Business Printing Technologies Report
July/August 1999Handling Printing Over the Internet: Is It in Your Future?
The Internet is going to change the way most businesses buy printing — maybe not today, but at some point in the not-so-distant future. Remember how long it took for desktop publishing to completely revolutionize the prepress portion of the printing industry, despite a disappointing debut? About 10 years tops. One difference is that Internet development is moving at lightning speed.
In just the past six years, email and the Internet went from government agency work tools to standard business requirements that consumers increasingly are demanding at home. In a recent study, Forrester Research indicated that business to business electronic commerce will increase in the next four years from $48 billion in 1999 to $1.3 trillion by 2003. Given the current rate of change and these predictions, the time to be thinking about the web and how it can actually contribute to your business is now.
But how can the Internet really impact how printers and distributors conduct their business, if not simply as a medium over which customers submit files for printing?
Well, several companies out there are defining e-commerce in interesting ways. Assess the following progression of scenarios, then think about how you might implement these and similar ideas into your operation.
Scenario One:
A distributor creates a web page that customers consult to see which products are available. Essentially an online catalog, the customer selects from an assortment of stock items that are shipped to the customer under the distributor's name.This possibility represents the bare minimum that distributors will perform in the future. More than simply a web presence, which would be a web site where interested customers could examine a company's home page and request information, this step establishes the distributor's commitment to a customer transaction by requiring data entry, selection, and a payment mechanism from the customer. As customers become more familiar with buying over the Internet for personal and business purposes and more confident in the security measures established to protect their accounts from fraud, they will expect and seek this purchasing option and use it as the norm. The ability to create a "living" catalog that is constantly updated with new products as they become available makes this the most basic element of a distributor's web site.
Scenario Two:
A distributor creates a web page that customers consult to see which stock products can be imprinted with the customer's personalized information and logo, including a limited variety of standard forms, labels, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, and stationery. The customer completes the order online, filling in the imprint information in data fields, providing a logo graphic, and proofing the data right on the screen. The web site is tied directly to a trade printer, so the order is processed quickly and at minimal cost. The printer ships under the distributor's name.Since the customer inputs all of the variable data into prepared designs and proofs the final product on screen, this option is a cost-effective way to integrate the web into the distributor-printer routine. If the distributor's web site is designed specifically to match the printer's requirements, then no duplication of effort will be required at the printer's end to input data, obtain approvals, make corrections, issue shipping and delivery information, or generate invoices. Because the data stream format is so complete, it is useful in a variety of functions that used to require time-consuming reentry.
If during processing the printer happens to discover an error in the file, it is a simple task to email questions or changes to the customer for approval. Web communications are extremely efficient for this type of inquiry because they save time by permitting a complete message that can include attachments for visual support. In this case, email or file transfers can circumvent any delays caused by phone tag if both parties agree to use the web as the primary method of communication.
Additionally, repeat orders are painless in this environment. All that the customer needs to do is to locate a previous order file, make changes, finalize, and press send.
One venture already breaking ground with and perfecting such an online system is iPrint.com, a virtual printing shop that has contracted with top commercial printers to produce jobs acquired through its web site. This virtual printer boasts, "We're using the power of the Internet to bring you professional printing at discount prices," then itemizes how customers save money by self-entry of data and use of an automated system. The site offers approximately 36 categories of stock items that can be tailored within certain parameters to an individual customer's specifications or simply imprinted with personalized information. Quantity options begin at smaller increments than the standard amounts available commercially, making iPrint.com an appealing vendor for individual buyers and small companies. For example, business card minimums begin at 100 cards; letterhead at 250 sheets, and Post-it notes at 10 pads. However, since larger quantities can be ordered in the same easy manner, this virtual print shop could conceivably give bigger operations a run for their business.
Scenario Three:
A distributor creates a web page to which customers submit completely custom designs for forms, labels, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, stationery, and other business products. The web page is tied directly to a trade printer.This approach takes the advantages of Scenario 2 one step farther into completely custom designs, and is likely to be how most custom transactions will be conducted in the future. The distributor-printer team collects client information through a series of screens on the web site. After the client provides the data and attaches any graphics files, he or she is offered a final look at the job before pressing send. For first-time clients or new projects, the distributor, who is an expert in forms design, may opt to review the design and data to make sure they are compliant with the rules of forms design. For repeat orders, the distributor may take a quick look for specification accuracy, then forward the files directly to the printer. If problems exist with a file, it is much easier to investigate and make corrections via the Internet before the data moves beyond this stage.
Once a customer account has been established in either Scenario 2 or 3 and a stock of files has been created, it is easy to make frequently used items such as the company business card or a letterhead shell available for quick customer changes. The customer accesses the web site, enters correct accounting and passcode features to ensure proper billing, and reaches a screen where text can be tweaked or rewritten easily. A title adjustment, area code change, or new phone extension can be altered right then with no time investment by anyone other than the customer's designated representative.
One vendor is building a significant presence in the Internet marketplace with an automated print procurement and production system that supports this particular scenario in the commercial printing arena. In 1998, Collabria Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., released a product that allows online ordering and approval, prepress and print production automation, and customer tracking and reporting. With more than 100 users to date, Collabria's emphases on cost and time savings by both printer and customer and a perceived competitive advantage for those involved make its marketing strategy a sound one — after all, what printer wants to be mired in antiquated practices as the millennium takes off at the cruising speed of the Internet?
Scenario Four
A distributor creates a web site through which customers submit their print jobs. Each customer has an active database on the site that archives each job. Any time a customer wants to create a new job using elements of old jobs, the designer can access the database as if it were a storage drive at its own facility, and mine it for ideas, elements, bits, and pieces. The distributor can take care of printing the job once the art is finalized, or direct it straight to a trade printer of the customer's choice.This scenario takes the burden of constantly improving computer storage methods and increasing memory needs off of the client company and makes it the distributor's responsibility. Acting essentially as a database service provider, the distributor's web site becomes the medium through which all print jobs are routed, even those destined for a commercial printer that go around the traditional distributor-printer relationship. A fee structure can be created along the lines of the typical Internet service provider contract; the customer will contract for a set monthly fee with unlimited access or a per use charge. Depending on the distributor's ability to maintain and upgrade its server capabilities on an ongoing basis, always providing the latest bells and whistles long before the company itself could afford the outlay, this could become an important contributor to the distributorship's bottom line.
Scenario Five
The same concept as the earlier scenarios, but this time the manufacturer designs and develops an Internet product to interface with its internal systems that can be supplied to distributors. Distributors install the software to create a web site shell that establishes a direct connection to the manufacturer.The primary advantage of this scenario to the distributor is that the manufacturer bears development and maintenance costs of the site. As software and hardware requirements change, and these changes and upgrades are occurring at an ever-increasing rate, the manufacturer will be responsible for providing the latest and greatest equipment. The disadvantages to the distributor include lack of flexibility in accommodating individual customer needs and the inability to control the system. These disadvantages are real considerations — independent business owners want to be able to fix their systems at the spur of the moment to best match the needs of their clients. Manufacturers need to be able to move quickly to meet distributor customer needs.
The Distributor's Touch
Given the likelihood that the Internet will assume a greater role in the world of the average consumer, it is clear that business to business commerce will be affected. In a detail-oriented environment like printing, electronic ordering methods such as those described above make a lot of sense because they cut back on opportunities for error during repeated data entry. The speed of electronic ordering also bridges many of the delays inherent in the traditional way of doing things. Additionally, because so many customers are frazzled today trying to keep pace with business demands, they are reluctant to shop for new vendor relationships when their current distributor provides excellent service and the latest time- and money-saving techniques.But can the distributor excel in an increasingly automated environment where the "personal touch" is being driven from the process?
You bet. The bottom line is that the distributor is necessary because busy human beings will be inputting the data and providing the specs. Ironically, as people better utilize machines to allow maximum efficiency in the workplace, the ability to overlook minor details increases. And minor details are critically important in the world of business printing. The distributor will continue to provide guidance and definitive answers to difficult technical questions through the human voice on the end of the phone line, and will be the consultant willing to take the extra step to get that vital print job through the system in as error-free a manner as possible.
No doubt the distributor's role will be redefined in this new automated arena — but that role is always evolving, isn't it?
Electronic Commerce Projections
In its report "State of the Internet: USIC's Report on Use and Threats in 1999," released in April 1999, the U.S. Internet Council reports the following projections from International Data Corp.:
Year Dollar Volume of E-Commerce 1998 $27.4 billion 1999 $64.8 billion 2000 $138.8 billion 2001 $270.9 billion 2002 $526.4 billion 2003 $978.4 billion The Internet at Home
Growth of household access to the Internet is continuing at an incredibly rapid rate. According to the USIC report, a good way to understand the potential impact is to compare this technology to others in history. Today, 33% of U.S. households have access.
Technology
30% of U.S. HouseholdsTime to Penetrate Telephone 38 years Television 17 years Personal Computers 13 years Internet 7 years