Why Change The Way You Run Your Workflow?

The business environment for printers has changed over the past decade. A combination of internal and external factors is forcing print service providers to reevaluate the way they are running their business:

• Greater demand for short-run print jobs and faster turnaround times are challenging existing processes and profit margins
• Customers now expect print service providers to provide custom online storefronts for ease of ordering
• Requests for order history, job status tracking numbers, copies of invoices and more are burdening staff time
• There is increased competition from progressive print service providers already offering online shopping experiences
• The complexity of print workflows and the growing number of Web-to-Print solutions have led many shops to acquire multiple products

This multi-product approach has often resulted in increased costs and put additional stress upon a shop’s infrastructure. To survive, printers need to reevaluate and make changes to the way they are doing business – procrastination can be even more costly.

Questions To Consider When Purchasing A Print Workflow Management System

Changing or implementing new applications or workflows is an important decision and tremendous thought should be given to the project before buying anything. Before you make a purchasing decision on a new web-to-print, MIS or workflow automation product, you’ll have plenty of things to think about. Here are just a few:

• Are you committed to making a change and is your team willing to change and put in the time required?
• Do you have an understanding of your current workflow and how it will working within a software package?
• Financial considerations – how much will it cost? We’re talking all-in costs, including adding up all the separate modules you may need to purchase.
• What is the subscription model? Is it cloud or locally hosted?
• Are there hardware costs?
• Training your staff – how long does it take to get up and running? Is training included or extra?
• Technical resources – do you have the IT capacity to manage the hardware and software?
• Are there variable costs associated with the number of storefronts or transactions processed?
• What about integration with existing applications? Are there API and IT costs to help you use it?
• Scalability – are there future considerations to consider?
• Does it ‘play well with others’? Will it integrate with your existing storefront, or almost any storefront on the market, and will it work with your accounting system?

An alternative to purchasing and piecing together multiple, independent systems is an all-in-one web-to-print, MIS and workflow automation solution such as PressWise, which can provide you with a single, powerful system designed to streamline your workflow and provide the increased efficiencies you need to thrive in today’s market.

How A Single System Such As PressWise Can Help

• You get an end-to-end platform with all the tools needed to manage your business
• It includes unlimited web storefronts and pre-built integrations for most third-party storefronts
• PressWise can take orders from multiple sources – storefronts, walk-ins, APIs from other systems – and inject them into a single, standardized workflow
• It removes excess manual touches from your workflow, making you more efficient and protecting margins on even the smallest jobs
• It also plays very well with others, with a set of APIs designed to integrate with other third-party or custom-built systems
• PressWise is a SaaS-based system with NO long term contracts, available in the cloud- or self-hosted
• It is browser-based for instant access, anytime, anywhere
• SmartSoft (Booth 4640) provide a robust implementation program to help you get set up