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Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Goes Live with Avanti
Looking to eliminate inefficiencies, enhance customer service and provide the University’s in-plant with true job level insight
TORONTO, November 12, 2010 – Avanti Computer Systems Limited, a leading provider of Print MIS and Web-to-Print solutions, today announced that Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) in-plant print operation, has gone live with Avanti’s Print MIS production system. Avanti will enable RIT’s in-plant to significantly enhance operations by eliminating manual processes, streamline the production workflow and provide true job level insight to better understand and support the University’s printing needs.
RIT is a renowned university with over 17, 000 students, and 243 campus buildings spread over 1,300 acres of property but is perhaps best known for its Graphic Communications program. The in-plant which dates back to 1985 offers both digital and offset printing capabilities and is responsible for fulfilling the printing requirements of the university, including the nine colleges that comprise the academic disciplines at RIT.
One of the primary challenges the in-plant was facing was the time that it took for jobs to get to the production stage. The ticketing process was entirely manual, causing production backlogs, processing errors and unsatisfied customers due to slow job turnaround time.
“The goal is to get the jobs in quicker so production can begin as early in the cycle as possible. This will enable us to keep up with demand and even increase the number of jobs coming through the shop,” says John Meyer, Director of In-Plant Operations at RIT. “With Avanti, jobs that were taking days to get to production now take only hours. Data entry errors are significantly reduced and customer satisfaction improves. Instead of staff answering customer’s calls about where their jobs are, they can proactively communicate with their customers in advance and focus on improving service.” adds Meyer.
Another key advantage that RIT will realize with Avanti Print MIS is the ability to obtain accurate information on every job that is produced. This will enable the in-plant to have an intimate understanding of their costs, better identify products that are a good fit for the department and eliminate services that are too expensive to produce with their current equipment and workflow. It will also provide the shop with the ability to accurately forecast and more competitively set product pricing relative to outside vendor estimates. RIT will be armed with the information that they need to better compete for customers.
“Given RIT’s reputation in the Graphic Communications community, we are thrilled to add such a renowned university to our list of customers," says Patrick Bolan, CEO of Avanti. “Before selecting us, RIT put Avanti and our competitors through probably the most intensive due diligence process we have ever been through. With Avanti, RIT will be able to decrease costs and realize significant efficiency gains through improved workflows and more automated processes.”
The second phase of the project is now ramping up and includes the implementation of Avanti eAccess (Web-to-print) in RIT’s POD walk-up centre and main in-plant shop.