EXETER PRINTER POLLARDS HAS moved to its third generation of web to print platform and for the first time has not written all the software itself. “Over the last six or seven years we have been developing our own software which has allowed our customers to order and purchase print via predesigned templates,” says sales director Douglas Myatt. “They can log in and to order from stock or upload a file for us to print on demand.
“Now we have created the third version of the print on demand and have chosen a third party software to offer greater ability to edit and upload photographs. It’s a simple system and a far more powerful way to create content than we had before.”
THE COMPANY HAS BEEN ABLE to manage variable data campaigns using XMPie linked to its two Xerox iGen4 presses, the second of which was installed this year. But the GoDesignOnline system provides users with greater control over their content with InDesign like editability over their content. This integrates with the web interface on one hand and the production workflow and Tharstern MIS on the other.
However, Myatt is keeping mum about the supplier to retain an edge over rivals that have not latched on to the potential as yet. It falls into a customer led approach to business where print is not necessarily the automatic output. “Depending on user behaviour we can recommend the most convenient way of producing their print.” As it handles the global print requirements for a number of international businesses, offering a stock and distribute service and allowing users across this network of operations to order via dedicated online sites, this flexibility is key.
“WE SPECIALISE IN PRINT AND distribution and started to build the system and then extending it as demand has grown. Now we have a completely new system which overcomes the limitations we used to have around editing. We researched what was available in the market and have settled on what we believe is the best tool available.” Direct mail campaigns can be triggered by uploading a database of names with automatic generation of the personalised print from this data.
The features included have allowed the company to integrate it into the business and to customise what a client sees. “Some customers want a certain amount of editability, others want less,” Myatt says. This is set up by Pollards and can differ according to log in privileges within a customer’s network for example.
“Our aim has been to keep the interfaces as simple as possible,” he adds.
THE NEW SYSTEM WAS INTRODUCED at Marketing Week Live where it was “very well received” leading to conversations with companies that had had some experience of web to print “but the system they were using was not as good as this”.
And as well as strengthening the print side of the business, Myatt says that the functionality is starting to take the business in a slightly different direction, supplying branded affinity products as well as print. “From their initial impressions, it’s what they want a web to print system to be,” he says.
