openletter
Active member
I run a small direct mail shop of 9 people. We have been growing pretty quickly over the past couple of years and need better automated workflows to offset the demand for more staff. One of the biggest bottlenecks for us is in pre-press. We have 1 person in that position and he is having difficulty keeping up with orders but we are not at the point where we need to hire someone else (I don't think I should ever need to either). I know there are better automated tools out there but I don't come from a print background so I'm looking for some guidance. Here is the process for our pre-press person:
1) All orders come to us via our website
2) A job ticket is manually created from the order form
3) The customers lead list is reviewed to ensure proper format and to break it out in case the customer wants us to send their mailers in multiple batches
4) The letter and envelope or the postcard proof is created from an existing template that we have on file (70%) or it is created from scratch (30%)
5) The proof is emailed to the customer for approval
6) If not approved, we edit the proof and email to the customer
7) If approved, their lead list is put into our postal software (AccuZip) for presorting and address validation
7) The exported lead list is merged into the letter and envelope or the postcard proof via InDesign (for letters & postcards) and Word (envelopes) to prep for printing
8) Letters or Postcards are imposed in InDesign
9) Letters or Postcards are sent to Xerox Versant 180
10) Envelopes are ready to be printed in Production
11) The customer receives a status email notifying them that their order is in Production
I know there are web-to-print software out there but I'm having difficulty buying one because 1) some are very expensive 2) I can't find one that will do everything that I need 3) we would have to redesign our whole store which we don't have the time for and what happens if we find out it can't do something we need 4) a lot of our customers are lazy and don't want to go through the proofing steps themselves.
Any help, advice or consulting would be appreciated.
1) All orders come to us via our website
2) A job ticket is manually created from the order form
3) The customers lead list is reviewed to ensure proper format and to break it out in case the customer wants us to send their mailers in multiple batches
4) The letter and envelope or the postcard proof is created from an existing template that we have on file (70%) or it is created from scratch (30%)
5) The proof is emailed to the customer for approval
6) If not approved, we edit the proof and email to the customer
7) If approved, their lead list is put into our postal software (AccuZip) for presorting and address validation
7) The exported lead list is merged into the letter and envelope or the postcard proof via InDesign (for letters & postcards) and Word (envelopes) to prep for printing
8) Letters or Postcards are imposed in InDesign
9) Letters or Postcards are sent to Xerox Versant 180
10) Envelopes are ready to be printed in Production
11) The customer receives a status email notifying them that their order is in Production
I know there are web-to-print software out there but I'm having difficulty buying one because 1) some are very expensive 2) I can't find one that will do everything that I need 3) we would have to redesign our whole store which we don't have the time for and what happens if we find out it can't do something we need 4) a lot of our customers are lazy and don't want to go through the proofing steps themselves.
Any help, advice or consulting would be appreciated.
