Printpak Users

I'm away from my desk this week, training the support staff on the up-coming update, which will include purchase orders, job costing and stock control. Staying in a hotel gives you a lot of time for contemplation, and I've been thinking about Printpak's loyal customers.

A couple of our established users have kindly agreed to guinea pig the new release for us, and I was reflecting how the relationship between software house and customer is a two-way affair. In the printing industry there is so much that is non-obvious to outsiders, and so many idiosyncrasies that we depend on our users for feedback almost as much as they depend on us for the programs.

Some of our users have been with us for over fifteen years now, and I like to think our software has grown with them. And although the Kords are now mostly retired and the new digital presses have swept in to take over the short-run market, many of the essential processes are virtually unchanged. We still design an image, transfer it to paper, and then fold, stitch and trim it. The basic core processes of Printpak still preserve the original logic from all those years ago, which I guess is the sign that we got it right in the first place.

So to get back to the subject of our users, I've come to realize that in the same way that their requirements and problems fill our lives, our software permeates their lives in a way I don't think we always appreciate. Its only when you go on-site to a large installation and see Printpak on every desk in the office that this really comes home.

What we write, they use daily, and that heavy responsibility is really what makes this job so worth while.

But enough schmaltz.

Before I finish, I came across this cartoon of the 'Anatomy of the Printer'. If I'm infringing somebody's copyright, please let me know, but it seemed too good not to share. I haven't been able to identify the artist so if anyone can tell me I would be grateful.

Richard