Printable's Fushion Pro Software

[Missygail]

Okay, my boss wants my opinion on some software. It's hard for me to form an opinion when I've never heard of the software and never used it.

I don't want to tell my boss to purchase the software because the salesman sounds convincing and then in a few months of using the software find out it's a piece of .... ya know.

I wanted to find out if anyone on here has used Fushion Pro and if it's worth the money.

Here's their website http://www.printable.com/

Please if you've used this software tell me any good stories and any horror stories. Thanks.

[mdohrn]

FusionPro is definitely worth the money when you look at its competition - most similar would be Creo's Darwin suite of software. With an entry price of 8,000 USD, no US-based support, and terrible performance, Darwin outsells FusionPro 5:1. FusionPro is great for personalizing anything, or showing financial performance through graphs & charts, or any type of data-driven application.

What kind of work will this be used for? Direct mail? Financial reports? Personalized letters?

[Missygail]

Well, my boss had the idea for using the fushion pro software especially for mailers, so we could just import the addresses. We've had a man who was running for a seat on the Creek Nation Tribal council and was sending out mailers.

We'll have to print out labels and put them on the mailers. My boss believes with Fushion Pro we can just import all the addresses in and print them all out complete with addresses.

Also, we are going through some changes bringing on a new official location and we may want to send out mail to our customers letting them know we have more than one location.

We do a lot of work for lawyers, realtors and a few doctors.

[mdohrn]

Well, if you already own Microsoft Office, you can put together a Mail Merge project using a list in Excel and an Avery label template mail merge in Word.

If you'd like more control than Office can afford, or if you like things that work in a comprehensible manner, FusionPro is a great piece of work.

I primarily send out mailers using FusionPro, with some personalization of documents with promotional codes and personalized elements (name in title). I also use common FusionPro setups with variable image capabilities... for instance, having a particular recipient's sales rep's picture appear on a mailer, if it is listed in the data. There is a lot of customization ability in FusionPro, and that it runs from Acrobat allows me to use client artwork with (relatively) few issues relative to the workflow required with other variable data applications.

That being said, if you're just making labels for envelopes or pre-printed postcards, you should really look into MS Office mail merge - no need to kill flies with an elephant gun :)

[Missygail]

Yeah, I've used the mail merge feature once for a group of cards that had to go out numbered from 5001 to 6000.

I mentioned the mail merge feature with Indesign and my boss said that with that we'd still have to enter in each address, which is generally true you do have to enter in each address in the excel file you use in the mail merge... but if I'm not mistaken you'll have to do the same thing with Fushion Pro.

I'll have to ask my boss what he's expecting to do with Fushion Pro, because I'm not sure if he's sure.