that PressWise is always moving forward, adding new features and listens to their customers' needs is what keeps me with them. Even when I'm being a pain in the butt customer, I know they would gladly hop on a call to help out or shoot a quick video to step me through a process I can't grasp. My team contacts the PressWise team through the easy ticket system so that I don't have to answer everything for them.

Cons:

Exporting accounting information has been our toughest challenge. Integrating it into the accounting software we were already using. We have created a work around, but still not ideal.

Presswise Review

Pros:

This program has allowed my company to grow rapidly while maintaining a good workflow. Creating accurate estimates and orders is easier to manage and maintain.

Cons:

There are a lot of features, its hard to know how to use all of them.

PressWise is an amazing print management tool for a reasonable price.

Comments: Very good tool, likely the best of its kind offered to the industry.

Pros:

PressWise provides a print management, print scheduler tool that is reasonaby priced.

Cons:

One of the ONLY things we do not enjoy is some of the update pushes are not very well communicated by SmartSoft and cause disruptions and/or API programming link breakage.

Creighton

Comments: We really like it.

Pros:

Extremely easy to use and the support is very good

Cons:

Every time there is and update to the software, it messes up our templates and we have to fix the coding

Solid Tool for Business

Pros:

The commitment to improvement, taking feedback and implementing new features.

Cons:

The inventory system could use some work.

Moved to PressWise after 20 years and never looked back.

Comments: We were on EFI PrintSmith for 20 years and moved to PressWise because we needed more automation. Since the move we have acquired multiple competitors and have successfully converted them from PrintSmith, PrintSmith Vision, PrintersPlan, QuickBooks, and even a place that estimated with a book and a yellow legal pad.

Pros:

PressWise helps manage your process, takes out touchpoints, saves time and money while increasing capacity to do more with less. Quotes with click-to-order buttons. Invoices are downloaded or emailed instantly. Impostion on the fly. Integration with UPS and FEDEX. Team loves it!

Cons:

When there is a con the PressWise Support team is open to listening and with a good enough business case they make the change.

Thumbs Up!

Comments: Love the platform and it has helped us grow the Digital and Wide format side of our business. We are able to process more jobs in an automated workflow in these areas. Also the People! The entire team is great to work with and extremely responsive.

Pros:

PressWise is a extremely flexible solution for Digital Print, Wide Format Printing, and B2B Storefronts. PW has an open source and can push of pull in one direction...

Cons:

Offset Estimating; Job Costing, Job Planning,

Canadian Higher Ed

Comments: Customer support is suberb ... friendly and responsive. Every person we have dealt with has exhibited a genuine desire to help. Their communication systems support that. The team searches out options, is willing to make changes to the system, and will make custom tweaks for a reasonable price. Coming from a poor customer experience with our last MIS, this is one of the main reasons we landed on PressWise and we have not been disappointed.

Pros:

There is an implementation plan that takes the mystery out of getting up and running. The knowledge base is VERY helpful, particularly the many videos. The training and customer support is excellent. The back end is relatively easy to program, very detailed and robust. Taxation is automatically updated and easily programmed. The storefront is customizable and intuitive. The system, when used properly, has solid processes that delivers many, many efficiencies.

Cons:

The system was built to interact with QuickBooks, however, for larger organizations, I would say that the financial reporting is on the weak side. We recognized this in the purchasing process and made the decision to purchase in spite of that because nothing is perfect, and Presswise seemed to offer more of what we wanted relative to other firms. That said, it was fabulous working with our technical liaison, who was very creative in developing a custom export for us to upload to our ERP, at a minimal charge. I also understand that reporting is an area that is being aggressively reviewed and improved.

PressWise System Review

Comments: Vital to our growth and we become more reliant on the software every day!

Pros:

We are a Offset Printing Business and we also do Signs, Banners and Vehicle Graphics the estimating part of PressWise for our business is critical and has made it possible for other members of our Team to generate quotes quickly and accurately. We also are using the Storefront piece of PressWise which we are expecting to be vital in the coming year for our growth in sales and products we offer. Developing Stores for our A+ customers is our goal for this coming year. When Covid restrictions basically stopped 40% of our business in a day since we were using PressWise we were able to change our Marketing Plan quickly and assist our customers in adapting and complying with regulations. We were able to quickly setup stores for floor graphics, yard signs and wayfinding signage that helped our customers get through this strange time. The PressWise team is very quick to respond to issues submitted as Support Tickets.

Cons:

We are a staff of 7 so it was difficult to get the software setup if I had it to do over again I would have had PressWise on site to help us with initial setup as we took 2 years before we actually started using the system on a daily basis.

Must-have for printing departments

Comments: We are able to easily provide quotes to our customers, track our projects, look at the usage of products. It's just been invaluable to our workflow.

Pros:

Being able to track the progress of a job, or track delivery is key for us. Plus the accountability of being able to retrace our steps is super helpful.

Cons:

There some glitchy things that are annoying from time to time, but overall this has enhanced our productivity.

Time multiplier!

Pros:

I used to spend enormous amounts of time on quotes. Everything was hard copy (files here, invoices there). How much did we charge last time? They're switching paper and quantities? What are the tiers on pricing? ALL of those questions and more dogged me and ate away hours. PressWise changed all of that - from quotes to production to delivery and invoicing. I have my time back (sort-of, because now I can process more orders). Having quote and job history at my fingertips is fantastic. Copying closed jobs for exact repeats or modifying for new orders is a snap. We haven't reached the depths of all this software offers, but I'm sold on the basics. Long overdue productivity improvements for our shop.

Cons:

Would like to see public facing storefront development and support as an integral part of PressWise or an easy add-on. Same goes for USPS mail processing (CASS/PAVE, full service submission, etc). Do not like the UPS "pre-population" of rates when something has to be shipped. If I go in and override the default and close the job, and then re-open it at a later time, my override amounts have gone away - replaced by the default rates. Have tried to turn that default shipping feature off - without success.

More bang for the buck.

Comments: I'm very happy with the investment in PressWise. For the price of the solution I don't think it can be beat. Great product and service is a winning combination.

Pros:

I like that support is continually updating the software with enhancements. They regularly add new features and are quick to address any bugs.

Cons:

Would love to see further development on the storefront side of the software. The storefronts work for most applications but I would like to see more enhancements to make the storefront side a little more modern. Adding the ability to have coupons would be a great aspect for retail stores.

tpc's Review

Comments: We are becoming more automated and consistent with our ticket entry and pricing.

Pros:

I love how mobile it is, the customer service is top-notch, it is fairly user friendly. Because we are not focused on one area of print, it's the only system that we have been able to make work for all of the different types of print that we offer.

Cons:

I know this is in the works but, having a CRM would be super helpful. Also, a dashboard on the main page to show quantity of orders and sales for the day at a glance.

Great partnerships are hard to find

Comments: Its been five years since we started using PressWise and we have seen so many upgrades to the original system. We have been working with the same people on the development team and have become accustomed to adapting to process. Very flexible and accommodating with all questions and issues and quick resolutions when needed.

Pros:

I've been working with their team from day one and they have been very accommodating and responsive. It allows us to create our own products and workflows and has a detailed reporting structure.

Cons:

There are so many different departments that factored into our decisions on what should be built in the workflow. The implementation tracker helped with this.

Presswise

Comments: I feel that Presswise overall has been an excellent choice. It has the look and feel of a high dollar management system for a reasonable price. Customer service is very knowledgeable and respond to questions quickly. Updates and upgrades come often. Up time on the cloud based system has been near 100% for me. Transition has been a bit painful, as we came from a system that was developed in the 1980's, but we have gotten through and our users love the change!

Pros:

Ease of use, order status tracking and auto batching and queue to our presses are the main pros that drew us to to the software. Also, customer service was very good in helping decision making. The people here know thei product.

Cons:

There is no ability to combine invoices and ship. Shipping multiple invoices on the same shipment is un-wieldy. We ship a lot of small orders and ship them in the same package, but each order generates it's own invoice and if you don't stop it, it will generate it's own shipping label

Moving Curriculum Forward

Comments: PressWise has been an amazing tool and experience for students at Thaddeus Stevens College in the Graphic Communications and Printing Technology department. It has pushed our curriculum into the in-demand skills of estimating, customer service and print production management.

Pros:

PressWise is simple and intuitive to use. The documentation to learn the system is amazing. I was very well supported by the entire PressWise team. I love that it's cloud based so I can access jobs at any time.

Cons:

I honestly do not have any gripes with PressWise. It's been able to be tailored to everything we have wanted to do with it. I couldn't be more pleased with it.

Excellent Cloud Solution

Comments: PressWise has allowed our company to reduce the touches required to get jobs into production. We have integrated Pressero with PressWise. With this setup, we are able to have the orders injected directly into PressWise with all of the product specifications. The files are automatically transferred, and as long as there is a product tied to an imposition template, production has a pre-imposed file ready to go. On the rare occasion that I need to contact support, they are friendly, knowledgeable, and very responsive. Simply put, this is an excellent product.

Pros:

Easy migration from previous solution API for connecting external applications Outstanding customer support Frequent updates/improvements Excellent documentation Responsive to specific needs

Cons:

Updates sometimes contain obvious bugs that should have been caught before release