Posted by Chris Higgins on Tue, Mar 30, 2010 @ 12:24 PM
A customer recently decided to utilize our Web To Print solution for their business cards. The original goal was to reduce the cost of the cards. they quickly realized a Web To Print solution could provide even more valuable savings by revolutionizing their entire ordering process.
Before Web To Print they had to create group orders of cards to get the lowest price, look at the steps they went through just to order business cards.
Manager sends an email to all employees asking who needs business cards.
Manager follows up to make sure everyone responds.
Manager gathers all the responses and contacts the printer with a list of employees that need cards.
The printer spends the next week creating proofs of each card and sends the proofs back to the manager.
Manager emails the proofs to each employee asking them to approve the proof or make changes.
Manager follows up on all the proofs because many employees don't respond.
Manager collects changes on all cards that are not correct, sends the changes to the printer and the entire process is repeated.
Ordering business cards took 3-4 weeks and created irate employees. The process was not only inefficient, it drove the manager and the employees crazy.
The Web To Print solution changed the process to one that is complete in minutes.
Look at the process using Web To Print.
Employee logs in and either views their existing card or creates a new one. They make any needed changes and view an electronic proof within seconds, they submit the order and they're done.
Manager receives an email that an order is waiting for approval, the manager logs in, approves, changes, or deletes the order, once approved it goes right to production.
What used to take far too much time and too many resources is complete in minutes with Web To Print.
The customer saved close to 40% on the cost of the business cards, which for a company of 500 employees is significant, but the real value is the amount of time they saved, and the increased productivity they gained by changing the ordering process. In fact they are so happy with what Web To Print did for their business cards they are exploring ways to implement Web To Print for their document holders, presentation folders, overnight packages and envelopes. If they can get the same efficiencies as they did with their business cards, its like money in the bank.
Posted by Robert Higgins on Tue, Jan 06, 2009 @ 11:15 PM
It's so easy to find low cost print resources on the internet these days. Some simple printed items have become virtual commodities. Of course, items like business cards and postcards really are quite simple, in and of themselves. Even more complex products like brochures, flyers, and sell sheets, even multi page catalogs -- there are plenty of online print shops touting the lowest prices on many of these items. If you know exactly what you want, and can design it yourself, a quick web search will find you lots of choices -- way too many.
Sure, it's easy to save money on the hard dollar cost of any printed item as a stand alone piece. But what if your printed piece is only one component of a complete marketing campaign? What if you have a concept, but need professional input regarding the best way to design it? Have you thought through how it will be used after it's been designed, and produced? What about the costs involved before and after you produce it, such as: managing it after it's been produced? How will it be distributed? Who is the target recipient, and how will they experience it?
Let's say you want to do a small direct mail campaign. You might envision a cover letter, a flyer, and a response piece. All that will then go into an envelope for mailing. That's four separate pieces to your mailing, all of which must be printed separately, collected, collated, inserted into the envelope, and sealed closed. That's alot of handling. Is there a better way? Could you combine some or all of these components into a single printed piece that becomes its own single piece self mailer? An expert with an extensive resource base can get you the answer much faster. You'll end up saving money in many ways: By eliminating redundancies in design, gaining efficiencies in production, and insuring a more positive (and higher) response rate -- the list goes on.
The bottom line is that you hire an expert because they've spent years developing their expertise, and will help you to avoid common mistakes and traps. Not only will that save you money, a well executed program will bring in more leads, so you make you more money too.
Posted by Chris Higgins on Wed, Dec 24, 2008 @ 12:26 PM
It was a strange call, a customer wanted to know where his document folders were. We quickly looked up his order history and realized he hadn't ordered document folders in almost a year. The real surprise was when we realized the folders he was looking for had been delivered almost a year ago. Four pallets, 40,000 folders, and he had no idea what had happened to them; didn't believe the delivery had been made. Even after showing him the P.O.D. - proof of delivery- that clearly showed not only were the folders delivered but he signed for them he wasn't convinced.
I guess its not all that surprising, a big company with lots of offices, their product is information, but over the years they'd created their own fully staffed warehouse to store and keep track of the numerous products used throughout their office network. What's surprising is that they hadn't outsourced this function to a professional that would be required to account for every last item under their control. In this particular case if the customer took advantage of our Point'N Click solution they would know exactly how many folders they had left and exactly where every folder had gone. They could even download the information to a spreadsheet to easily charge back the appropriate offices and they could do all this for free.
Document folders are just the beginning with close to 80 offices in 3 states the company has lots of marketing and print material they buy in bulk to keep the cost down, but then they need to deal with the storage and distribution issues that are very time consuming and costly. Eliminate the time and cost by asking vendors what solutions they can provide. The Dataguide Point'N Click solution gives any customer complete control over inventory and distribution right from their desktop. Most vendors can provide some type of on line solution to make customers lives easier. When you're ready to outsource these mundane and costly tasks turn to your vendors first you might be surprised at the solutions they can offer at minimal or even no additional cost.