Management information systems (MIS) lead the way for lean manufacturing initiatives and productivity enhancements.

By Tom Polischuk

Wood—You would expect MIS/ERP consolidation to happen in line with industry consolidation, although you could have made this observation ten years ago and there are even more MIS/ERP options than then! The obvious barrier to software company consolidation is the often completely different technologies being used, which do not lead to synergistic advantages that you may see from converters consolidating. Secondly, package printing companies have strong loyalties and preferences for particular software solutions, making it hard to offer a single solution following consolidation.