TRAINING: The Key to Success

One of the most crucial aspects of installing an electronic prepress system is training, a necessity that has a tendency to be underestimated, underbudgeted for, underappreciated, undervalued, and in general under-just about everything.

"It gets confusing," says Joe Demharter, electronic imaging manager for Pitman Company. "People tend to think of it as getting somebody in to teach the employees how to use the Mac and how to run Photoshop. But that's the easy part."

There are, Demharter says, three different kinds of training a company needs to consider when installing an electronic pre-press system. Each type of training is best obtained from a different source.

Basic Training. This consists first of all in learning how to use the workstation, typically, but not always, the Macintosh.

These machines are supposed to be intuitive, and they are, to people who already know how to use them. A lot of prepress systems are installed in plants where the employees have no computer experience, and a little training will speed things along.

Beyond that, basic training consists of the typical desktop publishing courses: instruction in QuarkXpress®, Adobe Photoshop®, and whatever other standard desktop software the system will use.

There are companies all over the country that supply this kind of dealer training. Dealers tend to be familiar with these companies and can recommend and set up basic training courses.

Applications training.. This is a good deal more complex. Once employees have mastered the mechanics of the system and its software, they need to be trained in using it efficiently to perform functions like page assembly, trapping, separations, and imposition.

They may also need instruction in areas like film quality control, especially if the company is moving into new product areas. If you are working with a dealer, the best source for this kind of training should be the dealer's personnel.

Product training. This is instruction in how to operate and maintain a given piece of equipment. The best source of this kind of training is the equipment manufacturer.

Again, the dealer is in the best position to coordinate and handle training across all three areas.

In some ways, this is a bit less of an issue than it used to be. Open systems hardware products tend to be more reliable than the hardware in proprietary systems, an observation that applies to some, but by no means all, of the software as well.

These machines are mass produced by the millions, especially the computers, which means they are thoroughly checked out. Proprietary system components are manufactured in much smaller numbers, which means that bugs and design defects have a better chance of escaping detection.

However, you definitely need a source of ongoing support. If you're using a dealer as a systems integrator, the dealer is a logical locus of support, because it can buy the products for you.

Dealers also offer a three-tier level of support:

1. The dealer's resources and expertise. This is especially important in interfacing in the electronic part of the business with the conventional.
2. The external market. Just as with training, third-party services such as networking, Mac/PC integration, and other computer-related functions are readily available. This is best handled locally, and the dealer can help you find these resources.
3. The equipment manufacturers themselves.

Properly coordinated, this makes a large infrastructure of support.

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This article is reprinted with permission of Cahners Publications and first appeared in that company's August 1994 supplement to Graphic Arts Monthly.

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