It is necessary to specify the majority of the critical production and management information that pertains to every print job at the ordering stage, regardless of the fact that the order is being executed. This covers the pagination or size, the amount of inks, the kind of inks, the substrate, the finishing, the quantity, the shipping and/or installation addresses, and any pre-payment alternatives that would be available. A way-to-pay system that is properly set and integrated may guarantee that all of this information is gathered at the point of order and then sent to the appropriate parties. Depending on the nature of the task, the client can be required to manually input a significant portion of it, or they might be limited to a few straightforward options via the use of drop-down menus; When it comes to the planning of a web-to-person portal, one of the most important tasks is the creation of a customer interface that will ensure that all of the production information that are required are recorded. It is vital to have pre-flighting that is both strong and automated, and further soft-proofing will be required for anything more than stock call-off needs. Establishing business-to-business ties may make it feasible to reach an agreement with customers over the submission of files that are “fit-for-purpose” and eliminate the need for approval. This may be accomplished, for instance, by adhering to the criteria of pdf/x. Additionally, this method may be used for work that is performed on a regular basis, such as wide-format franchise or retail point-of-sale displays, in which the format, inks, substrates, and finishing procedures are all standardized according to pre-defined templates. Regardless of the manner in which the work parameters are created, it is necessary for them to be sent to other systems within the printing industry. In the event that the required information is already there in digital format and has been verified by the w2p program, it is the most effective method to transmit it automatically. If you do this manually, your productivity will decrease. It is possible that jobs that have the potential to be problematic, such as because of the customer’s credit history, for example, and not just for production-related reasons, may not be identified and addressed in a timely manner. Additionally, errors or additional delays may occur if production and management data are entered incorrectly or omitted. Several distinct pieces of information need to be sent to a number of different locations. It is recommended that artwork files be included into the production process, and task information should be sent to either management information systems (MIS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. It is possible that it would be beneficial to record the order in a customer relationship management (CRM) system as well. Not only does the software for the W2P network need to be able to transmit information to other systems, but it also has to be able to receive information from other systems. In particular, this pertains to the scheduling and progress reporting activities; but, it may also include pricing, pre-flighting, soft-proofing review, and approval services, in the event that the w2p software does not have these features. In the context of business-to-business transactions, it is highly probable that the printer will already possess the customer’s shipping and billing information in a management information system (MIS), customer relationship management (CRM), or finance system. As a result, these details can be automatically filled in, and the only thing that is required is confirmation that they are still up to date. The w2p portal, in many instances, becomes the dam system for template-based work. However, in order to support template-based job creation, there may also need to be links into existing digital asset management (dam) software. These links would allow for the retrieval of templates as well as high resolution versions of stored images or other graphical elements. An additional facet of this, which is becoming increasingly significant, is the capability of a web-to-print (W2P) portal to establish connections with cloud-based storage services that are free of charge, such as Dropbox, SkyDrive, or Google Drive, or with paid services, such as Box.net, which provide more organized storage and transfer facilities. It is also necessary for a work-to-product portal to have the capability of transmitting digital data to other systems. This includes the capacity to transmit artwork as well as manufacturing requirements. It is possible that one-way communication is sufficient for work such as simple reprinting or stock call-offs; however, in an ideal scenario, a work-to-pay system will be able to communicate in both directions in order to provide ‘live’ pricing and quoting, production turnaround times, job and shipping status information, as well as access to customers’ order history and other account information. Additional possibilities might include the capability to send clients notifications via email or text message to inform them of certain milestones that have been met, such as the completion of work and the readiness of the product to be sent. The w2p portal should also have the capability to generate or access digital “job bags.” This will ensure that there is a consistent reference for each job across all systems within the printer’s business, as well as possibly beyond it, in the event that third-party shipping or installation services are utilized, for instance. In a forthcoming article in this series, the technical issues and practicality of how the integration and communication between print portals, mis, and production systems is done are described. This article is part of the series. This article is an excerpt from “making web-to-print work,” a free white paper from efi written by a technology writer from the United Kingdom named Michael Walker. The paper outlines the mistakes that were made by early users of web-to-print technology and explains how this experience can be used to ensure that current implementations maximize the potential of online sales and job capture through automation and integration.
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