Brazilian MIS supplier increases label market focus

Metrics’ highly automated Printware management information software is being tailored to the label and packaging industries, where the company sees great potential for growth. James Quirk reports

Metrics, founded in Sao Paulo in 1998, has established a firm foothold in developing ERP systems for large printing enterprises in Brazil and other countries in Latin America. Some two thirds of its clients are companies of more than 200 employees, with some of 1,000 plus. But Metrics is now increasing its focus on the label and packaging markets and has tailored its software specifically for this shift in strategy.

The company, founded by current CEO Osmar Barbosa, offers both horizontal and vertical MIS technology – aimed at large companies – and special packages of its Metrics Printware system for smaller businesses with more targeted needs. Editoral Abril, one of Brazil’s largest magazine groups, which prints 120,000 tons of paper a year, runs Metrics’ system to manage its entire production. Argentine newspaper company Clarin is another customer, using Metrics software to manage its commercial printing division, which also carries out work for other companies.

 ‘There are different challenges between our bigger and smaller customers,’ says Osmar Barbosa. ‘Small businesses want tools to automate tasks and reduce costs, and our software can help with this automation. Bigger companies are looking at process integration and improving communications across a large enterprise'.

The increasing priority within the printing industry, according to Barbosa, is the label and packaging sectors. This is partly an acknowledgement of the enduring strength of these markets: certain products will always need packaging and labels, whereas a book, for example, can also be purchased digitally through a tablet device.

Metrics has this year focused on tailoring the software to these new priorities, and Barbosa says that the company’s clients have played an important part in the process. ‘All of our software’s functionality comes from customers’ requests. It’s an interesting time for our customers, therefore, because there’s a lot of development taking place within our company.’

Advanced automation

Metrics employs 90 people its native country and nine in Mexico, where a sales office was established in 2006 and where it has most software installations – around 40 – outside Brazil. Metrics also counts companies in Argentina, Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Chile and Ecuador among its clients.

In Sao Paulo, many of the company’s staff work in product development and have technical backgrounds in software programming. Some are graduates of SENAI, Brazil’s leading graphic arts school. Barbosa’s background is in artificial intelligence.

The Metrics Printware management system integrates a company’s commercial, production and administrative activities. Tailored to the printing industry, it can be applied to a wide range of applications, such as editorial, promotional, packaging, digital, security, labels and flexo, and can be used with any printing process.

The system is capable of automating complex functions, as well as defining the best production options, estimating costs and applying pre-determined commercial policies. Detailed data about sales, customers and jobs are available to aid decision-making. Production orders are carried out automatically.

‘The system helps people to better manage their businesses, allowing greater automation, adherence to best practice and more effective data analysis,’ says Barbosa. ‘Our software is like Lego: it is modular, so it can be upgraded as a company grows.’

An advanced planning system, Metrics Planner, automatically distributes work across the factory’s equipment, taking into account time, capacity and priority. Production orders and scheduling can be accessed directly from the machines, where the JobTrack module records a job’s data, such as quantity produced, time taken and frequency of occurrence. It then automatically updates the plant schedule and provides information about production costs, which can be used for the system’s post-calculation analysis. ‘Metrics has a very advanced scheduling system that can fully automate the planning of production,’ Barbosa explains. ‘We have many customers that are using Metrics Planner on a daily basis, to build and maintain their schedules. But to have success, the system must be very easy to use. The first Metrics product was the scheduler, so we have learned something about the way people work in this area and the best way to manage this kind of process to make it accessible for users.’

The system manages all sales and production processes and prepares the information required to control the administrative workflow – billing, inventory and purchasing – as well as automatically flagging when a customer needs to be contacted. Customers can have access to production information from an iPhone, Blackberry or Android, and the company is working on a tablet interface for next year.

Increasing importance

Barbosa admits that selling the idea of management software can sometimes be a challenge, but says that companies are increasingly seeing the need for process automation. ‘Industry trends towards shorter runs, more printing processes and wider product variation mean there is an increasing need to bring automation to a company’s activities,’ he comments. ‘Often it is easier to sell to the younger generation and to those with production backgrounds, who are quicker to see the value. But in general, we see more companies interested in the implementation of MIS as they start to understand that buying new machines is not enough to stay on top of business. They need to improve management and achieve world-class performance and the implementation of a good MIS can help run the business more efficiently.’

Metrics’ increased focus on the label and packaging market has been aided by a new strategy to be more proactive in speaking to potential customers. As a part of this, the company exhibited at Label Summit Latin America in Sao Paulo in May, with Osmar Barbosa taking part in a panel session dedicated to MIS. Metrics will be present at Drupa for the third time next year.

Metrics was the first company in Latin America to have its products certified for JDF, and has been a member of CIP4 since 2004. ‘JDF is the base for process automation and integration and many solution providers are already offering support to this technology through their systems,’ says Barbosa. ‘This makes it possible to create more automated workflows with less resource consumption and faster production cycles. Also, it allows the possibility of integrating the workflow with the internet. For printers, the potential benefits are cost reduction, improvement on the quality of products and services and better response time to customers. JDF can also make it easy to implement a web-to-print solution that may open new market opportunities for the print service provider.’

In 2011, Metrics became an HP Indigo partner, while the company’s technology has also been integrated with EskoArtwork software.

Pictured: Osmar Barbosa, founder and CEO of Brazilian MIS supplier, Metrics

This article was published in L&L issue 4, 2011.