Why Excel and MIS Can’t Handle Modern Print Workflows – Here’s What ERP Does Better

For years, printing and packaging businesses have relied on Excel spreadsheets and legacy Print Management Information Systems (MIS) and tolerated Print MIS failures. These tools were fine when the operation was small. But as the industry grows – projected to hit $579 billion by 2032 – those same tools are holding businesses back.

The problem? Manual errors. Version confusion. Disconnected workflows. You can’t scale your operation if each department is still stuck in their own system, passing incomplete information along the chain.

Let’s be real: one typo in an Excel sheet can mess up an entire order. An outdated proof can cause an entire reprint. And an MIS system that doesn’t integrate with accounting or inventory means you’re missing the bigger picture. Teams end up working harder just to catch up, rather than working smarter.

In this blog, we’ll dive into why Excel and MIS are no longer sufficient for today’s print operations. And more importantly, we’ll show you why ERP – especially Odoo – is the answer. From centralized data to automated workflows, ERP brings your entire operation into sync.

By the end of this post, you’ll see:

• The pain points of relying on Excel and MIS in modern operations
  
• How ERP solves these challenges with real-time visibility and process automation
  
• Real-world examples of businesses that shifted to ERP and saw major improvements in efficiency and profitability
  

The Traditional Approach to Print Workflow

For decades, printing companies have used Excel spreadsheets and Print Management Information Systems (MIS) to manage their workflows. When you’re starting out or running a small shop, it works. But as your operations grow and become more complex, these old systems start falling apart.

What’s Working (For Now)

In small operations, Excel and MIS have their benefits:

• Simple tasks: Managing small orders or straightforward quotes is easy in Excel. It’s quick, and no one has to deal with too much complexity.
  
• Small teams: With a few people handling everything, it’s manageable to track jobs and keep things organized manually.
  

But as businesses grow, they quickly hit a wall. Multiple orders, big teams, and complex workflows quickly overwhelm these outdated tools. That’s where things start to break down.

What’s Breaking Down

1. Disconnected Workflows

Let’s be honest: Excel is not designed for teamwork. When your sales, production, and logistics teams each rely on separate Excel sheets, things get disconnected fast. For example, if you create a quote in Excel, you have to manually re-enter the same data into other systems like inventory or scheduling. This leads to mismatches and mistakes.

For example: A typical corrugated box plant can lose $1,500 a month just because Excel caused delays with manual data entry and status updates. That’s not small change.

2. Version Confusion

Ever deal with multiple versions of the same file? It’s frustrating, right? That’s a common issue with artwork approvals. Teams often exchange artwork through email. One email might have a different version than the other, causing confusion. A lot of print shops report 18% rework due to these version mix-ups in India alone.

And scheduling? Excel sheets aren’t updated in real-time, so jobs can overlap or get pushed back – leading to idle machines and wasted time.

3. Manual Tracking Errors

Tracking job status with Excel or a whiteboard sounds simple enough, but it’s a recipe for errors. If your job status isn’t updated properly, you end up missing jobs or wasting materials. One packaging company in the UAE said rush orders increased by 30% because their Excel inventory system couldn’t keep track of stock levels properly.

4. Print-Specific Limitations

Let’s face it: Excel and legacy MIS just aren’t built for the modern printing world.

• Excel printing errors: Misaligned printouts or missing information (like prices) are a common problem. The result? Wasted materials like paper and ink.
  
• MIS systems are rigid: Many MIS systems simply can’t keep up with today’s demands – like custom workflows for things like biodegradable material certifications or variable data printing. This lack of flexibility means that printers often have to work around their systems instead of working with them.
  

The Bottom Line

If you’re still using Excel and MIS, you’re probably getting by. But as your orders grow and your plant becomes more complex, these tools will start to slow you down. They were fine when you were small. But now, they’re just holding you back.

The Business and Technical Impact of Sticking with Excel/MIS

It’s easy to keep running on Excel or MIS when the problems aren’t glaring. But when you look a little closer, the cracks begin to show. The bigger your print operation gets, the more these systems will drag you down – and not just in terms of lost hours.

Lost Time, Lost Money

When your team is working with outdated tools, the time spent fixing errors adds up. It’s not just one person; it’s the whole team trying to patch things together. Let’s talk about some of the common costs of sticking with Excel/MIS:

1. Wasted Productivity

Manual errors in Excel don’t just disappear. Employees are spending 1–2 hours a day reconciling spreadsheets, fixing mistakes, or waiting for approvals that never came through on time. Over a month, that means you’re losing $527/month just on fixing these manual errors with a team of 10 employees.

And the worst part? Those hours aren’t even being used productively. Your team’s energy is sucked into trying to fix something that shouldn’t need fixing in the first place.

2. Missed Deadlines and Overtime

Scheduling with Excel isn’t dynamic enough to handle multiple jobs at once. Jobs overlap, material availability gets overlooked, and machine time isn’t fully optimized.

For example, one folding carton maker in India faced 15% overtime costs because they were manually tracking production jobs in Excel. It’s hard to keep track of a whole shop’s worth of jobs when your tracking system isn’t updated in real-time.

3. Financial Leakage from Rework

Rework isn’t just frustrating – it’s costly. One plant we worked with reported that 18% of their revenue was lost to rework due to outdated artwork proofs. The artwork wasn’t version-controlled, and old files kept getting printed.

But the cost of rework doesn’t stop with artwork. It extends to material waste, overuse of ink, and the additional hours spent setting up machines. When job statuses aren’t updated or managed correctly, these errors become a regular part of production, and they all cost money.

4. Inventory Mishaps

Stockouts and overstock are a classic example of how Excel and MIS don’t work well in fast-paced environments. In one UAE packaging plant, rush orders increased by 30% because Excel couldn’t flag material shortages on time. That not only costs more in expedited shipping but also causes unnecessary pressure on the team.

When you’re using spreadsheets to track materials and inventory, it’s easy to miss things – especially supply chain delays or missing components that could’ve been caught earlier.

The Hidden Costs You Aren’t Seeing

In short, sticking with Excel/MIS isn’t just about minor inefficiencies. These tools actively hurt your bottom line.

When things go wrong, it’s not always the obvious stuff – the missed jobs, the reprints – it’s also the unseen stuff, like:

• Lost employee hours spent reconciling data
  
• Missed opportunities to improve margins through faster workflows
  
• Poor client experience from late shipments or mistakes that could’ve been prevented
  

You’re bleeding money without even realizing it. And every minute spent using Excel/MIS is a minute your team isn’t focused on what matters most – delivering great print products, on time, and on budget.

How ERP Solves These Problems

We all know the frustration of working with tools that just don’t cut it. Excel is great for simple tasks, and older MIS systems do what they can – but they simply can’t handle the demands of modern print shops.

When production relies on manual entries, email approvals, and disconnected tools, the result is inevitable: wasted time, increased errors, and frustrated teams.

Enter ERP.

ERP doesn’t just speed up tasks; it connects them. It ties all those separate moving parts – approvals, job tracking, material management – into one system, so everything flows smoothly.

With Odoo, print shops can centralize data, automate processes, and get real-time updates. Here’s how it helps you fix what’s broken.

No More Data Duplication

In many shops, sales and production teams are working in silos. Sales enters a quote in one spreadsheet, production creates job cards in another, and inventory is tracked elsewhere. The result? Miscommunication, manual entry errors, and data duplication.

With Odoo, all this information syncs automatically. The moment a quote is approved, it converts into a production job, and your inventory levels get updated at the same time. There’s no more need to enter the same data over and over again. Everything lives in one place.

Take, for example, a packaging company in Dubai that switched to Odoo. They reported 25% fewer errors in their job tracking, simply because the system linked everything together and updated information in real time.

Real-Time Production Tracking

If you’ve ever had to guess what job comes next – or, worse, wait for someone to update the whiteboard – you know how frustrating it can be. Manual tracking leads to mistakes, overlaps, and downtime. Presses wait for approval, and teams work without knowing what’s really happening on the floor.

Odoo’s MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) gives you real-time updates. It tracks everything: from the first quote, to the approval, to the job status. You get a live Gantt chart showing what’s happening at every moment, so you can see bottlenecks before they become a problem.

A corrugated box plant in Bangladesh can reduce scheduling delays by 30% with Odoo. They could immediately see where jobs were at and adjust quickly, preventing downtime and missed shifts.

Version Control – No More Version Confusion

How often does this happen: someone sends a file for approval, but it’s the wrong version? Or the press operator uses an outdated proof because the latest one never made it into the system.

This confusion costs time, money, and material. With Odoo’s PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) system, every artwork version is logged and traceable. The moment something changes, everyone sees the new version. You can’t print the wrong file anymore, because it’s locked in the system.

An estimated 18% of rework was due to outdated proofs. After switching to ERP, they slashed this number by 25%. This also reduces material waste.

Real-Time Inventory Visibility

When you’re still using Excel to track inventory, you’re setting yourself up for stockouts and overstock. Excel doesn’t alert you when materials are running low – and by the time you find out, it’s too late. This leads to last-minute orders, production delays, and rush jobs.

Odoo’s inventory management module tracks real-time stock levels and automates reorders when you’re getting low on materials. Barcode scanning is integrated into the workflow, so there’s no room for manual mistakes.

Take the example of a packaging company in the UAE, which was using Excel to track inventory. They reported a 30% increase in rush orders because their Excel-based inventory system couldn’t keep up. Once they moved to Odoo, their inventory errors dropped by 40%.

Sustainability Compliance, Simplified

With environmental regulations growing stricter, printing companies need to track the use of biodegradable and recyclable materials. Doing this manually is nearly impossible.

With Odoo, you can easily track and report on your sustainability metrics. The system automatically pulls data from your workflow, so you don’t have to manually log every green material or recycling report.

ERP Isn’t Just About Speed, It’s About Clarity

The real power of ERP lies in its ability to remove the fog. In traditional systems, your team spends more time chasing down data than actually working. With ERP, everyone is on the same page, all the time.

Odoo integrates every part of the process – from the first quote to job completion – and syncs data across departments in real time. It doesn’t just speed things up; it stops you from making the same mistakes over and over again.

No more missing materials or duplication. No more confusion.

The Benefits of Switching to ERP

Switching from Excel or a legacy MIS system to an ERP like Odoo isn’t just about replacing old software. It’s about unlocking new levels of efficiency, visibility, and control across every part of your operation.

The truth is, most print businesses keep running on outdated systems because “they work fine… for now.” But once you step into the world of ERP, you’ll see just how much more you could be achieving.

Here’s what happens when you make the switch:

Faster Approvals

Remember how we talked about artwork approvals getting stuck in email chains or stuck on whiteboards? That’s a huge bottleneck in your production process.

With Odoo, artwork approvals move from emails to real-time digital sign-offs. No more confusion about which version is the final one. No more waiting days for someone to “get to it.”

“With Odoo’s PLM system, artwork approvals dropped from 3 days to 4 hours,” says Tom Wiewiora, Director of Technology at MasterTag. That’s the kind of efficiency that helps keep the presses moving, rather than waiting around.

Real-Time Transparency

One of the most powerful features of an ERP is visibility. In your current system, if you wanted to check job status, you’d have to ask someone or check an outdated whiteboard. With Odoo, that data is live – you don’t have to chase it.

Managers can see exactly what’s happening across production in real time. What’s cleared? What’s in process? and what’s behind schedule?

This transparency makes everything more efficient, because when everyone knows what’s happening, they can act faster.

“After moving to ERP, we saw a 20% faster delivery time thanks to real-time scheduling,” says a production supervisor at Softeko’s partner plant.

Cost Savings

One of the biggest benefits of switching to an ERP is how it impacts your bottom line. Here’s how:

• Less waste: When your inventory is tracked in real-time, stockouts and overstocking become a thing of the past. You don’t have to over-order or waste materials due to poor tracking.
  
• No more overtime: Better scheduling and job tracking mean less unproductive downtime and fewer costly overtime shifts.
  
• Better resource utilization: Odoo’s real-time data helps you optimize machine and labor usage, cutting idle time and increasing throughput.
  

A UAE packaging firm cut invoicing errors by 90% after switching to ERP, leading to quicker payments and better cash flow.

Scalability

With Excel and manual systems, your business is always limited by the number of people you can hire and the number of hours in a day. As you grow, these systems start to buckle under the pressure.

With ERP, you can scale effortlessly. Odoo lets you add new lines, products, or locations without doubling your staff or adding extra software.

“Switching from Excel to ERP allowed us to handle five times more orders without increasing headcount,” says Martin Diers, CIO at The Bernard Group. That’s the kind of scalability every growing business needs.

Sustainability Tracking

With more customers demanding sustainable products, it’s not enough just to print more. You have to print smarter.

Odoo’s ERP system helps you track and report on sustainable materials used, like biodegradable plastics or recycled paper. You can also generate compliance reports for audits, helping you meet regulations without extra work.

Why Softeko’s Approach Works

At Softeko, we don’t just drop a system in place and leave. We help map your actual workflow to fit the ERP system, so you don’t just get an out-of-the-box solution – you get one that matches how your team actually works.

We’ve seen plants use Odoo ERP to go from chaotic, manual systems to streamlined operations, cutting errors, increasing throughput, and finally getting the visibility they’ve been missing.

Switching from Excel or MIS doesn’t mean just swapping software. It means finally unlocking your team’s potential and creating a system that actually works with you, not against you.

What Operators and Plant Leads Are Saying

When it comes to ERP, the real proof is in what happens on the floor. ERP systems like Odoo don’t just look good on paper. The real-world impact comes when operators, managers, and plant leads see the difference in their day-to-day operations.

Here’s what some real plants had to say about their switch from Excel and MIS to ERP.

“Before ERP, we were always playing catch-up.”

Tom Wiewiora, Director of Technology at MasterTag, shared how their production team struggled with the limitations of their old systems.
“Before ERP, our team spent more time chasing updates than actually producing. We used Excel for tracking and email for artwork approvals. It was chaos, and our processes felt completely disconnected.”

Since implementing ERP, their team reports a 25% increase in production efficiency. They no longer have to manually check with different departments for job status. It’s all updated in real-time, saving hours a day on just job tracking.

“We cut invoicing errors by 90%.”

A UAE packaging firm switched from using Excel to an ERP system, and their invoicing errors dropped drastically.
“Before, we had too many systems in play. Excel was fine when we had fewer orders, but as we scaled, the errors piled up. It was costing us in penalties and client trust.”

Now, with Odoo, their invoicing is automatic, meaning no more double-checking or waiting for teams to manually input data.

“We saved 15% in material costs.”

One corrugated box plant based in Bangladesh shared how their inventory management completely changed after switching to ERP.
“We were constantly running out of stock or overordering. Excel couldn’t keep up with our fast-paced needs. Once we switched to ERP, material tracking was automated. We reduced rush orders by 30%, and our material waste dropped by 15%.”

By integrating real-time material alerts and barcode scanning, they had a clear line of sight on inventory levels, preventing stockouts and excess.

From the Experts: What We Know About ERP in Printing

Expert-level insights confirm the same thing that operators on the ground are experiencing: ERP systems are a game-changer for print businesses looking to scale efficiently.

According to industry reports, businesses using ERP solutions like Odoo see:

• 30% fewer stockouts due to automated inventory management and real-time alerts
  
• 20% faster delivery times thanks to automated job tracking and optimized scheduling
  
• Reduced rework costs by 25% with version control and real-time artwork approvals
  
• Improved employee productivity, with staff spending less time fixing errors and more time working on high-value tasks
  

“ERP makes every process more transparent, which leads to smarter decisions and fewer mistakes. Without the chaos of manual entry, teams can focus on what truly matters: getting the job done on time, every time.”

Frustrated with Excel and MIS?

You’ve probably run into this before: a job gets delayed because someone forgot to update the spreadsheet, or a client complains about a misprint, and you realize the approval was never logged. It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

Excel and MIS were never built for the fast-paced, ever-changing demands of modern print shops. They’re clunky, outdated, and prone to mistakes. And when those mistakes happen, they cost time and money.

It’s time to make a change. ERP isn’t just about replacing old tools — it’s about creating a system that actually works. With an ERP like Odoo, everything from job approval to production and dispatch is tracked in one place. No more missing updates, no more confusion, and definitely no more chasing information.

Wondering if ERP is right for your team?

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