ZAC BOLAN
Any Portal in a Storm
VistaPrint’s streamlined facility in Windsor processes
its share of 43,000 orders a day.
Maybe I am just getting old, but anytime I hear a slogan or catchphrase
with a number in it, my first reaction
is to turn and run. The movie title 2 Fast
2 Furious is a prime example of this rule,
or perhaps the notorious rapper 2Pac
serves to prove the point. While the substitution of a number for an infinitival
particle in a phrase might be the sole domain of hip hop artists, the progressive
Web2Print business model is drawing
more and more printers into confusing
wordplay.
Ask a printer if they have gone
Web2Print yet, and you are as likely to get
a blank stare as a positive response. And
while Web2Print (W2P) initially seemed
to be a fairly straightforward concept to
most – a process to bridge the gap between the Internet and commercial print
production – over the years this beastie
boy has evolved into a multi-headed
leviathan that defies categorization.
In today’s – um – challenging business
environment even the reactionaries
among us are being driven to reassess
their game plans in a bid to reduce overhead, streamline operations and attract
new customers. Like the mariners of old,
today’s printers are looking for an edge to
weather this storm and hopefully come
out the other end still afloat. Many who
initially ignored the potential, now see
W2P as a key element for survival. It is
certainly a vital connection to the New
World of business that printers should at
least investigate during the downturn.
When asked recently to research W2P
for a client, I embarked on what I had initially assumed would be a fairly short assignment: find out what I could and write
a report. This easy assignment quickly
blossomed into a rapidly expanding treatise on one of the most complex technological fields to ever invade the graphic
arts world. Every stone turned revealed
two or more stones, each requiring thorough investigation. And while my initial
preconceptions of the W2P software on
the market were modest at best, I was
soon wading through a phalanx of technologies and applications, each frustratingly similar to the last, but somehow still
unique.
Seeing the light
My first W2P epiphany came when I realized that in order to define the method
a printer might want to employ, basic de-
VistaPrint has 19 localized portals serving 120 countries, but only two manufacturing
facilities.
cisions about their end product needed to
be made. At this point, W2P technology
presents its first significant fork in the
road toward digital-sales Nirvana. A
printer is forced to choose between two
distinct print ideologies, either Print as a
Commodity or Print as a Service.
I had the good fortune of working for
some very wise operational managers and
to this day I can still hear one former
mentor bemoan the fact that commercial
printing is a fool’s pursuit: “Who in their
right mind would undertake the manufacture of a distinctly personalized product for a customer that rarely
understands what they want nor how to
ask for it?” my manager would repetitively muse, adding “with the possible exception of scratchpads made from spoiled
letterhead, there are no factory seconds in
printing, only reruns.” To date, this is the
best description of print as a service that
I have ever heard.
On the other hand, there has always
been a market for the quick-and-dirty
business card – 500 x 2-colour business
cards for $19.99, advertised on those
gaudy outdoor display signs with fluorescent letters that neighbourhood kids always rearrange into rude configurations.
That is a basic description of print as a
commodity.
Commodity print products tend to fall
into the standard requirements of small
office or home office customers (SOHO)
and include the usual suspects – business
cards, letterhead and envelopes. In a W2P
template-driven Web-shop scenario,
these collaterals can be easily sold in a
digital storefront consisting of a printer-
