The printer in Nottingham worked with ROI360 and Tharstern to integrate their technologies to "establish a valuable advantage that will secure online business and also protect profit margin", said Prime Group managing director Jon Tolley.

By linking ROI360’s Pageflex Storefront package and Tharstern MIS the printer has made it easier to customise and order print, reducing manual administration work such as booking. This has upped productivity, said Tolley, insisting the set-up was "critical" to the business.

"Ordering was brilliant on web-to-print but going from ordering to invoicing was requiring manual intervention. Because we can now clearly visualise the work at every stage, we have seen a 30% increase order volumes, which equates to £100,000 over only two months."

Prime Group turns over £4m from personalised material for retail, direct mail and marketing campaigns. The 40 staff run two HP Indigo presses and a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74.

Tharstern sales manager Lee Ward said: "It’s been estimated 80% of the cost of ordering a print job is not in production but in admin. Work like estimating and booking a job costs £30 to £50 straight away. What we are not doing is not new.

"But we want to educate more printers to protect what little margin they have on low-margin jobs by taking out the administration. By doing this you can make those web orders more influential in the profit of your business because you are automating the process."

ROI360’s managing director Simon Ellington said: "This is a key way to reduce internal costs and there are different levels of sophistication, from simple transfer of orders to more dynamic integration. We are also working with a big PLC printer and another smaller set-up."