Posts tagged print industry

We talk to a lot of print company owners and managers in charge of sales to production and everything in between.  These are the people that are in charge of picking the strategic direction for their respective print companies and making sure they have the technology and systems to support those efforts.  Over the course of the last decade a lot of them have been sold the concept of “web-to-print” as something that will solve all of their problems.  In reality, it has only provided the incremental improvement in efficiency by allowing customers to customize simple documents via a clunky web interface.  

If you step back and analyze the status quo of “web-to-print” in the context of today’s business communication technology and common practices at large; the concept is outdated to say the least.  Does it provide instant gratification on simple document edits for the customer?  To an extent.  Most print service providers do not have the volume required to benefit from these incremental time savers.  Does it make the customer more loyal to the print service provider?  Only if there is a long-term agreement in place already.  Which is coincidentally why print service providers have been trying to get customers to pay for the costly implementation of these systems. Is it worth the time and cost to setup it up?  Given the previous answers, not often.  

Most of this is not new.  Surprisingly many print service providers – even with today’s broadening general technology availability context – are still hyper-focused on this one functionality.  Not to mention the companies that have already been disappointed with the broken promises of new business these “web-to-print” systems are supposed to bring.  We call these customers “2nd generation” and they are they are looking to make an upgrade while still operating from within the intent constraints of these systems of the past.

So what SHOULD you be looking for?  
In any business, ecommerce is efficient because customers get what they need when they need it.  In the print world this means: finding the right print service provider, getting a fast quote, placing an order, paying for it, uploading files, dialog during pre-press and production, and finally getting the delivery or shipment.  These are the core basics and are the biggest stumbling blocks to a smooth customer interaction in the print business.  Who cares if they customer can modify a business card template if you can’t provide them an accurate quote, shipping options, calculate sales tax, get paid, and give them a clear order status the entire time their job is in production?  Especially if took tens of thousands of dollars in software, months of initial setup, and many hours of training and configuration for each of those templates.

So what’s the message?  When moving your business online, you must realize that you are fundamentally changing your business workflow for the better, first and foremost.  Ecommerce is no longer something you sell as a capability, but it is the shortest path between your customers and your business.  When done right, it is a win-win and positively affects both your top and bottom lines.  Done right, means focusing on the basics and making sure you start with a sound foundation.

This is what we think about when designing our print ecommerce killer app, get in touch with us for a demo.

28,000 BC – Earliest known symbols found written by humans.

3000 BC - First image duplication through the impression of round cylinders.

220 AD – First operation of woodblock printing.

1440 AD – Creation of the firstknown Printing Press.

1837 AD – Production of the first color printer.

1983 AD – Invention of the Internet.

2011 AD – On September 10th, Keen launches the first-ever multi-tenant SaaS solution for the print industry.