ASU Print and Imaging Lab Welcomes SpencerMetrics Software Donation

SpencerMetrics LLC has donated the spencermetrics connect system to Arizona State University (ASU) Print and Imaging Lab. This is the fourth year of spencermetrics supporting ASU with productivity software donations intended to educate students on the impact of operational efficiency and to support the ASU in-plant by offering Print Lab management with an analysis tool to increase their asset utilization and overall efficiency.

ASU's Cathy Skoglund leads of tour of the Print and Imaging Lab for visiting attendees of ACUP 2014.

Spencermetrics' most recent donations of its automated connect system are running on ASU's Xerox iGen 4 and HP Indigo 5500 digital presses. With its multi-vendor capabilities, connect allows quantifiable operational metric analyses across multiple press platforms, providing comparisons of shifts, technologies, operators, and performance, all within one software system.

According to Chris Halkovic, Digital Workflow and Web to Print manager at ASU Print & Imaging Lab, "As an IT manager, setting up new software utilities is always a pain, but implementing the spencermetrics connect system was as simple as plugging the machine in and signing into the iPad app. We were up and running in just a few minutes."

Data collection and analysis began immediately after installation.

“The ease of use of any system is very important, especially when integrating into an already-busy workflow," Halkovic added. "The spencermetrics connect system provides incredibly simple functionality for collecting data."

Connect has streamlined processes and has since eliminated the manual input of data from ASU’s operators. The connect system provides actionable information, turning raw data into knowledge and facilitating timely decision-making.

"The analytics provide data that our operations staff always wished for, but never had the time or resources to manually compile," stated Halkovic. "We’ll be using this information to see where we need to focus on training our press operators and to provide a better insight as to optimizing our equipment and labor resources for maximum efficiency."

The in-plant also recently signed a deal to use Infigo’s Catfish Web-to-print platform.

“We are thrilled to take advantage of the latest Web-to-print technologies available," remarked Cathy Skoglund, manager of operations and business development at ASU. "I truly believe it’s going to positively impact our business and educational opportunities.”