Following on from a previous post on reasons to deal directly with your printer, this post looks at one of the ways technology has made doing that so much simpler: web to print.
First, there was the post and mailing out the plans and drafts. Couriers crisscrossing cities with drawings and proofs.
Then came the fax and images sent over with a phone ring and a series of beeps and bleeps. Almost instant messaging but its usefulness limited by its small size.
From there, our industry moved on to email. PDFs sent in milliseconds across oceans from office to office. Proofs approved in a matter of minutes.
What a world we live in!
Web to print is the successor to the emailed order request.
As print evolves to make requirements easier to both ask for and fulfil, web to print is the system that forms the backbone of creating this dedicated process.
What Is Web To Print?
Web to print is the process of requesting print through an online portal set up specifically with your requirements in mind.
The portal can be totally personalised to contain your marketing or sales collateral.
From brochures to stationery, business cards to point of sale, any item that you regularly purchase can be set up and called off as needed.
Order requested and the information sent over directly to the printer.
All with the click of a mouse and in real time.
Who uses it?
From small to medium-sized businesses and enterprises right through to large corporations, if your company is buying in print, it will benefit from a web to print system.
It’s used in local government, healthcare operations, banking and insurance.
Retail stores will call off POS kits individually packed for each location.
Anywhere there is more than one location or more than one person sourcing print can benefit. It streamlines the process from searching for order books, previous purchasing history, and the ‘what was that called’ syndrome, to an easy to use software that can be custom made to limit it to all your team really needs.
It can even go further than that.
We can integrate your print requests not just to our production department but we can also build you a channel directly to the design team.
Need to amend a colour, a logo or a piece of copy? The personal link to our creatives means your updates land with the right person in real time.
Imagine that direct line straight to the printer.
There is no middleman or print agency, no to-ing and fro-ing to get urgent information.
True print costs from the people carrying out your work.
What Can Be Ordered Via Web To Print?
The web to print catalogue can contain any or all the printed items your company orders.
It can be split into categories by the department or by usage.
We can even set up seasonal items that are only needed every quarter or annually.
There can be reminders that ping up when items may be getting low.
Clever notifications built on product history and intellectually worked out to ensure stock-outs are a thing of the past.
Mentioning history, a web to print browser will also show all previous orders by date, by order number, even by the person ordering.
For company’s that prefer the authorising of print before it moves to production, we can set up a queue system to a specified person or department. The order will be pushed there and, after approval, be moved over to our team to fulfil.
Oh, and all of this is available 24/7 365 days a year.
Forgot to order that important item? Log in anytime to get your request underway.
We’ve seen retail chains and restaurants benefit hugely from web to print.
As each location can have a unique layout and even a separate promotion running, being able to select individual printed assets from personalised menus makes the running of campaigns so much simpler.
Leave the handling of inventory to us.
Your stores can focus on their business while we look after the rest.
Another plus point is being able to batch invoices either by time or by locations to anywhere that needs the bills.
Prefer to receive all the paperwork at month end and at head office?
Not a problem, the web to print system is completely customisable.
Running more than one location or having more than one person ordering can lead to ordering from different sources.
Colour shifts between prints, corporate branding not quite as expected. Differing paper stocks or signage substrates from manufacturer to manufacturer.
If you’ve ever had to match up collateral from two sources you’ll know the differences from printer to printer.
It’s the reason we calibrate all our machines to produce as close a colour match throughout QPS Print as we can.
By minimising the number of places your print can come from will maintain a uniformity across your brand and your message.
Finally, let’s be honest. By sourcing all from one place, it should also help when it comes to negotiating costs too.
So from large format print for exhibitions to letterheads and compliment slips for office use, if web to print is the way forward for your team, talk to ours on 01782 413789
For more on how QPS can help streamline your print workflow, check our information on promotional roller banners or our guide to shell scheme graphics.
