BYU Develops Online Ordering Solution

Some in-plants have designed their own Web-based ordering systems. Find out how Brigham Young University did it—inexpensively and successfully.

by Eduardo Godinez

While processing dozens of paper forms with requests for stationery materials from our campus, some questions came to mind: How can we speed up the process of ordering stationery? Can we utilize the Internet to facilitate the process?

We browsed the Web in search of some answers. Looking at the available options, we noticed all of them had the same common denominator: They were expensive for what we thought of as a simple process.

At that point, we felt that maybe we could develop a system that might just do what we needed—an online ordering system that would allow our clients to typeset their own business cards, letterheads and envelopes.

The idea was simple in concept: We didn't want to distract our clients or give them the wrong idea. We wanted them to see exactly what their business card or letterhead would look like right on their computer screens, and give them the ability to input and submit their orders.

Once the basic idea was conceptualized, we started working on it just as a challenge—nothing official. We developed the system on our free time. We noticed that one thing developed into another and suddenly, with a little bit of luck, we came up with a system that would render, in real time, a business card with correct PostScript fonts and the official logo of the university, all the elements of the job, using just the Internet.

As we developed the basic system, additional elements were being added, such as a job ticket generator, electronic e-mail receipt generator, tracking, shipping and bar coding.

Once we had a working system, we presented it to our management, who in turn allowed us to continue the deployment of the system online to see what would happen. With a little bit of HTML code, we were able to launch our system and test the response.

So far, the Web site has prompted a positive response from our campus users. In the first three months, more than 1,500 Internet users tested our system and as many as 800 orders were placed using the system. There have been only a few orders with problems, which we expected, and we have been fine-tuning the program to accommodate all the intricate combinations that the system could encounter.

In the end, the system has given us a new Internet exposure and increased our order processing by 200 to 300 percent. As a matter of fact, today all requests for stationery are online and the system is nearly flawless.

How It Works

Our system consists of a Web server, a database and plenty of HTML code. The process is simple: When users go to our Web site (http://print.byu.edu) they select their choice of either business cards, letterhead or envelopes. A simple HTML form invites users to fill in their information and click the link to preview the information entered. Users can edit their own entries and preview them until they are satisfied.

They then submit their orders for processing, details such as quantities, costs and delivery dates are selected at this stage; also, information on delivery and charges are presented to the user. Once the order is submitted, our system generates an electronic job ticket, assigns a sequential job number and generates a receipt/confirmation e-mail for the customer's records.

Because our system is ODBC database driven, we can attach the records on the database directly into QuarkXPress to produce the plates in pre-defined templates or master pages inside QuarkXPress. The process from data entry by the user to producing a printing plate or digital file for an electronic printer is 97 percent automatic. The whole process can be fully automated with some scripting in QuarkXPress.

We also included bar code labels for shipping. It ties directly into the UPS system for generating shipping labels.

PDF Version Ready To Launch

A complete management system was developed for the use and maintenance of the system. We are ready to launch an improved version with an all-PDF format system. Forms, receipts, job tickets, shipping labels and layouts for printing (i.e. two-up, four-up, etc.) will all be in PDF formatting. This makes the system more flexible to port to different printing systems, such as offset presses or electronic high-speed printers. The monetary investment for the entire system, including software, worker hours and Internet, was less than $8,000.

Our system has caught the attention of several educational institutions in the U.S., as well as corporate entities. Currently we are supporting a large, prestigious insurance company with its needs for online requests for stationery from all across the country. The system developed for this company involves a sophisticated approval process for its requests before orders go to the printer electronically. We are also developing a complete job submission system that will include online preflighting of files and real-time proofing.