How to Make a Win-Win Situation with Automation in Printing Industry?

Summary: Every printed piece has its journey. From print-file designing to shipment, a defined workflow needs to be followed. Now, how does automation in the printing industry change the game? Automation is helping print businesses skip traditional methods and meet the evolving needs of the customers. We have highlighted business operations that can be automated to improve the printing workflow. By the end, you will have a clear idea about how business can benefit and transformation with printing automation.

The traditional methods used in print businesses are complex, time-consuming, and repetitive. It leads to completing minimal print jobs and providing unsatisfactory customer service. With time, the involvement of technologies in print businesses have helped to improve the print operations. According to NAPCO, nearly 90% of commercial printers somewhat or strongly agreed that automating production workflow increases profitability per job.

Print business owners are looking for printing software solutions that reduces manual work and boosts productivity. They have understood that technology is here to stay and upgrade with time to improve business workflow. In such a scenario, opting for a print workflow automation software can be a game-changer for print business as it allows to monitor, store, and handle print jobs with minimal resources.

So, will automation be the right solution to avoid the complicated production and management process? If you are thinking to automate your print business, read ahead to unlock the true potential of print automation and grab the right opportunity to boost sales.

Why is Automation in the Printing Industry becoming Popular?

Print Automation can help you boost efficiency in accepting, processing, and delivering print orders. Leveraging Automation for Printing Product Innovation you will have adequate resources and time to grow your business on a large scale.

Here, you can quickly note the level of automation for different jobs in printing:

Handle everything from ordering to processing shipments through a single centralized dashboard that is updated in real-time. With the right SaaS Web-To-Print, you can eliminate human errors and have a smarter print business. A Print workflow automation solution will help you identify common resolution, alignment, and readability issues before the final printing, saving you from reprints.

What Does Printing Automation Mean for Different Business Operations?

1. Inventory Management

Are you fed up with manually updating your inventory for every print order? The complications and chances of making errors are high, leading to inventory mismanagement. So, with automation in inventory management, you can ensure things like:

• Maintaining the perfect balance of materials required as per your print orders.
• Avoiding out-of-stock or overstocking scenarios that affect your business performance.

2. Workflow Automation

Complicated workflow in print operations leads to unwanted turnarounds and high costs. There are instances where you might have experienced minor problems in printing, like delays in shipment, losing customer details, wrong data entry, and more, which leads to reduced sales and affects your store's performance.

Hence to overcome such challenges print businesses like yours must choose to automate the majority or all workflow processes. Because once your workflow is aligned, your overall web to print order automation process can be monitored easily. By automating your printing workflow, you get complete control, avoid losses and boost your business, as print issues can be resolved in the pre-flight process.

3. Print-File Designing

In a traditional printing workflow process, multiple steps are involved to get approvals from customers and make changes before sending the final print file for design. Lots of effort and time is consumed in this process, that too just for designing.

With a print designing software in place, your customers can either design the print file or choose ready-to-use templates. Along with that you also get the ownership to define your own approval process. This ensures you get the proper file format and resolution, requiring no revisions or reprints.

4. Dynamic Price Estimation

Your customers look forward to faster price estimation before placing the final print orders. As your print business grows, it becomes challenging to manually share the price estimation for every order. Another drawback of manual calculation is the human errors, which can lead to heavy cost. Enabling the generation of accurate print estimations is necessary and it could be made possible with an advanced print automation software with cost estimation capabilities. This innovative software utilizes smart formulas for price calculation, allowing you to add dynamic values and get instant price quotations.

5. Monitor Business Growth

Most of the print businesses struggle with manual chart preparation and dependence on various tools to generate reports, that hinders the efficient tracking of their performance. If you have print workflow management software with a user-friendly interface, it will store all the essential information about your business to generate reports. This information includes customers, orders, products, locations, and more.

With just a few clicks, you can generate reports to understand sales and other factors affecting your business performance. It is easier to find your highest-selling products and amend the other products for better reach. Also, most web-to-print software like OnPrintShop allows the integration of different analytical tools to understand store performance in real-time.

6. Centralized Dashboard

How do you currently handle different printing operations? Some business owners still use complicated processes and resources to manage their print orders and fail to meet their customer’s expectations for instant solutions.

A centralized dashboard for your print business will organize all the information regularly, keeping you updated about every progress in print orders. You can assign roles in your workforce to handle different operations and ensure accurate delivery of print orders.

7. Efficient Print Jobs

Do you still burden your human resources to handle most print jobs? Well, this repetitive process requires excellent accuracy, but at the same time, it is stressful and complicated. A delay or error in print jobs like order acceptance, order status, shipping method, invoice, price estimation, print-file designing, and others can affect your production.

Here, with a custom web to print solution, you define the automated workflows of print jobs to reduce human dependency. If required, you can set triggers to take the following actions in the print jobs: sharing an order update with customers, sending print files for approvals, sharing tracking details, and so on. It will save time, effort, and resources while delivering quality prints to your customers.

How is Automation Transforming the Printing Industry?

Print businesses are considering a technology-driven future aimed at making jobs quicker, easier, and more accurate. Automation is a game changer for you, which requires minimal or no human intervention for print order production. You might agree that managed printing services are always helpful for print business owners and customers.

You can become the "OLA of Printing Industry," by prioritizing customer needs and using Print Order Automation. With this approach, you can effectively address pain points such as timely delivery, reliable costing, quality, and creativity. Embrace a customer-centric approach to revolutionize and streamline the printing business, akin to OLA's success in transportation.

With excellent print industry knowledge, you understand the importance of perfection in every print order and the cost of failure due to a single issue. Look at some of the services that print businesses are prioritizing in the future:

A complete SaaS software will help you handle everything involved in print order management through a single storefront. Security, cloud storage, collaboration, automation, team management, customer details, and more functions can be managed effortlessly with W2P solutions.

Before you make a final decision, the first thing to look for in a web-to-print software are the benefits it brings to your current production and how automating your print business can increase productivity. The simple questions that will help you make the final decision about Web-To-Print software are:

• How many additional jobs can you handle after integrating the software?
• What is the time consumption in managing print orders?
• What is the cost and labor of completing a single print order compared to the current scenario?
• Compare the ROI before and after bringing in the SaaS W2P solution.

Such simple yet essential questions will help you make a suitable investment and boost productivity.

What are the Business Benefits of Printing Automation?

To make your journey easier, we are listing the top benefits of introducing automation in your print business:

• Cost-Effectivity: When you automate the workflow, you deliver more orders in a shorter span with less investment. Also, with a defined process, you do not have to spend on reprints or extra labor while optimizing the resources.

• Quicker Deliveries: As most of the tasks in the printing workflow are automated, your workforce gets more time to ensure faster delivery of print orders.

• Less Errors: Having access to every action, you can define the final approval process to avoid errors in the print file and resolve print issues before production.

• Customizable Workflow: Some print software solutions allow you to customize your workflow per business requirements. This enables you to handle tasks easily and offer a personalized user experience.

• Higher Security: SaaS solutions follow the necessary security measures, and if required, you can integrate third-party tools to keep your data secure. Also, the owner/admin can set user permissions based on their role.

• Handle Finances: There are pre-defined formulas to estimate customers' prices and generate your business reports when required. It helps you to manage finances and focus on profitability.

• Great Accessibility: By building a custom storefront, your business becomes accessible globally through desktops, mobile phones, tablets, or other devices. It enhances your customer engagement and chances of getting potential leads.

How OnPrintShop can help to Automate Your Print Operations?

Looking for an affordable, reliable, and user-friendly web-to-print solution? Experience a substantial 20 – 40% annual growth with our all-in-one Web-to-print solution.

With 17+ years of industry expertise, our solution has helped many print brands across globe elevate their print business in the digital market. So don't wait engage with our experts to discuss your vision and explore how OnPrintShop’s web to print order automation can transform your printing business.

Wrapping it Up

In conclusion, the infusion of automation into the printing industry signifies a pivotal shift towards efficiency and customer-centricity. From design to delivery, automation brings a game-changing approach. Choosing a tailored web-to-print solution, particularly OnPrintShop, amplifies these benefits—offering streamlined workflows, cost-effectiveness, and swift turnarounds.

Embracing automation isn't just about adopting technology; it's a strategic commitment to meeting and exceeding customer expectations. With OnPrintShop's sophisticated features, businesses navigate the evolving printing landscape with precision, innovation, and substantial growth opportunities. Get Free Demo, to learn more about how OnPrintShop’s workflow automation solution can help to increase the profitability of your print business.