Who has the best all-around package for web-to-print?

[guineapig]

... [removed advertising]

OnPrintShop solution has integration with variety of payment gateway api. Payment gateway send back notification to system (website) from where payment request was generated to update / mark orders as paid.

Each payment gateway has different integration system & we need to write code accordingly.

Then why do you need a copy of the customer data? In our investigation of the database, clearly Radix is getting a copy of all Paypal information and that includes the amount, together with the customer's name, customer's email address, customer's phone number, whether or not their payment is Eligible, and a whole slew of data likely unnecessary to be sent back to Radix directly.

You can attack me all you want, but you have yet to answer why you need a copy of customer data.

You may have 300 customers, but if I were a betting woman, I'd bet that none of them had to hire another developer --- so your secret would have been kept a secret for a very long time had I not needed to release Radix of your duties on my web site.

 

[Odom Neil]

I have read the overall discussion going on here about the web to print solution and software providers. Well in WWW there are end numbers of companies that are providing online design software that helps in designing and printing any product easy in quick session of time. Many companies develops all in one product design tool and complete solution is built over well proven Magento e-commerce platform with designer developed in Action Script 3. If anyone required any help regarding the best web to print software that too at affordable cost feel free to ask me. It a pleasure for me that I can guide you the best.

 

[Laurens]

Apogee Storefront from Agfa Graphics hasn't been mentioned yet, and as its product manager I am happy to do so
Our solution is mainly focused on the B2B market but can be used for public stores as well. As one of the modules of the Apogee Suite, the web-to-print system offers integration with the Apogee Prepress workflow. Order items are automatically picked up and processed by the prepress system. JDF is used to exchange administrative data while PDF is -obviously- used for page content. How the data get processed can be configured using a production plan - which can be defined for each separate product in a web-to-print shop. Apogee Prepress then allows a savvy administrator to further customize order processing using scripts.

 

[postnetnc133]

What about - websites for printers?

 

[niteshharry]

Hmmm…I have been watching this post since its inception. There seems to be a lot of unhappy people using various "lower end" web to print systems. I was also surprised no one has mentioned pageflex throughout this post.

While I understand Pageflex is pretty expensive, I have NEVER had any issues with the software. Export template from Indesign…set variables…upload. Easy-sneazy. Their tech support is awesome. I guess it comes down to…you get what you pay for.

We have over 100 clients set up on our system, and orders fly in every day. The best thing about web to print besides not having to typeset, is that it really "locks" your client in. We are not the cheapest printer in town…but…our customers can order their collateral 24/7. Our lead times are cut drastically by the system, and most of the time we print the orders and ship the same day.

I can honestly say… I'd rather pay more for a system that "works", than constantly struggle.

Brent

Your experience with Pageflex surprises me. We've had nothing but trouble with them. They do not respond to our queries, we can never get hold of them over the phone and we are finding it almost impossible to keep using Pageflex.

Our problems have become so bad we're seriously considering shelving Pageflex and moving either to Online Print Solutions or XMPie - at this stage it looks like we're going with OPS. Personally, I like Pageflex - I think it's a very solid piece of software and the storefronts that are created have a lot of useful features. But the lack of support is unacceptable for us and its going to force us to start using new software.

 

[steppy]

At Pageflex, support services was among the groups hardest hit by the rounds of layoffs in the past year. Still some brilliant folks remain on staff. With key developers and support personnel gone it's not surprising to hear about your difficulties.

White knights do sometimes come through and Pageflex could easily get well. Keep your eyes and ears open.

 

[niteshharry]

O ok yeah I'd heard something about layoffs affecting their company. Another problem with us is that we are located in South Africa and as far as we are aware, we are their only South African customer. The lack of a local partner or agent is also a problem as it is more difficult for us to localise our storefronts (i.e. accept local currency and use local payment gateways).

 

[Rajat]

inquiry about web2print solution

inquiry about web2print solution

i want to make my printing business online from traditional business to online business as I have multiple affiliates and i want to provide them multiple domains with central admin, something like trade printer solution, so kindly provide some details with the pricing.


thanks & regards

 

[printer2012]

we had red tie in, the system didn't live upto what the sales people said, twas no good to us!!, so we will be taking them to court and requesting our money back!

 

[Bjam]

This thread is a fantastic read, a million thanks. Can anyone shed any light on Vpress - we are looking seriously at their w2p solution?

 

[billp]

We are looking to commit and are very interested to learn the pitfalls of established W2P software. We provide a broad spectrum of print services, primarily using inhouse digital equipment but also job out a fair amount of short run offset. We also freight our clients printing directly to their retail outlets. We don't want to be hamstrung, or caught in an expensive proprietary payper (everything) loop, and realise that new versions may bring useful improvements/stability etc, that was not available a year or two back... ie am prepared to reinvestigate software that has been previously inferior.

Would greatly appreciate advice/pointers to assist making a shortlist.

cheers

 

[Stephen Marsh]

We are looking to commit and are very interested to learn the pitfalls of established W2P software. We provide a broad spectrum of print services, primarily using inhouse digital equipment but also job out a fair amount of short run offset. We also freight our clients printing directly to their retail outlets. We don't want to be hamstrung, or caught in an expensive proprietary payper (everything) loop, and realise that new versions may bring useful improvements/stability etc, that was not available a year or two back... ie am prepared to reinvestigate software that has been previously inferior.

Would greatly appreciate advice/pointers to assist making a shortlist.

cheers

Do you have an MIS system? Does it have a W2P option? Does a 3rd party W2P integrate with your MIS? Do you care that your W2P solution may be a Web to nowhere solution if there is no MIS tie in? What about the cost of getting one to talk to the other?

Back when I used iWay (a B2B W2P system), the best that I could do was to take a screen capture of the online order - that was the “job bag”. It had no tie in with our MIS and it was not worth the double entry of data into a separate system.


Stephen Marsh

 

[onprintshop]

We are looking to commit and are very interested to learn the pitfalls of established W2P software. We provide a broad spectrum of print services, primarily using inhouse digital equipment but also job out a fair amount of short run offset. We also freight our clients printing directly to their retail outlets. We don't want to be hamstrung, or caught in an expensive proprietary payper (everything) loop, and realise that new versions may bring useful improvements/stability etc, that was not available a year or two back... ie am prepared to reinvestigate software that has been previously inferior.

Would greatly appreciate advice/pointers to assist making a shortlist.

cheers

Hi,
Establishing in W2P Solutions is not just about software and packages but how you will roll out and continue to promote / enhance your customer services.

While there are Retail Customer who give high merging cost of acquiring and servicing them is indeed challenge. Corporate customers gives steady business but at times you have to support to bring them on online platform.

Based on our customers feedback & experience we learned no package is really helpful to meet unique business requirement and those who strive to excel in this rather than yet another w2p website needs customized web2print solution.

We are strong with web front end with responsive design, online design tool (WYSIWYG) & template engine, corporate management, vender management ( to outsource print jobs), Trade Printer ( for build your own network of resellers) and integration with XML and 3rd party work flows.

Demo is available at Demo of web2print storefront with ecommerce, web2print shop, online web 2 print system[/url] , one of our W2P Consultant will be eager to help you define your requirement and see if our solution can be of any help.

Regards,

 

[billp]

hi, appears to do what we want, am currently compiling a list of features we seek. Will compare over the next week & replay cheers Adrian

 

[Bjam]

We looked at 30 systems over 3 years each one reached a point where we couldn't see any realistic chance of a business at the end. We eventually settled on Go ePower in Canada and we will go live in the next few weeks. It has the complete package from the front end to the back end. Anything else out there is a complete waste of time. If you read all the threads you will see what others have said about other products in the market. Anyone going into this must do so with extreme caution as the waters are full of dreamers who believe putting up the word W2P will translate into a business. No no no. Even Efi who you'd expect to be on top of their game struggle to cope with the developments that are taking place.

But please read the previous threads everything is there and remember you have been warned.

 

[onprintshop]

hi, appears to do what we want, am currently compiling a list of features we seek. Will compare over the next week & replay cheers Adrian

If you fill online form for contact please mention PrintPlanet and Dharmesh Acharya so i can identify. You can also email me at da at radixweb dot com

 

[Vikram_]

The best all around package would definitely be an open source package, which gives you enough freedom to customize and scale as per your needs. Zetaprints is one option, another one, if you are looking for a high end designer is Open Source Web-To-Print |Web-To-Print Solution
Best is to go with an open source.

 

[billp]

hi Bjam,

have you made satisfactory progress with go epower? What issues have arisen? Could you please post a link to your site?

thanks Adrian

We looked at 30 systems over 3 years each one reached a point where we couldn't see any realistic chance of a business at the end. We eventually settled on Go ePower in Canada and we will go live in the next few weeks. It has the complete package from the front end to the back end. Anything else out there is a complete waste of time. If you read all the threads you will see what others have said about other products in the market. Anyone going into this must do so with extreme caution as the waters are full of dreamers who believe putting up the word W2P will translate into a business. No no no. Even Efi who you'd expect to be on top of their game struggle to cope with the developments that are taking place.

But please read the previous threads everything is there and remember you have been warned.

 

[wtl0715]

I've been lurking here for a while and keeping up with this thread. I hope you guys don't mind if I chime in. Full disclosure, I work for this company, but I also truly believe in it. It's also worth mentioning that I'm not in marketing and I don't earn commission.

The company is Keen Systems. We built an E-Commerce solution for small and medium sized print shops (we have a few large clients, too). We make custom storefronts for print shops.

PROS: We have a great price point - much lower cost that the bigger companies. The storefronts are scalable and customizable. You can also create custom private portals for large clients. There is also built-in preflighting software that weed out unwanted files. There is also a built-in system for communicating with your web customers, which really helps you keep orders organized (my favorite feature). Finally, there is a built-in editing tool (very basic) for things like banners and business cards.

CONS: There are cheaper options on the market. We are not open source, as someone mentioned earlier. We also don't have some of the advanced features that the big companies offer (like POS systems for inside your shop or integrated accounting). It is browser-based (for some, this might be a pro). The editing tool can only do basic stuff - it won't add much value for professional designers or B2B clients.

If you want to know more, feel free to shoot me a PM. You can also ask for me if you want to call in.

-Taft

 

[gailbird65]

We already have XMPie, Veracore and RocketPrint. We looked into PressWise, but it's WAY too complicated for the average user. You need a degree in programming just to set up a storefront and add products - and PressWise is solely for print production. It does not handle static or promo items well at all. Rocketprint is an excellent "starter" software - easy to learn, good tech support, relatively inexpensive - if you're just looking for a storefront, but it has NO back end for inventory / fulfillment management. We are looking for inventory / fulfillment software that can also handle variable data and print on demand products. For now, we are sticking with XMPie and Veracore (which is a very robust inventory system). We've looked into PageFlex, Eon Code, Fusion Pro / Printable, etc. etc. There's just nothing out there right now that's the complete package - MIS, online storefront / estimating, production workflow, gang runs, inventory and fulfillment.