Vpress has followed the announcement of its deal to integrate its web to print software into Kodak’s Prinergy On Demand workflow, by announcing a similar deal with Ricoh UK.
The Coreprint cloud based web to print software will be the preferred option for Ricoh UK as its customers push for greater integration and automation, a trend accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The two had started talking before the end of last year, ahead of any inkling of the disease, let alone its impact. Pandemic and lockdown have had a devastating effect across the industry, with a knock on effect on Ricoh’s revenue streams. The online tool will be a way to capture work for Ricoh presses, whether inside a corporate customer or part of a commercial printer.
“We identified the need in our overall business support offering for specific web to print system that would enable our customers to move from analogue to cloud based design, specification and order systems for their clients,” says Ricoh UK national sales director Simon Isaacs.
It is part of a move for the digital press supplier to move away from a print technology first approach, to a more applications specific and value adding approach for its customers. There are a number of Ricoh UK customers that are already using Vpress, from small sites to the likes of Precision Proco, one of Ricoh UK’s largest customers.
Vpress has created an integration between its online design editing tools in Coreprint 4.0 and its brand asset management tools into Ricoh owned Avanti Slingshot MIS. Alternately, the print ready file created by the web to print application, together with an XML job file can be delivered to a production workflow through API integration or into a hot folder.
This applies to an entry level user as much as to the sites handling thousands of orders a day. This scaleability was a key consideration, says Isaacs.
The role of ecommerce has increased during lockdown when conventional onsite sales calls have been ruled out and reduced manning levels have put an emphasis on automation, reducing the touchpoint that can introduce error and slow the handling process from order received to products delivered.
For the future proof, Vpress also has links into CRM and enterprise management systems like Salesforce, Ariba and Oracle. “Ricoh can now provide their customers with an online web to print and brand management platform that delivers real value to that relationship,” says Vpress sales director Kelvin Bell.
The deal with Ricoh is currently UK only while that with Kodak is on a global scale.
