The UK industry is catching on to the idea of internet ‘storefronts’, says Nick Bourne, managing director of Imprint Business Systems, the management information systems (MIS) supplier. “It’s happening more now, although we’ve been slow on the uptake compared with other countries.”

Earlier this year, Imprint launched Version 1.0 of Web­Desk, its suite of software designed to give printers just such a storefront. It comprises four modules: a customer portal, a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, online ordering and a web-to-print module. Each module can be bought separately from the others, and any combination can be configured to integrate together.

Bespoke programming
Before this year, Bourne says, demand for a WebDesk-type product was “patchy – it didn’t really justify wholesale development”, and such demand as there was, was met by bespoke web programming done by Imprint’s software engineers. The embryonic WebDesk was first installed at a large book printer five years ago, and comprised an online ordering system and a basic report generator: “Numbers of books ordered, paginations, reprints, that kind of thing – publishers’ statistics,” explains Bourne. Imprint worked up a second, also bespoke, version of the software for a separate division of the book printer that handled covers, endpapers and jackets. By the time, two years ago, a commercial printer got in touch to ask for a wider storefront-type system, Bourne decided it was time to put some development resource into the project, and the WebDesk project got under way, culminating in the launch of Version 1.0 in March.

Customers’ first contact with the WebDesk suite will usually begin with either the online ordering module or the web-to-print module. Online ordering centres around a catalogue of the customer’s regular products; the customer logs in, chooses a product and places an order. If the printer has an agreement to hold stock for the customer, the order is converted into a packing slip that’s printed out in the warehouse. If the warehouse is out of stock, according to information given by Imprint’s stockholding module, the order is converted into a production order and passed to the scheduling module for slotting onto the production board.

Designing templates
The web-to-print module of WebDesk allows customers to log on and, from a library of pre-created templates, select the template they want to modify, and drop in units of variable information. To a limited extent, customers can design their own templates by choosing fonts, changing colours and moving items around on a page. Designs are distilled into a press-ready PDF document (WebDesk is written in PHP, a server-side HTML embedded scripting language, which incorporates a PDF creation library) which is then copied to the production scheduling module of Imprint’s MIS.

This module of WebDesk is, by Bourne’s own admission, fairly basic: it differs from the online ordering module only in that orders go straight into the production chain, and customers can vary the basic designs of their document. “We had in mind business cards and letterheads, where you alter a name or a postcode,” Bourne says, “but it’s feasible that a company could hold on WebDesk a range of leaflets, say, where most of the content is standard but a date or an address needed altering.” More sophisticated web-to-print packages, such as Xralle’s system, can handle more extensive design elements. And Bourne says because systems such as Xralle are already well-established, it’s unlikely Imprint will develop its web-to-print software design functionality further: “It’s not cost-effective for us, particularly when the third-party systems are so good. We can easily link to those systems if customers ask us to do it,” he says.

Once an order or stock call-off is passed to the MIS, WebDesk’s two customer-management modules kick in. The first of these is the customer portal: here, customers log on to check information about the status of their jobs. In the customer portal, a user can also manage their quotes by requesting quotations (requests are automatically passed through to the Imprint MIS estimating module), keeping track of quotations and comparing quotes already received.
The last module of WebDesk is the customer relationship management tool (CRM). Essentially, this is identical in functionality to the customer portal, but because it’s designed for use by the printer’s own staff (customer service reps, primarily) it makes available a far wider range of information, including precise job status and outstanding quotes.

Both customer-management modules have Imprint’s web publishing facility: any information generated by the modules can be published immediately to the web (to the password-protected customer areas) exactly as they’re viewed within the in-house MIS. The WebDesk modules link with Imprint’s MIS to send delivery notes and receive purchase orders compliant with electronic data interchange protocols. The system includes email and instant messaging facilities for communicating between customers and the printer.

Dovetail into MIS
While WebDesk is designed to dovetail into Imprint’s eponymous MIS, it can be tailored to output data in a form that can be read by other, non-Imprint MIS. And it can stand alone as output data, such as orders, can be taken from it and input data, such as job progress, can be manually entered. Though, as Bourne says, having a standalone version of WebDesk that doesn’t slot into a wider MIS, is “a bit pointless – one of the reasons for having WebDesk is to automate some of the labour-intensive, mistake-prone work of taking and processing orders, and giving customers progress information”.

Targets for WebDesk include commercial printers, printers of labels, cartons and direct mail. Bourne says the company will also target smaller print management companies, “who can use this system very successfully”.
In the three months since the launch, Bourne has seen “great interest” at demos and exhibitions. The first installation is up and running, at a print management company in central London, bringing together their MIS and web ordering system. “Standalone design and ordering systems are great, but integration with an MIS is the name of the game,” says Bourne.

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SPECIFICATIONS
Includes
Customer portal, CRM, web-to-print, online ordering
Browsers
Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape
Platforms
all
Price
WebDesk two modules: around £5,000 (unlimited users)
WebDesk four modules: around £10,000 (unlimited users)
Contact
Imprint Business Systems 01245 231670
www.imprint-mis.co.uk

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THE ALTERNATIVES
EFI Digital StoreFront 3.0
EFI presents a bewildering array of MIS and online e-commerce tools. Digital StoreFront (DSF) now has more variable data options than most, as EFI has added XMPie personalisation tools. Customers can also submit press-ready PDFs via DSF. It includes online proofing, but there’s no functionality for job tracking or customer information – for that, you have to back up DSF with EFI’s PrinterSite suite.

Browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape
Platforms all
Price £5,000
Contact EFI UK 01753 283676 www.efi.com

SolPrintXN
SolPrintXN is a browser-based interface for the SolPrint MIS. It includes online ordering, request-for-quoting and job tracking for customers and service reps – note there’s no online design or template modification. SolPrintXN links to Crystal Reports for report production.

Browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape
Platforms all
Price not available
Contact I-teba 020 7841 3300 www.iteba.com

Tharstern e4print
Tharstern refers to its e-commerce module as ‘the silent sales rep’. Like WebDesk, it’s integrated with the back-office MIS – Tharstern’s SQL suite – and covers creation and design of pre-defined templates, requests for quotes, job ordering, reporting and tracking. Customer relationship management is handled via a separate module. Customers with contract pricing can use the automated quoting.

Browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape
Platforms all
Price not available
Contact Tharstern 0870 7202080 www.tharstern.com

Xralle
This is a standalone system, developed by a software house that doesn’t have an MIS. However, it can be configured to output XML tagged data to any MIS. Shuttleworth works closely with Xralle and the two have several installations in the UK. It covers requests for quotes, design of jobs, online proofing, ordering, job tracking and invoicing. It also includes an online asset management facility.

Browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape
Platforms all
Price from £6,000
Contact Xralle Web-to-Print 0845 6023558 www.xralle.co.uk