Blog written by Joeri Paeleman

Joeri Paeleman is one of the owners and founders of DMP. As key developer of the DMP FLO Suite software, he's got a thing or two to say about both the technical background, and the ways in which the DMP FLO Suite is implemented by the customers.

Web to print without the printing. What is in it for me?

The DMP FLO Suite Web2print (W2P) edition - Video
Quite often, web to print applications will contain types of output that are not actually generating prints. But as a provider of a web to print solution, your focus probably is on the "print" part. So what do you gain from the other types of output?

Ads

A prime example of this is the creation of ads as part of a web to print application. The templates and the information is available for the other types of output, so it's typically not a lot of work to add them to the web to print tool. A lot of our customers will charge for the creation of these ads, though.

De-centralized printing

Another commonly used variant of web to print is the type where the printing is done locally. PDF files are generated in the web to print software, downloaded to the local computer, and printed from there. Again, it is possible to charge for the creation of these PDF files, but a variant we also see regularly is a deal where the printing company actually prints the (colour) backgrounds for the local production. The web to print application will initially show a preview of the content with the background, but in the next step offer only the black and white parts that need to be printed.

Printing with the competition

It becomes a lot more complex when your customer also expects to be able to use the web to print tool to create content that they can have printed with one of your colleagues. When this happens, there is usually a very good reason. Either you make a lot of money on the web to print application itself (by charging usage fees), or more likely: the most interesting pieces of the production go to your own presses. But obviously this is something that is to be avoided in a web to print setup.

Your strategy

Whichever way you choose to go with your web to print strategy, it pays to be consistent. Changing the way you operate for every new customer will have a lot of negative side effects in the long run. So decide in advance which is more important to you: being a provider of web to print solutions, or being a provider of printing solutions!

 

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