Automating a Century Old Print Business

Lawton Printers in downtown Orlando, FL has a rich history of bringing value to its customers. Founded in 1900, it is the oldest, continuous family-run printing business in the United States. The current owners, Kimberly Lawton Koon, and her husband Tyler, represent the fifth generation to run the company.

The Lawton Printers website notes that since they took ownership in 2005, “the company has continuously seen growth through new technology, new equipment, passion, and youth.” This growth resulted in the company moving to a new, 33,000 square foot facility in downtown Orlando, where it continues to flourish.

Today Lawton Printers is a six-million dollar business serving local and national clients, including creative agencies, professional sports teams, theme parks, non-profits and more.

A Plan for Growth

Lawton’s commitment to technology investment resulted in the company’s adoption of PressWise, the SaaS print management system from SmartSoft that includes web-to-print, MIS, and workflow automation.

They had outgrown their old web-to-print system and took the opportunity to reevaluate their entire workflow process, looking to improve throughput through their facility. Workflow automation was a top priority, minimizing overhead on smaller jobs, and the ability to integrate the system with their accounting software.

As a 30-person shop, investing in a traditional licensed system was daunting, while the subscription model for PressWise’s cloud-based solution allowed Lawton Printers to “dip a toe in the water.” Koon recalls evaluating four major MIS systems before selecting PressWise.

“We felt PressWise would provide the best solution going forward to integrate into our workflow”, explains Tyler Koon, Vice President at Lawton Printers. “Other systems either didn’t have successful installs or were not open-sourced, which didn’t fit well with us and our desire to have all our equipment and systems communicating with each other.”

An Automated Workflow

Lawton Printers currently uses PressWise primarily to manage the digital side of their business, as well as some offset jobs. Around 50% of orders are processed through an online storefront. The company uses PressWise to generate both private customer as well as online public storefronts, such as the innovative Mr. Scratch Off! site at www.mrscratchoff.com for custom-printed scratch-off cards.

Most storefront orders through PressWise enter production without the need for further manual touches, greatly eliminating the overhead for each order and reducing turnaround times.

For orders through a salesperson or CSR, PressWise simplifies that process too. The built-in browser-based estimator lets reps generate quotes for clients from their office, the client site, or even a mobile device. Once accepted, an order is automatically created, artwork uploaded and PDF proofs sent to the customer. Once approved, PressWise—which is integrated with HP Indigo’s SmartStream—drops the order directly into the print queue for an HP Indigo 7500 digital press.

“PressWise has helped reduce the overhead associated with a specific job. We can now process more orders through the shop and also profitably process smaller orders, “said Koon. “Hours of back-and-forth and manual touches have been eliminated from the process, reducing the time it takes to deliver orders and greatly improving the print experience for customers.

Advice for Others

Koon says that implementing PressWise was “a great opportunity to evaluate our processes and change them going forward.” He recommends that other printers form an employee team to map out their workflows and the problems they want to solve before they begin implementing a system, and then build that system out in a linear fashion.

Koon also notes that using PressWise has helped some of his employees better understand how the print industry is changing. When some have been hesitant about the company adopting automation, he has reassured them that “automation is for competitive reasons, not job displacement.”

Employees are freed from many repetitive tasks are able to focus on more fulfilling, revenue-producing activities. Koon says that after working with PressWise they come to understand “how we are a progressive company that can offer a better print experience than a lot of our competition.”