We know that the Internet and the web technologies have changed the way businesses work. Web to Print is one such technology that has influenced the Printing Industry, enabling it to imbibe the digital means.
At the onset, Web to Print seemed like e-commerce of printing or an online printing service where customer select print products, edit them online, see digital proofs and confirm orders by making online payments.
Later it evolved into a tool for procuring orders from known/ fixed corporate customers having multi location offices, and some high-end versions were thought of using Auto Adoption of same design to different sizes.
For every size of business (depending on budget), one can get a SAAS-based W2P solution starting at US$99 to US$2500 a month or dedicated solution from US$10000 to US$25000+.
The focus was towards Template Uploading, Online Editing, Online Digital Proofs and Online Payment based on the process one followed to manage print production.
Printing companies invested heavily towards W2P solution that could procure orders from the web platform – from both new as well as existing customers. Here the focus was on retail business or on catering to existing corporate clients.
There is other segment of high-end digital print houses and giant offset printers (also known as trade printers) who never cater to the end customers directly. However, thanks to the bulk jobs procured by hundreds of print resellers or canvassers, their machines are always busy.
We all know that in the printing business, “volumes” is the name of the game! Hence, many print houses offer printing on standard paper types at highly competitive rate. This is possible because they print in volumes and their print cycles run all daily, twice a week or once a week depending on the number of resellers they have and the volume at hand.
In this whole scenario of trade printing, there is no question of templates, online editing or proof reading, mainly because these jobs come from technical resellers, canvassers, graphic designers or advertising agencies. They have a prefect print-ready file that does not need any corrections. What they really need is the facility to upload the artwork file, make payment (or see their prepaid credit), track orders and send re-print orders in the future.
Currently, the orders are either sent thorough email, or delivered in person depending on the accessibility. They have 25+ counters (a call centre) to accept orders and process payments and to attend to your order status query.
These trader printers are appointed from each region and delivery is done at one depot per trade printer. However, it would be more effective to provide them a web-based facility to login and upload their orders. A Web to Print system can create imposition and sheet of multiple orders that can be directly sent for CTP along with the facility for an administrator to enter fixed status and embed courier APIs. The entire process is automated, eliminating the need to maintain an order acceptance facility as your trade client can directly place an order.
We at Flexi Web to Print can custom design any kind of W2P solution based on your requirement. Simply share your requirements and we will provide you the best quality, cost effective solution.