The system, which has been in development for two years, is designed for B2B or B2C markets and enables users to design, edit, procure and manage printed items from a single online platform using either desktop computers or mobile devices.

Primarily aimed at print and design agencies Catfish is touted as a ‘complete end-to-end’ application with an integrated e-commerce system meaning that customers of the system’s B2C users can create their orders, such as personalised business and greetings cards, and make payments online all within the Catfish platform.

B2B customers can purchase the web-to-print platform and then set up multiple ‘storefronts’ on various different template designs to allow their individual customers to manage printed items in partnership with their printer.

One of the main highlights of the system and what sets it apart from other web-to-print systems, according to ISL managing director Douglas Gibson, is Catfish’s ‘mobile responsive’ design: the platform will open to fit screens of any size on desktop or mobile devices.  

He added: "We’ve really embraced the mobile awareness that’s out there right now so the mobile platform has been designed in HTML5 which supports iPads, tablets and desktops meaning it has across the board coverage. We really think we are ahead of the competition on this."

Gibson said the mobile element would be particularly useful for people to login and check data such as order numbers.

Catfish can also apply personalised barcodes containing customer addresses and information allowing users to create mailers, while an additional ‘yearbook’ module created by ILS, in partnership with Unibind, is aimed at colleges and universities that want to create student ‘keepsake’ books.

Gibson said: "It allows them to do it in-house and work with a local printer and has full editorial capabilities so it can be proofed and checked. It will create big time and cost savings for them."

Catfish is available for order now and will be ready for installation from October. The basic ‘core system’, which covers hosting, support, ongoing maintenance and upgrades, starts at £8,000 plus monthly installments of £250, while the top tier platform, aimed at clients with higher transaction rates, costs around £17,000 plus up to £550 per month.

Catfish will work alongside ISL’s existing software portfolio including the Infigo wed-to-print system, the Quite Imposing booklet application and the Isave.Dialog component of ISL’s targeted marketing platform.

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