A quarter of UK print media businesses say use of technology forms the biggest challenge to their business, according to a survey conducted by PrintMedia Management magazine and FileMaker, Inc. The survey, which polled companies and individuals from the print media sector, also found that fragmented use of technology was holding businesses back.

40% of the 187 respondents in the survey did not think their current technology solutions were well tailored to the specific demands of their jobs, citing cost and lack of IT expertise (at 68% and 30% respectively) as the biggest barrier to adoption and use of new technology. This is compounded by a strong reliance on basic systems, with 58% of the survey respondents still using Excel for their reporting.

“This research has highlighted the headache that print media businesses are facing. With little time, money or technical knowledge to invest in new technology, making the shift to more efficient systems is perceived as a major challenge,” says Andy Knaggs, editor of PrintMedia Management who conducted the survey. “Subsequently, people are running their businesses on a range of basic systems that operate independently of each other and are not capable of scaling to evolve with developing businesses.”

Though three quarters of businesses in the survey have automated functions like accounting (85%), customer/supplier records (74%) and purchase orders (73%), there were still several business tasks that print media companies highlighted as areas that could be improved with technology. Quote management (43%) and job costing (41%) were both seen as processes that would benefit most from going digital.

“Making the jump to new information systems is seen as too technical, time consuming and expensive, but this is not actually the case,” says Tony Speakman, FileMaker regional manager for Northern Europe. “There are a number of proven low cost solutions available to the print media sector including several FileMaker applications that are easy to use and provide tangible time saving benefits.”

- Ends -

Notes to editors

About FileMaker print and publishing solutions:

A business user with just a basic technical knowledge can start automating business processes by investing in a copy of FileMaker Pro 8 available from as little as £219.00.

FileMaker has created a number of tailorable starter solutions specific to the print and publishing arena, Print 4 U and Creative Pro starter kit, which can be downloaded for free from the FileMaker website.

For more information please visit: http://www.filemaker.co.uk

About FileMaker, Inc.

FileMaker Pro is used by millions of individuals and workgroups around the world to be more productive and efficient. Business, education and government customers rely on FileMaker to manage people, projects, images, assets and other information. In addition to being the number one-selling easy-to-use database software, the award-winning FileMaker product line also includes low-cost Applications that automate basic business tasks, ready-to-use Starter Solutions, and tools to create and share solutions from the desktop to the web. FileMaker, Inc. is a subsidiary of Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).