Editorial

The graphics industry and the packaging world have not eluded the current money-saving trends. In fact, it's the opposite. Over the last few years, numerous company groupings have obliged industrialists in the field to re-design their information systems in order to harmonize and better satisfy the requests from customers, who also have gone through restructuring and merger phases.

The choice of packaging and printing industrialists, in this context, is based on complex formulae combining advanced technologies, observance of organizational and professional sector constraints and naturally the investment return obligation. The information system, and more especially the PGI (integrated management software) or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a core item of the change dynamics and have become a determining competitive item, in the same manner as printing or cutting machines.

Thoughts and brain work by the professionals in this field, raised on experience shared on a daily basis and for numerous years now, the professional sector ERPs are continually being improved and more and more refined, taking into account professional sector constraints. They make up a community of users sharing practices corresponding to the professional sectors and their specific know-how. Another determining factor is the implementation by professional sector consultants, who participate in the design and development of the solution. Each professional sector specificity, each constraint has been taken into account, analyzed, brought into perspective in a context of reactivity and productivity gain. A professional sector ERP offers a solution that is quickly operational, mandatorially affecting the global investment calculation mode by integrating as of the beginning of development, the operating rules of the domain, its vocabulary and characteristics. Professional sector ERP editors, in order to confirm their position and win market share, do not have any choice but continue to focus on the activity of their customers to propose high value added, customer oriented professional sector features (CRM, logistics, e-business, etc…). They should also ensure that their software solutions are backed up for the back office path (accounting, management of human resources) and with solutions such as those proposed by Oracle. Carrier of a global, multi-lingual and homogenous solution, their customers, industrialists in packaging and graphic arts serenely envisage all closer relationships with other companies, not matter what the size and geographical zone involved.

Armand de Garsignies
C.E.O. Volume Software