Web to Print-When does it make sense?
Thursday, 26 January 2012 12:57
Whatever you call it — e-commerce, Web-to-print, Web commerce, online document management — the ability to transition some or all of your printing needs to an online portal so you can order and print on demand can be a huge benefit for an organization. If you have not already transitioned to some form of online ordering and document management, let’s take a look at some of the benefits.
Brand preservation. By centralizing documents and limiting access only to authorized users, the most recent documents, and creating workflows for authorization and approval of any changes, you create an environment that ensures accuracy and that preserves and protects the brand. You also maintain control over quality, color, and content.
Time savings. There can be tremendous time saved by using automation to order, customize, and manage documents. Documents can be created online or the repository can be populated with documents previously created by your organization (or both). Documents can be ordered in static form or customized or personalized within limits set by you.
Reduction in fulfillment errors. Especially in high-volume corporate environments, errors from literature fulfillment can be very expensive. This is because the process is often handled manually, so error rates can be very high. When one travel insurance company switched from manual fulfillment to Web-to-print, for example, its errors dropped to nearly zero. Agents access the secure website, select the style of brochure they want, upload their logos, insert their phone numbers and Web addresses, and the system automatically populates the brochure with the correct information. The orders are processed, printed, and shipped daily. Fulfillment errors are almost nonexistent.
Reduction or elimination of error and duplication in the design process. Design agencies, distributors, regional offices, and others are often working independently of one another and duplicating their design efforts. Not only does this create tremendous opportunity for erosion of the brand, but it also can be very expensive since each pays to design its own flyers, brochures, and other collateral.
By working from a centralized environment, the savings achieved by eliminating duplicate costs and content errors can be tremendous. I read one case study of an investment management firm that saved $350,000 within the first few months of implementing W2P for its 401(k) sales proposal kits, even though its fulfillment volume rose by 58%.
Savings in print and postage costs. Print and postage costs also can be slashed. Volumes may drop because orders are occurring only on an as-needed basis. Why pay for printed documents that will only be thrown away? Large corporations may also benefit from ganging orders. Even if wach branch office, retailer, or other third party orders only 100 brochures, the total volume may be high enough to qualify for significant postal discounts.
Faster response time. What is the value of your time? Or the revenue generated as a result of faster responses to inquiries or time to market? One Nevada-based university used to take weeks to produce its fundraising materials. By moving to a Web-to-print model, its fundraising campaign directors have been producing its donor literature (including personalizing down to the donor level) in less than 30 minutes.
Boosting revenues through relevance. Then there are the benefits of more effective marketing. By making it easier to personalize and customize documents, as well as putting the tools for localized marketing into the hands of distributors, retailers, franchises, and resellers, these marketing tools become more relevant to the end recipients and have far greater impact. Thus, W2P-generated applications can not only reduce costs but generate more revenue.
These are some dramatic numbers, but they are not unrealistic when you consider the vast inefficiencies inherent in any manual ordering process. W2P isn’t going to be right for every document in your repository, of course, but have you considered the value of the move for those that are?
