Image Centre

Image Centre has let technology shape the growth of its business. Managing Director Syd Atkins’ strategic eye for the future saw him investing heavily in e-commerce disciplines over recent years, an area within his company that continues to grow at a tremendous rate. In the mid 1990’s companies in the field had to make a fundamental choice - stay as they were and keep doing things the same way, or take the plunge into the future. Image Centre took the plunge into the future...

Originally focused around the pre-press area, Image Centre has since expanded to become New Zealand’s first Pre-Media company, a real ‘one stop shop’, capable of providing a complete offering to its clients - something that is unique to the industry in New Zealand. Image Centre can take projects from conception (determining initial marketing requirements and strategy) right through to design and production. The company foresaw the influence the Internet would have upon its business, and is now one of the largest web site designers in New Zealand. Image Centre’s desire to incorporate the latest that technology has to offer is evident in all areas of the company, an example of this is the ‘Digital Asset Management’ database set up within the company.

Image Centre’s complex requirements and receptivity to new technology means they are perfectly suited to the Prism WIN system. After purchasing a printing company, and foreseeing a shift towards focused communications and new media, Image Centre began to realise that their site developed, ‘Pick’ language based Information System would become less and less effective as the company continued to grow and develop increasingly complex needs. This is where Prism came in. “We saw Prism WIN as an established local product designed specifically for the printing industry. The customisability of Prism, and its commitment to providing innovative solutions suited our company’s direction.” Managing Director Syd Atkins commented.

Image Centre has noted improvements directly attributable to Prism WIN right across its business, particularly within efficiency and communications, where access to accurate real time information has proven invaluable. "With Prism WIN, we are able to respond to queries, recall information and track job history immediately. Prism’s reports allow us to perform ‘what if…’ queries on every aspect of our business, effectively breaking down sales information and capturing complex trends from within our business."

Since installing Prism WIN, Image Centre has also noted increased staff productivity. Prism WIN has relieved staff of a number of previously manual tasks, allowing its employees to dedicate their time to more important areas within the company.

Prism WIN has only been live at Image Centre for less than a year but the benefits are already obvious. Image Centre expects to receive a complete return on its investment within two years of the system being installed. The bottom line savings that Prism WIN has helped to bring about are also expected to grow as Image Centre’s knowledge of the system, and subsequently their business increases. Image Centre runs Prism WIN on a combination of PC’s and Macs and is currently in the process of adding Virtual Time Managers to provide real time feedback as part of their Shop Floor Management system.