WEB-BASED SUBMISSION: A Must for In-plants

I AM NOT a “techie.” I’ve never sent a text message in my life. I can barely navigate my basic cell phone, which I carry under protest. But that said, I am an absolute evangelist for Web-based submission for in-plants.

By Web-based submission I mean the following:

• A robust, interactive and customer-friendly Web site for your in-plant.

• The ability to receive job orders, estimate requests and job files from your customers.

• Easily accessible and useful information about all aspects of your operation (online work authorization forms, a map of how to find your facility, tips on preparing files, staff names and phone numbers, etc.).

Why bother? Simply because it is how customers want to conduct business nowadays. At University of Missiouri Printing Services, we started offering online ordering for business cards, letterhead and envelopes years ago. Today we receive about 260 of these orders per month—more than 95 percent of them online. Our customers love it. We have since expanded our Web access to include all of our services.

More Computer-savvy Every Year

At the University of Missouri our customer base of faculty, staff and students is ever changing, but with one common and critical attribute—every year they have become increasingly computer savvy. They have come to expect to be able to conduct business from their computer screens. It is easy, efficient and convenient. Many of them order clothing, perfume and dog food online. Why not printing as well?

So why aren’t all in-plants offering Web submission? It is complicated. I may be an evangelist, but I am also a realist. Some may think Web-based submission is more or less a matter of scanning your existing business forms and putting them online. This could not be further from the truth. It requires much deeper thinking in a different way about your operation and how you communicate your services online.

Also, Web-based submission (or Web-to-print, to use the current vernacular) is organic; it is constantly evolving, just like the aggravatingly necessary computer itself. We have found that you cannot set up such a system and then just forget about it. You have to update and tweak it often. You have to keep information current; you must accommodate updated software versions (both yours and your customers); and you should periodically create a fresh appearance for your site.

My point here isn’t to discourage you, but to sincerely suggest that unless you are a genuine computing guru yourself, you’ll need to hire your own internal Information Technology (aka computer) expert. The perfect candidate is someone extremely computer savvy and possessing considerable knowledge about printing and graphics; if you find this person you’ve hit the technology grand slam. You will soon discover such a person to be indispensable to your operation in a number of ways. Not only with your Web-based submission efforts but also with the myriad of daily computer hardware and software issues that come up, both for your employees and in some cases your customers.

We were fortunate to find such a person. With him we’ve been able to design our own offset Web submission site. And I differentiate between offset and what I call digital toner, formerly xerography.

Two Web-to-print Systems

At MU Printing Services we offer both offset printing and digital toner printing. As a result, we have two different but similar Web-submission paths to our offset and digital services. And we are working on converging these two paths into one, which naturally isn’t nearly as simple as it sounds. As you know, pricing for offset is different from fixed rate digital toner pricing. And many customers aren’t aware of other differences between the two printing methods either. As a result, they may order an offset job when they meant to order a digital toner job and vice versa.

And the typical customer will not read screen after screen of complicated (to them) explanations about different printing methods. The attention span of a computer screen reader is very short. You must keep it simple.

Our digital toner Web submission is the beta version of the original Digital Store Front (DSF) from T/R Systems. EFI bought out T/R Systems several years ago and now sells DSF.

If you are not currently offering Web-based submission for your operation, please seriously consider looking into it. As I noted earlier, it is how most customers want to conduct business these days. But another important point is that offering Web-based submission helps with the all-important perception of your in-plant. Suddenly your printing operation isn’t seen as a “sunset” industry, as some may incorrectly argue it to be. Rather your operation is now seen to be as modern as everything else being offered on the Web—and that’s not a bad way to be seen. IPG

Rick Wise is director of Printing Services at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he has worked since 1989. He is on IPG’s editorial advisory board and recently joined the IPMA board. Contact him at:

wiser@missouri.edu