Work-flow Automation driven by a Web Portal

[CSimpson]

I am at the beginning stages of looking into web submission software. However, I am convinced when I implement whatever software package I decide on the number of jobs received by the shop will increase twenty fold while the volume of work might only increase by fifty percent. The reason for this is we are a centralized print shop for a school system that has 90 schools that is not open before or after school lets out nor is it centrally located for easy access to its employees. Currently I have no work-flow software and we treat every job as a unique situation and that is fine right know as we only have about 350 jobs per month. If we begin receiving jobs through a web portal and only receive 5 jobs a day from each school the number of jobs would increase to approximately 9500 jobs a month. There is no way I can handle that job count doing thing the way we currently do them. So, I am not willing at this time to move to web submission until I can get a work-flow system in place that would handle the expected job count.

Obviously, by reading this it would be required that the work-flow integrate into the web submission portal and the system be automated enough that the print shop employees would not have to open files and make any kind of decision. The system itself would have to push the jobs to the required machines. We are mostly digital except for QM-46 and a Ryobi 2800 press. We have a lot of offline finishing equipment so the system must take that into account possible printing a shipping and finishing instructions with the job.

I know Kodak could probably come close to this with Prinergy and Insite though it is expensive. Are there any other alternatives to Kodak for something like this?

[WiseGuy]

The question I have is will the jobs that come in off the web portal be all custom jobs or will they be based on templates (like for business cards) just with different content and quantities?

The reason I ask is this makes a big difference on the approach you should take. Template-based work with different quantities is much easier to automate then jobs with different trim, finishing, paper-stock, etc...

Let the members know... it will be easier to give you a better response.

Michael

[CSimpson]

I would have letterhead, business cards, and forms. I will also have custom jobs; however, my customers would not have an unlimted paper choice like a print for pay I would only offer house stocks ( coated, uncoated text, uncoated linen) for them to choose from just like finishing option would only be what I have to offer.

[WiseGuy]

If you think that most of your jobs will be the "standard" work just the content, paper and quantity will be unique, then I would look at something like Switch from Enfocus. It's an open systems workflow tool so you can pick the right product, or the one's that you want for your workflow and you're not locked into any one vendor.

With Switch, you could build workflows based on file name identifiers that would allow Switch to sort your jobs based on type, quantity, and paper. Then submit them to workflows for preflight, proofing, imposition and final printing. I had a simple Switch workflow I was showing at Print 09 that would do some of this as a demonstration of how a simple, but powerful web to print system could be created. If you like, PM me and I can WebEx with you and show you what we did. It might help.

If you want to get into more complex workflows or address the "custom" scenario's, then you're going to be looking at way more Money and way more help from integrators. I can explain what I know on the phone... again, just PM me and let me know if you want to talk.

Michael

[david]

You have presented a rather complex issue that has more to consider than the points you bring up. While it is very doubtful that any solution will give you the level of automation that you are asking for - at any price. There are several options to consider. Indeed the Switch suggestion is an excellent one. When using a non-intelligent "folder based" solution, every time time you add a new option or product - in many cases you increase the number of workflow folders by an order of magnitude.

We have a web based job submission system called OnTimeProof that uses job ticketing to route jobs into workflows based on user ticket input. It is a nice system that is very inexpensive.

We are also in the final stages of integrating this same system into our Web2Print product called TribalSketch. TribalSketch has online estimating, shipping and sales tax calculations, project management, shopping cart with ecommerce and is completely customizable.

With the integration of OnTimeProof it will then have automated workflow management, production management, and proof and preflight management. Again - all at a very affordable price tag. I would be glad to discuss this with you.

Tribal Sketch more than web2print
David Lewis
847-202-8424