Web-to-Print: Where is the Future Headed?

Almost everyone's talking about web-to-print and most have very different ideas about it. Prinect Manager, Peter Häbig, explains what's behind it and for whom it's worthwhile.

Mr. Häbig, what is web-to-print?
Häbig: Generally speaking, web-to-print allows a customer to log onto a print shop's website and create their desired print template online. This can include standard print products like business cards, for example, or even complex brochures. Necessary commercial processes are also taken into consideration in the process. This is very important. Heidelberg, however, focuses on service with this business model. We emphasize how print buyers can be linked to the print shop online.

So it can be used as a tool for customer loyalty?
Häbig: Exactly. Because this online connection is an additional service which print shops can offer their customers. Exactly how this linking works can vary significantly. It begins with providing a PDF form for customers to fill out in order to personalize business cards or invitations and extends all the way up to web-based applications, which help the print buyers to generate demanding layouts. What remains constant is the web-based interaction between customer and print shop. The print shop puts PDF forms, functions and tools online, which the customer can take advantage of.

What are the advantages to customers and print shops?
Häbig: End customers can create, edit and release print templates around the clock. That means time saved and increased flexibility. In addition, regular customers profit from the fact that previously saved information - for example commercial data or production parameters - only needs to be called up, for example in the case of a repeat job or request for quotation. At the same time, this means less work for the print shop. Not only because the customer takes over a few tasks previously carried out by the print shop, for example preflighting, but also because he creates a large percentage of the commercial data belonging to the order. It's therefore a win-win situation.

To what extent is it possible to link my customers?
Häbig: Currently, almost any print template, even very complex ones, can be created over the internet. With our Prinect solutions, we support all kinds of online linking - from templates for simple standard print products up to comprehensive functions for extremely demanding print products. Which of these versions a print shop offers its customers is of course based on the questions:  What do my customers want? How can I offer them added value?

Heidelberg online presents three of the main versions here to help orient you:

1st Version: highly standardized print products with form-based templates

Typical products: invitations, business cards, stationery

Target group: private customers, small businesses, print product buyers for corporations who want to interchange the addresses of different branches on their letterheads, for example.

Here's how it works: the print product buyer opens the PDF form online, enters text into the assigned fields and perhaps imports a picture. Changes in layout are not intended. The customer checks his entries using the preview feature, determines the run length and type of paper and then clicks on "ok/ready for printing".

In the print shop's workflow: the print shop provides form-based templates using Prinect Direct Access. After the customer has filled out the selected template and clicked on "ok", a PDF is generated which is ready for printing and sent directly into the production workflow using Direct Access. The print shop can now produce the plates without further inquiry. Since Direct Access is an integral part of the Management Information System (MIS), Prinect Prinance, the print shop receives the corresponding commercial data during the process.

Evaluation: this version allows you to acquire new customer groups - for example, smaller businesses or private individuals for whom the print products were previously too expensive. With this business model competition is very price-driven, however.

2nd Version: complex print products for which the print product buyer creates the content and layout offline

Typical products: all kinds of commercial products

Target group: business clients and regular customers who want to produce print templates faster and more flexibly

Here's how it works: the customer registers on the print shop's portal. He then specifies the print job: He says, for example, that he wants to print a 16-page brochure in A4, four-color with wire stitching in a run length of 5,000 copies. He sends the price request and receives an offer shortly afterwards. If the customer accepts the price, he then uploads his print template as a PDF in order to carry out prepress processes such as preflighting or page approval. He receives immediate feedback from the print shop automatically and thus learns if the print data is ok or if it needs touching up.

In the print shop's workflow: Prinect Direct Access forwards the essential information for creating a digital job ticket to Prinect Prinance. Using Prinect Remote Access, the customer's print template is uploaded as a PDF and automatically tested for its printability with Prinect Prepress Manager. A comparison of the commercial data (Prinect Direct Access/Prinect Prinance) with the production data (Prinect Remote Access/Prinect Prepress Manager) ensures that the uploaded print template truly corresponds to the job data (for example format or color) which the print shop's customer entered for the job. In addition, the print shop can access and view the current job status at any time.

Evaluation: print product buyers save time and win flexibility. The service increases customer loyalty.

3rd Version: complex print products for which the print product buyer creates the content and/or layout online

Typical products: all kinds of commercial products

Target group: business clients and regular customers who want to create print templates faster and more flexibly

Here's how it works: version 3 works like Version 2. The only difference is that the customer can access functions online which he needs to create the print products, for example a content management system.

In the print shop's workflow: see version 2. The only difference: The third party system whose functions the print shop wants to provide its customers with must be integrated into the Prinect workflow.

Evaluation: see version 2.