Web to Print storefront

[JohnPNE]

Hi all!

I wanted to stop by and introduce my self. My name is Aaron and I am with EonCode. We are a software development company that specifically caters to the printing industry. We do have a web to print solution available with dynamic calculators and order processing. Very user friendly and options are available for hosted sites and non hosted sites. Please feel free to contact me or let me know when would be a good time to contact you. We are a local business, so you dont have to worry about your orders going to India or servers placed all over the world. Id love to help you guys get up and running with your new storefronts.

Thank you,


Aaron
EonCode

http://www.eoncode.com

We run EonCode and it is the best we have found.

 

[DC321]

W2P Test Drive ...

W2P Test Drive ...

Go to Web to Print Test Drive Center for all of your Web To Print options. It is free and sponsored by the PIA. Good Luck lots of info here.

By the way anyone need a Kodak Approval XP4 that is still under maint. with Kodak. See my thread at http://printplanet.com/forums/items-sale/18439-kodak-xp4-under-maint-contract-sale

 

[alliantps]

We recently undertook a similar look into W2P solutions and found Eoncode workflow to be one of the best around.
www.eoncode.com

 

[brent]

I for one, would highly recommend PageFlex. We have been using it for 3 years now. It is awesome as far as I am concerned. Export your templates right from InDesign or Quark, tag your variables and go!

Total control over your client's corporate specs. Instant proofing for your client online. Inventory tracking, plus the ability to download either the exact file, or just portions if you use masters like we do.

This program is a life saver in our prepress department. 3 years ago, we were typesetting 30-50 business cards etc. a day for clients, then waiting on the proofs to get approved before we could go to press. Now, with instant proofing, our clients can view a pdf of their job and once they hit submit....we can get the job on press!

 

[Barry Gainey]

Web4print

Web4print

Hi All,

In our experience there is 2 types of Web2Print system:

1) Business to Business (B2B)
This system will help printers provide their business customers with a direct channel for ordering print and repeat-ordering with pre-defined and agreed prices, the ability to place systems (extranets) within corporates to centralise their print ordering, manage stock and manage approval processes. Print personalisation in this case would be limited to with brand guidelines and may not require payment service provision.

2) Business to Consumer (B2C)
A B2C system will help printers provide services directly to the public, on-off customers and typically for printing shorter runs, These systems will look like e-commerce systems with payment service provision and provide more/open personalisation capabilities.

We are a software development company that provide web2print systems to printers, we host and support these systems and are certainly not a marketing company. Most press manufacturers bundle or try sell in partner systems that historically are quite expensive to support and maintain. Smaller printers will survive because they typically have better relationships with their clients, VistaPrint provides a specific level and quality of print for the lowest cost. Local/Smaller printers will service their clients and provide the best quality they can.

Hope this helps.

Mark

I agree with Mark on this one. We offer solutions that fall into these categories but as we are a small dynamic company we can customise the them to meet more specific needs.

B2B systems have a strong focus on maintaining corporate identity but making the print ordering process as easy as possible. It dramatically reduces order turn around time too, as authorized users can create, customise and proof orders online instantly.

B2C systems allow Printer's existing customers access to a wide selection of predetermined templates, which they can very easily customise, proof and place their order.These typically include business cards, stationery, menus, prices lists, brochures and product catalogues.
B2C systems also open the market up for printers as new customers can access set print templates from any location via the internet and pay with a credit card

 

[Grnofslt]

Just curious, Has anyone heard of Four51? A W2P solution I recently heard of.

 

[brent]

Yes, we use Four51. All I can say is these guys are awesome. If I have a coding problem, they are a phone call away; if I have a templating problem they are a phone call away; If I have a java problem; they are a phone call away! Get my drift. In these lean times, being able to fix unusual problem immediately is a godsend! They aren't the cheapest, but, they have saved my butt more times than I can count! There tech support is AWESOME! And their interface makes it easy to design and upload templates!

 

[Barry Gainey]

zBret,

There are a number of products out there. There some that are attached to MIS solutions others are stand-alone. None are created equal.

PageFlex
efi DigitalStoreFront
efi Printersite Fulfillment
PrinterPresence
Heidelberg Prinance with WebAccess (MIS + W2P)
PressWise (Digital MIS + W2P)

To name just a few of these. The main thing I have learned to look out for is the method "web typesetting", "dynamic data PDF", or "variable data pdf" that is to say you create template for say a business card and the customers can type in their address and phone number into their browser and when they hit submit you get a PDF. All of these vendors seem to have their own method of using this technology.

My two pence about templating these beasts:
I found the XMPie templating models the most sound, logical and reliable. With a W2P solution using XMPie such as EFI Printersite Fulfillment you create the template in InDesign and then export it with the XMPie plugin then import it into the site. There is no double work involved here.

Hey Zbret

How is the search coming along for a Web-to-print storefront? I noticed that you had been provided with the name sof some of the major players in the web-to-print area and should tell you a little bit about what we have to offer and why we are different.
Firstly Web4print Web-to-Print solutions for Variable Data Printing document production is a smaller company so our solutions are less "out of the box" and can be customised in almost anyway to suit your needs.
Our software is based on a very powerful technology and in terms of typography and formating we are excellant.
Web4print is signifigantly cheaper than alot of our more established rivals though. Just to throw it out there (and I would more than welcome comments from any of these company's representitives) heres how some of our prices compare

PageFlex Licensed Starts at $30,000

efi DigitalStoreFront Licensed $17,995 (Job submission only) Hosted $8995 start up $800 - $1700 monthly

PrinterPresence Hosted Setup Starts at $2000 Monthly Starts at $75

Press Sense Licensed Starts at $31,150 Hosted Set up $9900 $275 - $1500 monthly

Web4print Licensed Starts at €12500 Hosted Set up €750 Monthly starts at €150

Drop me a mail [email protected] if you'd be interested in finding out more

Barry

 

[Brittany]

Hello ZBret,

Easy Card Designer offers a web to print business card software solution. You may want to consider adding it to your new website. This software allows your customers to create business cards from your website and they can choose from over 60,000+ image templates. This software enable you to manage business cards with our Hands-On option which enables you to set your own prices, collect payments from your customers via paypal, print yourself or with us.

Or you may decide for us to manage it for you which would be the turnkey software which you would simply cash the checks when orders are placed. Free use of this software. For further information you may visit: Business Card Software

If you have any questions please feel free to email me in the contact tab via the website. Have a wonderful night! Good luck!

~Brittany

 

[Grnofslt]

My company went Four51

My company went Four51

The company that I work for went with Four51 and like Brent says, their support is awesome. I just spent a week at their Minneapolis headquarters taking the Admin certification training and the Design Certification training using PageFlex. My brain still hurts from trying to ingest all of what they tried to impart to us. And there is still much more to learn. I thought I had a handle on the admin side of Four51 because I had been playing around with it for 3 months prior to the week of training but came back realizing how I had to fix a lot of my mistakes to make for a better customer experience. Go Four51!

 

[brent]

Well at least you got your training done in November...When I went to Minneapolis for training, it was in February... Note to self... Never EVER go to training in February. It was the first time I EVER experienced what 30 below zero felt like! Brrrrrr...it was cold! I don't know how they live like that!!!

 

[digitalatsigonedotcom]

Web-to-print solutions

Web-to-print solutions

If I may, I just want to pick your brain for a minute.

We are exploring digital storefronts, and want to launch early in 2011. We are currently redesigning our website and want to integrate with ASI (with whom we are a member) for seamless framing of ad specialty products.

Currently we run EFI Print Smith and utilize EFI ColorProof XF, EFI Fiery for color digital and Rampage for offset sheetfed. I am just starting the research process, and have looked at Creo/Kodak InSite, Printable's MarcomCentral and EFI's Digital StoreFront. I think I have already eliminated InSite because it is too Kodak biased, but MarcomCentral seems interesting because I believe it will have a lower cost and more user control than EFI's Digital StoreFront.

I think we want to use our website to automate quoting, ordering, billing, digital printing (and VDP printing - we have Printable's FusionPro) and perhaps proofing.

We are a small 2-up shop (26" Komori) with 4 employees, and therefore not a lot of disposable cash to throw around.

Are any of you using anything like this on your company's website and if so, what do you use and why? Do you have any other recommendations or can you point out any issues or problems with your digital storefront? Maybe things we haven't explored or thought about here... the owner here would appreciate your feedback. Thank you!

 

[Viva'sPress]

If I may, I just want to pick your brain for a minute.

We are exploring digital storefronts, and want to launch early in 2011. We are currently redesigning our website and want to integrate with ASI (with whom we are a member) for seamless framing of ad specialty products.

Currently we run EFI Print Smith and utilize EFI ColorProof XF, EFI Fiery for color digital and Rampage for offset sheetfed. I am just starting the research process, and have looked at Creo/Kodak InSite, Printable's MarcomCentral and EFI's Digital StoreFront. I think I have already eliminated InSite because it is too Kodak biased, but MarcomCentral seems interesting because I believe it will have a lower cost and more user control than EFI's Digital StoreFront.

I think we want to use our website to automate quoting, ordering, billing, digital printing (and VDP printing - we have Printable's FusionPro) and perhaps proofing.

We are a small 2-up shop (26" Komori) with 4 employees, and therefore not a lot of disposable cash to throw around.

Are any of you using anything like this on your company's website and if so, what do you use and why? Do you have any other recommendations or can you point out any issues or problems with your digital storefront? Maybe things we haven't explored or thought about here... the owner here would appreciate your feedback. Thank you!

I'm in the same boat and would like more info as well.....I'm all ears

 

[digitalatsigonedotcom]

Web-to-print solutions

Web-to-print solutions

We have opted to go with PrintlinQs (www.printlinqs.com); the price point to get in was relatively low ($1100 set up and $150/mo with no minimum subscription) and it was geared towards the print industry. Since they are more concerned with keeping you long term, they have a lower entry cost, but still offer all the same great services you might find from Printables, EFI and OPS.

Tell Tim Christian from Sig-1.com gave you the referral!

 

[[email protected]]

This stuff isn't cheap is it?

At these prices a company would be best to hire a programmer or outsource to a software company and have a truly customizable solution made that can be programmed to interact with any other software program that you have.

I personally am not a fan of solutions where you have to pay a monthly fee. Companies do this so you are stuck constantly paying them revenue and take a huge loss if you ever decide to leave them and have to start from scratch rebuilding your site.

They argue that with the subscription at least your getting the updates to the system...to which I argue that just proves your current and prior version was either junky, insecure, or deficient in offering.

Hey Zbret

How is the search coming along for a Web-to-print storefront? I noticed that you had been provided with the name sof some of the major players in the web-to-print area and should tell you a little bit about what we have to offer and why we are different.
Firstly Web4print Web-to-Print solutions for Variable Data Printing document production is a smaller company so our solutions are less "out of the box" and can be customised in almost anyway to suit your needs.
Our software is based on a very powerful technology and in terms of typography and formating we are excellant.
Web4print is signifigantly cheaper than alot of our more established rivals though. Just to throw it out there (and I would more than welcome comments from any of these company's representitives) heres how some of our prices compare

PageFlex Licensed Starts at $30,000

efi DigitalStoreFront Licensed $17,995 (Job submission only) Hosted $8995 start up $800 - $1700 monthly

PrinterPresence Hosted Setup Starts at $2000 Monthly Starts at $75

Press Sense Licensed Starts at $31,150 Hosted Set up $9900 $275 - $1500 monthly

Web4print Licensed Starts at €12500 Hosted Set up €750 Monthly starts at €150

Drop me a mail [email protected] if you'd be interested in finding out more

Barry

 

[digitalatsigonedotcom]

In our position, we don't have the upfront capital for that kind of personalization... but yes, it would be nice... however, unless you're skilled in CSS, HTML, XML, Java, Flash, etc., you wouldn't have the ability to keep things up-to-date or add new products. Plus, if you want to offer any kind of design-on-line features, you're probably out of luck unless the guy you hire has that ability as well. By the time you keep paying this guy to update, update, update, you might as well do a monthly fee to stay on the cutting edge. And if there are any hosting issues, they're not your problem.

Printlinqs was only like around $1200 to get started and only about $150/mo. They update and add new features frequently, and if I need anything, I send an email or make a phone call and it's solved. It offers all the customization we need, and has design on-line products that I program myself with their modified PDFLib blocks software plugin for Acrobat. To me, that's a bargain.

 

[[email protected]]

You have to watch though because sometimes the updates (which are mandatory and forced for continued support) aren't always things that you want.

I was comparing more to the $20k-$30k options.