Responding to today’s demands
As mentioned, these innovations are helping signmakers transform their businesses and how they work with their customers, achieving a host of benefits.
Once a job is loaded into the cloud, for example, they can present it to a customer using a notebook computer when visiting that customer’s office—and even make final changes right there with the customer’s immediate approval. As such, it becomes possible to start the actual sign production work remotely, before the owner or sales representative even gets back to the sign shop.
Some signmakers will also access jobs in the cloud from home, so they can manage their daytime schedules and tweak designs at the most convenient times. Further, once a job has been started, they can use their mobile apps to check the live production status when off-site with the customer—or even make that information accessible directly to the customer through a dedicated web portal.
With a cloud-based subscription model, it becomes easier to accept last-minute customer orders that require specialized software to produce.
In addition to ease of access to data across various workstations and mobile devices, storing jobs in the cloud also adds stronger security. Off-site backups of data become simpler when storing files in multiple locations and online.
Setting new benchmarks
So, while cloud computing itself is an essentially simple concept, it has the potential to change the nature of how suppliers and customers do business. In the sign industry, greater acceptance will lead to the development of further improvements in customer-to-signmaker communications. And as creative and innovative users of cloud-based software deliver higher levels of customer satisfaction, there will be opportunities to establish best practices and benchmarks for self-improvement.
With more development of cloud-based software applications specifically for the industry, signmakers can get the most out of their existing hardware and processes. In an always changing and challenging market, these tools will help them meet—and stay one step ahead of—the needs of their customers.
Gudrun Bonte is a product director for SAi, which develops cloud-based Flexi software for the sign industry. For more information, visit www.thinksai.com.
