The Virtual Press

Overview

In Morning Flight's magical kingdom of make-believe, all offset printers are given three presses: a one-color, a two-color, and a four-color. Three presses exactly. No more, no less.

Quick show of hands, how many small offset shops fit that mold and have that range of equipment? A one-color press with a T-head, usually. A two-color press drafted into service for the occasional four-color run, maybe. In the real world, few small shops can afford a million-dollar Heidelberg.

So what is a virtual press, and why do you need one? In a nutshell, a virtual press is an imaginary clone of a real press you have in your shop. The two share physical characteristics, but on the phantom press you use a different pay rate. And often, different plates as well. That's the main reason for having it. Same press, different type of work, different pricing.

Case in Point

Say you operate a single, solitary press in your shop, a two-color Ryobi. Following the pre-launch interview, Morning Flight sets up one real press for your two-color work, a virtual press for one-color, and another virtual press for four-color process. Your full-time employee prints one-color and two-color work during the day. Now and then, a more qualified (and higher-salaried) moonlighter comes in after hours to run four-color process. Again, same Ryobi, different hourly rate, different pricing.

Of course, if do you have the three presses Morning Flight wants you to have, then virtual presses never enter the picture. All of your presses will be real. On the flip side, if you're a broker and outsource all your work, all three of your presses will be virtual. This isn't rocket science. Just a business model, a logical way to help you structure your pricing.

How to set up a Virtual Press

Using the example above, let's assume you accepted the defaults and had Morning Flight set up a one-color Multi, a two-color Ryobi, and a four-color GTO during the pre-launch interview. You don't actually own a GTO, the interview was yesterday, and today you decide to create a four-color virtual version of your two-color Ryobi.

FourColorRyobi

Step by Step

1.	Click the My Shop button, then click Presses.

2.	Double-click 2-Color Ryobi.

3.	Write down all the specifications, hourly rate, and plate prices you see in the press update window.

4.	Click the up arrow in the black panel and write down all three four-color prices.

5.	Close the press update window and double-click 4-Color GTO.

6.	Change the Name in the GTO update window to Ryobi-V and reduce the Units (the printheads) from 4 to 2.

7.	Change all press parameters such as minimum and maximum Sheet Sizes to what you wrote down in step 3.

8.	Change Plate Prices to what you wrote down in step 3. Uncheck any plates that can't be used for four-color process.

9.	Adjust the Hourly Rate until the prices displayed in the black panel either come close to what you wrote down in step four, or to what you intend to charge for four-color printing. When you're done, click OK.