Online Print Management—the New Web-to-Print
By Daniel Defino, Vice President and Managing Director, Tukaiz

Although Web-to-print has been a hot industry buzzword for just the last couple of years, experienced Web-to-print providers are beginning to look beyond the fundamentals to identify the broad potential of this technology when it comes to providing customers the ability to control brand, better manage spending, and analyze their marketing efforts. And what they see for the future looks like a highly marketable capability and a business process already ripe for change.

In its most basic form, Web-to-print has been defined as a virtual storefront that allows a print buyer to order certain products online. Basic Web-to-print software is available off-the-shelf from a number of companies. However, we believe Web-to-print is fast evolving into so much more than just ordering basic printed materials online. In fact, we predict for those operations ready to capitalize on the opportunity, it will soon take on a whole new definition.

Welcoming the “new” Web-to-print
Offering a more complex set of online services can take a company to the next level into what we call “online print management” or OPM. An OPM system involves putting the infrastructure in place to have an end-to-end solution with the software, production, and fulfillment all under one roof. A strategic OPM system makes it possible for print providers to establish themselves as true marketing service providers (MSP) and better serve clients who want a higher engagement with their printed communications.

In contrast to the basic Web-to-print concept, OPM requires a deeper commitment from both the MSP and the customer. With the rapid growth of emerging media and consumers harder to reach, marketing service providers need to take on the challenge of helping clients better manage their marketing efforts. For example, a marketing service provider will still provide an Internet portal for designing and ordering printed products as with basic Web-to-print, but that portal will require the sophistication of robust software that has the ability to duplicate the customer’s branding from approved or pre-designed art, with security features making it accessible only to that customer’s authorized staff. For users, the experience need to be as if they are logging onto a secure corporate website, and the MSP will need to offer everything that needs to be in place to ensure this is the case.

Two key advantages of moving to a more sophisticated online print management model are greater control and improved flexibility through a centralized ordering system. Materials ordered at the site can be strictly controlled by the corporate client with respect to brand and legal issues and at the same time offer more flexibility and versatility for the users. Whether it’s personalized direct mail, POP/POS materials developed for local markets, or customized materials for a sales meeting, users can have the ability to order highly relevant marketing materials without the worry of sacrificing brand. This makes it possible for a host of beyond the basics marketing materials to live on your site, including banners, table tents, POS displays, window clings, labels, menus, and more while giving those closest to the customer the ability to develop materials that make sense for their audience.

However, an online print management system isn’t just about the front end, the output is important too, and so is the ability to fulfill.

Getting from here to there
As marketing service providers, we know customers have different needs, and different budgets. So the ability to produce high quality marketing materials in a variety of substrates, and in the most economical way, becomes mission critical in today’s economy and going forward. For those ready to expand to an OPM system, the ability for customers to choose between printing digital, offset, or in large format is another key differentiator. To be successful and truly streamline the online management process, it is important to abandon an “off the shelf” mentality and understand that whatever front-end or back-end solution you have needs to provide the customer the features, functionality, and the flexibility that fits their unique business and budget requirements. This requires front-end software that is modular, giving you the ability to use some or all of its capabilities based on a customer’s current and future business requirements.

While today’s Web-to-print technologies give print providers a viable and desirable value-added service to offer customers, some of the Web-to-print software on the market has built-in limitations. To step up to the next level, tomorrow’s marketing service provider will have to look for robust solutions that provide all the modules needed for different levels of commitment. The main thing is to find—or develop—something that effectively responds to individual customer needs. Today, every customer wants to pick and choose what makes sense for their business. To have the ability to successfully deliver a variety of online print management applications, while offering the scalability to grow to accommodate increasing demand, is critical.

Virtual inventory and fulfillment
“Virtual” inventory and fulfillment capability is another great convenience that online print management must deliver. Today, most marketers are purchasing smaller volumes of printed materials to avoid the expense of warehousing them. Warehousing, waste, and obsolescence can wreak havoc on a budget. Offering digital printing technologies and multichannel output capabilities makes it possible to print personalized, full-color materials targeted to smaller, carefully selected audiences, which means less inventory, less waste, and lower print volumes. As long as the digital files are available and accessible to both the customer and the MSP, the ink-on-paper documents are only a few hours away.

Finally, an effective OPM system should also have the ability to offer a wide range of reporting capabilities. Information that tracks spending, product demand, and inventory control should be available on demand to those who require them. This will help customers evaluate the ROI of their marketing efforts.

Becoming the “near-in-house” supplier
Marketers today are seeing their budgets shrink as their expectations expand. They must look for ways to improve their own efficiencies, and this means choosing suppliers that offer not only the quality and delivery times they need, but also an extra degree of functionality along with the conveniences. A fully developed online print management model supports an organization’s needs by creating an efficient pipeline for all types of printed marketing materials, with reduced costs and production time, no inefficiencies, and increased customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Those who make the move to ride the next wave of Web-to-print will have the opportunity to position themselves as close as possible to their clients, short of being an in-house printing facility. Working to provide these types of in-depth services will create a strong foundation for building a long-lasting and highly valuable relationship with print buyers. Online print management gives clients more flexibility and hands-on control of the materials they order, while reducing the corporate red tape and paperwork that is associated with conventional purchasing procedures—especially for personalized printing work. And it gives a marketing service provider more opportunities for revenue.

My advice for those that still have just one toe in the water when it comes to Web-to-print is to continue to explore this potentially profitable area in the upcoming year and look for technology that will make it possible to evolve to the next level of sophistication and complexity of Web-to-print applications. Investing in these capabilities before they become mainstream will make it possible to become a true marketing service provider, taking advantage of the growth potential of these expanded services as we’re called upon to meet the specific—and increasing—requirements of more engaged marketing professionals.