Croatian printing house Grafokor has been present on the domestic graphics market for more than 40 years. They started as a commercial printing house, but about 20 years ago, due to the changes that began to occur in the commercial printing market, they decided to change their direction. They specialized in the production of cardboard and paper packaging for small and medium runs of boxes for more exclusive products. The expansion of production required the implementation of a quality MIS/ERP solution.
Today, they have been successfully using MultiPress MIS/ERP software for five years. Everything about the implementation, challenges and functioning of MultiPress MIS/ERP software we asked Mr. Robert Karacic member of the Grafokor printing house management board.
What was the key point when you realized that you couldn’t go on without more serious business software adapted for the graphic industry and packaging?
A few years before the actual implementation, during the chaotic seasonal rush, we concluded that we need software with which we could solve many problems related to production planning, inconsistencies between departments and employees, as well as sales, warehouses and expediters.
You have decided to take MultiPress MIS/ ERP, whose distributor in the region is Grafik.net. Why?
For a long time, we have been cooperating with the company Grafik.net, which offered it to us as a distributor. As it usually goes, we also weighed between several software solutions. The decision fell on MultiPress because in terms of adaptability and price, it was the best solution for Grafokor. The software has been translated into Croatian, which is also very important.
The solution was implemented by Dataline, a software manufacturer, in cooperation with Grafik.net. How long does it take? Did you have to make certain adjustments in business and production?
It took about a year from the decision to full implementation. It was necessary to organize and prepare existing business processes and various data that we had until then in various places and software so that we could properly transfer them to the new software. I have to be honest and say that the process is quite demanding because you realize that some previous processes are not optimal, so you try to fix them and transfer them to the new system as such. However, Dataline and Grafik.net guided us excellently through the entire process, which includes the exact order of data preparation and entry, as well as education.
Was there any “resistance” from employees?
Of course, there was resistance, but I think that this is normal and human in any big change, especially when switching to new technologies when some long-established routines and way of working are radically cha
What is the situation after five years? What “bottlenecks” in business did you solve by implementing MIS/ERP solutions?
The benefits are very visible. The number of offers, orders and invoices is not comparable to the period before MultiPress, all the more so because we have changed our product range and business model in the meantime. Due to this business change, the volume of work and thus the number of employees increased significantly. MultiPress helped significantly in this. After five years of use, the advantages and savings it has brought us are truly numerous. We gained speed and flexibility. We are also satisfied with the reports and post calculations, and this information helps us a lot in business decisions. It is also important to us that MultiPress is connected to accounting software. However, I would say that we have solved most of the problems in production planning and inventory management.
