Different ways to use web-to-print technology

By Elise Hacking Carr

Cross-Media Case Study

In 2006, Saks Fifth Avenue presented CRW Graphics with a big challenge. Saks needed to achieve consistent brand imaging and a more effective way of ordering customized trunk show and personal appearance invitations for its 58 store locations.

Saks essentially needed a web-to-print portal that enabled individual stores to create and order the invitations online at any time. Furthermore, the invitations had to be in the mail within 48 hours of corporate approval. The site also had to meet Sak’s “workflow process, business rules and branding standards, while allowing stores the flexibility to create an attractive invitation tailored to an individual event.”

In response, CRW Graphics created the web portal: Saks’ Invitations on Demand. The site provided Saks with brand management tools and had customized reports that met its needs. Its print-on-demand capabilities enabled Saks to effectively implement any marketing campaign.

As a result, more marketing needs are met because Invitations on Demand offers its users other products including post cards, e-vites, posters and signage. The site features a choice of 1,200 hi-resolution digital assets and more than 135 template designs.

The streamlined marketing process saved Saks more than 40 hours per week.

Source: Adapted from CRW Graphics’ White Paper, Brand Management Within Decentralized Organizations.

To read the complete study, visit www.crwgraphics.com.

If you ask five people to explain what the term "web-to-print" means to them, you will most likely end up with five different answers. Quite simply, different needs require different implementations.

"If you start to really get into meeting the needs of an organization and customize their workflow for them so that there's a real optimization effort going on, both for the client as well as the supplier, then you're going to hear lots of different kinds of implementations depending on what the need is," according to Mark Weiss, president of Pennsauken, New Jersey-based CRW Graphics and ColorQuick.

Print Professional spoke to several experts to get a better understanding of how this sophisticated technology can be utilized in your business.

1. A Good Old Fashioned Storefront

Vitaly M. Golomb, founder and CEO of San Mateo, California-based Keen Systems, believes one element of web-to-print is the idea of ordering print online, which has been his company's primary objective.

Over the last two years, Golomb and his team have built the Keen e-commerce and customer relationship management online service for print shops and brokers of all sizes. Golomb described the service as an e-commerce platform designed to help printers transition their database communication workflow from traditional methods, such as e-mails, phone calls and faxes, to an e-commerce workflow.

"What our system allows print service providers to do is to create one or multiple storefronts where each one becomes a fully capable website that's optimized for search engine traffic, allows them to build a catalog with products and accept customer requests for quotes that are structured. And their end-user customers are able to sell products, place an order, pay for it, upload files—there's an integrated preflight [to] inspect files," Golomb said.

The term "web-to-print" has become an integral part of industry vernacular over the past few years. However, its value is more important now, commented Jason Pinto, CMO of Wilmington, Massachusetts-based interlinkONE, a marketing software company.