The event pitched industry experts at the practical problem of making Web-to-print work, with the panel taking a flurry of live questions, showing just what a compelling topic Web-to-print is for the industry.

Peter Lancaster outlined the market potential for companies going into these markets, but warned that businesses would have to change their processes to actually make money. He said you could be dealing with "hundreds of jobs a day, but only worth £80 in revenue".

Jason Walker, managing director at everydayprint said you have to ask yourself "Will [these jobs] make or break your business? Workflow is critical."

"Business process automation is what it's all about," added Lancaster.

HP's head of Indigo Digital for the UK and Ireland Robert Stabler said that companies going in to Web-to-print have to have a detailed plan: "You have to define what your roadmap is going to be," he said. "You can get a lot of scope creep unless you are clear about what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it."

Richard Knowles, managing director of Buckingham Colour Quest (BCQ) described the wide range of Internet-based services that his company had been delivering over the past nine years.

"We wanted to be innovative, we wanted to lead customers into areas where perhaps they weren't comfortable," he said. He added that you need to look at lots of sectors and applications where Web-to-print is relevant, and have the stomach to take risks and keeping taking them to find profitable niches. Sometimes this doesn't result in a printed product, but it's still a "route to invoice", he said.

There are other upsides he said: "Customers, once they're into the system, don't want to be swapping around."

Other topics highlighted included how to implement an entirely different sales pitch. Stabler said: "You're selling a solution here, and typically to a marketing department."

The webcast is available for replay here. It works best with Internet Explorer.