a good Web to Print solution presently

[ashwini singh]

Hi we were planning to invest in a web to print solution and have been confused with so many demos and sites that it is now all very confusing.
We would like to start with a b2b store we can cater to our clients and then go to the store front option. could anyone help me with some good tried and tested solutions ?
also since i am new to this i also trying to understand what kind of a team will i require for operations and running the website smooth. Since i would not be handling these jobs on my own could anyone advice on how to start setting up a team

 

[brent]

Ummm…There are so many different solutions out there. I know for us, we went with Four51. They are probably one of the more costly solutions, but, their support is second to none.

As to a team…well it's just me. I went to a one week training in Minnesota about 5 years ago. Since then they now have the option of online training for everything. I run the pre-press department at our shop. Basically the person in charge of the WTP solution will be tasked with building out the customer sites as well as setting up all variable data templates to be uploaded. Overall, it's not that difficult for the most part to someone familiar with desktop publishing programs. Four51 uses Pageflex as it's main program. Pageflex for the most part works like most desktop publishing programs, so if you are familiar with InDesign, you will not have much of a problem learning Pageflex. Plus you can export your Quark or InDesign docs right into Pageflex making it that much easier to set up your templates.

There are some times where one must write simple code to handle some exceptions, which is Javascript. While this is not too difficult to learn, it definitely is a skill that most people in a shops pre-press department don't know from the start. I remember in the beginning, Four51 helped us out with a lot of our more difficult templates that had many exceptions to the basic template. But over the years, I have learned to do it all myself.

One last advantage to Four51, is that it is a hosted solution. We don't have to maintain our own server, so we do not need an IT guy at our shop. I can just concentrate on the sites themselves, and let Four51 handle all the maintenance.

 

[Josh]

Yes lots and lots and lots of options.

I'll try and find the link where this was discussed in some detail with a list of questions you may want to be asking.

Here are some of the things I'd think about though:

There will be lots of people who will probably disagree but I don't think there are too many scenarios now where a SaaS (hosted) system wouldn't be the best option. You'll probably find the setup pricing more manageable but with a monthly cost to pay in addition to this. Obviously this pays for the hosting but also ongoing upgrades, support etc.

Budget. Do you have an idea of what you want to spend? You could literally go from Zero to $100,000.

Production/Workflow integration/automation. Where do the orders need to go to? Do they need to be fed into an MIS or pre-press system? Does this need to be automatic? (probably depends on the volume of orders you're doing, which is another good thing to think about)

Your location. Some systems may work better in certain locations (i.e they'll handle your currency or whatever else.) You may also want to have local support.

 

[ashwini singh]

Thanks a lot for your reply. I was looking at page flex but haven't heard from them after mutilple mails, i will look up four 51 for options.
The idea is to build a complete web to print solution by next year same time which will be integrated to our offset as well as digital and all work shall be passed through this channel only.
The idea seems very good but also very confusing when one start to plan out the steps involved. We are thinking at a modest investment initially to start of with a basic web to print solution and then integrate it with an MIS and eventually have everything online. What would be the steps in order to go cautiously but correctly . We have heard about limitations of certain w2p softwares so we want to keep things flexible as well.
we have a team of dtp operators , do you think they can be developed for this ? what is the level of understanding a person running a store front requires

Thanks again

 

[brent]

Well, starting modestly is all well and good, but you need to be able to look at the future also. There are a ton of system's out there. You will have to look into the compatibility of the WTP software with your chosen MIS software. You will also need to look into any automation you want to be able to incorporate into your current workflow. Also, how big is your company? If you are a smaller company, all the bells and whistles may be too much.

We chose Four51, because of flexibility and room for growth in the future. I will be the first to admit that it is one of the more costly systems, but I feel you get what you pay for.

We did not want to use our own servers or have an IT guy to do this. We wanted a stable system that was easy to use and powerful. Four51's system fit our needs.

As of now most of our clients have their own web portal and are able to order most of their printing needs directly online. This frees up our graphic department a lot! We no longer have to set 24 business cards then wait for them to be approved. Now when an order is placed it drops into our hot folder and then into our production template. And off to the press it goes…no muss, no fuss.

The amount of typesetting and approval wait time it saves is staggering.

As to your questions about your desktop department…yes, they should be able to handle it no problem. Advanced things like javascript are a benefit and let you do more complicated templates. But for the most part, your graphics department can handle most of the work themselves right from the get go.

I was lucky in that I like to continually "feed my head" so had just finished a degree in internet programming a year before implementing our Web to Print. So basically I have an art degree and a programming degree, but really that is kind of overkill. You can learn javascript as you go and in the beginning we could rely on Four51 to help us with difficult templates until we got up to speed.

 

[ashwini singh]

Thanks again Brendt.
We have a mid size offset commercial orunt house where we have 3 Heidelberg presses c74 lx = cd 102 4c = sorz.
apart from adding digitial where we would like a webtoprint we would also like to extend the services to offset as well for our clients. We are looking for a flexible software and go step by step. We do not have any mis system presently and will add everything step by step.
We plan to start with the Web 2 print software firstly where we just try and streamline all files or existing jobs and make them go through the workflow after which we plan to offer the services (b2b) to our clients and then storefront(b2c).
Can i have you email address brendt ? maybe you could advice me some more on how to start up ?

Ashwini

 

[brent]

Just sent ya a private message!