| So,
eCommerce can formalise ordering processes and the transfer
of data between two or more parties. The two parties need not
have a buyer or supplier relationship, they may be colleagues
within the same company. Recalling the DTI’s definition
of eCommerce, you will appreciate that eCommerce is just as
likely to be an email or a text message as it is a request posted
on an Intranet or web page.
Your customers and, perhaps more importantly, your customers’
customers are willing citizens of the information society and
the challenge for print is to offer simple, efficient print
solutions.
eCommerce is, by definition, a term that relates to integrated
transactional business processes. Exchanges of electronic information
can be managed, monitored, tracked, filed and recalled far more
effectively than their paper counterparts. eCommerce is not
just a trendy buzzword for the transference of the aforementioned
paperwork to a computer; the benefit is that eCommerce can offer
an audit trail of activity meaning that operations can be measured,
timed and costed far more efficiently.
Invoicing,
payments, stock management and call-offs, soft proofing, document
and image management, estimates, price benchmarking, file delivery
and remote print, collaboration and project management and one
to one marketing are but some of the easy wins.
Whilst we have invested in order to print more and faster, print
consumers’ comfort with IT and the ease and variety of
communication channels open to them has grown. The next phase
of your development will be to connect your business processes,
releasing data and generating knowledge throughout the supply-chain,
so we can continue to deliver competitive, timely, quality-printed
products in the face of alternative media.
Most print businesses manufacture bespoke printed pieces and,
although size and shape may be broadly similar, both the specification
and origination will differ with every single order. Our terminology
and processes confuse and even frustrate many a print buyer,
after all, they know how to print; they just select ‘File’
then ‘Print’ from the menu bar. In today’s
computer literate society printing needs to be this simple and
it is up to us to make it so.
When orders
go wrong, the cause is often a breakdown in communication or
record keeping and the hunt for the smoking gun (the Post-It-Note
on the job docket) is the only way proof can be offered that
an instruction was not given, received or followed. Electronic
audit trails can make the process somewhat easier. The heavy
administrative part of our printing businesses is understanding
and interpreting what our customers want and offering it to
them at a price they are happy to accept. If, through our use
of eCommerce, we can de-mystify the black art of print by clearly
communicating our needs and make sending us work simple, we
will save ourselves plenty of administration cost and time.
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For
a number of years there have been systems, in existence that
can automatically generate estimates for customers without the
need for your estimator’s involvement. Does this signal
the end of the estimator as we know it? Of course not!
What it does signal though is a refocusing of the estimator’s
activity, maintaining the system rather than being a slave to
it, in order to raise your competitiveness. Benchmarking your
prices within your marketplace, devoting time to pricing higher
value work, jobs with numerous components, with high degrees
of complexity or special finishes that an online system does
not presently cater for.
If certain estimates can be self-generated online, then does
this mean that the salesperson will spend less time in front
of the customer?
Perhaps, but this also means that the salesperson can focus
a larger part of his day onto breaking new accounts or managing
key accounts.
Think about eCommerce not as an isolated breed of technology
but as a strategic approach to business, one where administration
and process efficiency are increased through the connection
of IT and mining the value from the data so exchanged.
The solutions that you adopt and offer will largely depend on
your market needs. For instance, a copy shop will need to offer
wildly different online capabilities to a web offset printer
or a carton printer. However, it is not just the interface between
your business and your customer that is about to undergo change.
eCommerce is the connection of business processes within supply
chains so, if you are not being offered them already, you should
look to be opening a dialogue with your suppliers concerning
their eCommerce approach.
Naturally, I do not expect you to have to develop these yourself
(because eCommerce should be supplier deployed) but you are
bound to have an opinion on how you could effectively order
paper, inks, chemistry, toner and other consumables. Larger
printers have, for a long time, had their paper and ink levels
managed by their suppliers and it is becoming increasingly common
for presses, processors and setters to be linked for remote
diagnostic capability.
You will not be able to buy one e-Enabled killer software application
that will ‘do all your eCommerce for you’, just
in the same way as you do not have one Mac application that
composes artwork, gives hi-res scans, builds quotes and makes
your press ready. Just as your print success has come from your
mix of presses and finishing kit, your eCommerce success will
come from your unique mix of value added connected technologies
that you offer to your market.
steve.whiting@whiteink.org
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