Custom Database • Product Development • ASP.NET / SQL Server
About the Client
The roots of Trend Offset Printing run deep – back to a small, family-owned printing business in Southern California in the 1950’s. Incorporated as Trend Offset Printing in 1986, today Trend is one of the largest privately-held printing companies in North America. Over the company’s 31 years, it has grown from a single-location printing facility to a national print-and-distribute footprint with three facilities across the U.S.
Los Alamitos, California
Commercial Printing
SQL Server, MS Office
1996
Project in a Nutshell:
Digital transformation of cost accounting and environmental departments using database technology.
Trend Offset Printing was one of our first clients way back in 1996. As a large commercial offset printer, Trend didn’t have the data analysis and reporting tools necessary for such a large company. We partnered with Trend to design and develop multiple applications, including separate database management systems for cost account, bindery, finance and environmental compliance.
The solutions we built included a wide variety of technologies, including Paradox, Visual FoxPro, ASP.NET and SQL Server.
Goals and Objectives
Migrate from heavy reliance on spreadsheets to database technology to improve visibility.Providing operating performance visibility to upper management was a key priority at Trend. In many cases profitability of jobs was unknown until weeks after a job had completed. This meant that some jobs were losing money, and nobody knew it until it was too late. We developed a solution that would provide complete performance visibility the same day the job ran, which revolutionized how cost and profit were tracked at Trend.
Unique Challenges
Trend Offset Printing was a large, successful family owned company set in their ways.Sometimes technology isn’t the challenge or hurdle in a project, and this was the case with the projects we developed for Trend. They had so many years of success that it was hard for some members of management to believe that a modern information systems was critical to their very survival. Fortunately we were able to sell them on the benefits, which would end up helping them thrive in a very difficult environment.
The Results
The solutions we built ushered in a period of rapid expansion and growth for the company.Sometimes everything is riding on our ability to understand a business, and develop tailor-made custom software specifically for it. This was definitely the case with Trend Offset Printing. The systems we designed and built ushered in a period of digital transformation that not only allowed Trend to grow and thrive, but those same custom solutions also made expansion into multiple states possible. We built environmental, bindery, cost account, and financial applications, all of which Trend relies on to this day.
