A10 Steps to Follow for Print Workflow Success s customer expectations for more convenient ordering, shorter runs, and faster turnarounds put pressure on conventional workflows, print shops are adapting to these new realities by changing the way they do business. A new eBook from PressWise by SmartSoft (Booth 539) outlines 10 steps to ensure your workflow is structured effectively for future success. 1. Make it easier to order Use public-facing storefronts with templates to attract new customers, and customized storefronts for existing clients. Showcase your entire product catalog. Make all this available 24/7, and reduce the friction of ordering to strengthen your customer relationships. 2. Evaluate your current workflow costs Break up your workflow into identifiable steps for each job type, and evaluate the time and employee cost of performing each step. This will help you make an informed decision on whether it makes sense to invest in workflow automation tools. 3. Eliminate redundancies Once job information is entered into your system, that information should flow with a job through your shop without the need for rekeying. 4. Automate An effective automated workflow will free workers from repetitive tasks. Features such as self-quoting tools, electronic job ticketing, auto-impositioning, and auto-batching eliminate touches and time-consuming manual intervention, allowing you to handle a higher volume of orders. 5. Standardize workflow Invest in a system that lets you take orders from all sources and injects them into the same, standardized workflow. This cuts down on administrative time and cost and gets jobs into production quicker. 6. Think end-to-end Look at a single, end-to-end system so orders flow through your workflow with minimal manual intervention, keeping all your valuable order data in a single system. 7. Create transparency Offering your client access to tools such as order history and downloadable invoices, job status updates, and package tracking, promotes customer loyalty and peace of mind. Internally, a print management system gives staff access to real-time information so they can perform their job more effectively. 8. Get on board Define your vision and explain why change is necessary. Identify areas for improvement and create clear, measurable objectives. Appoint a project ‘champion’ with a broad understanding of your entire operation to drive implementation and change in peoples’ habits. Be proactive, setting clear goals and deadlines. Run weekly project meetings to ensure they are reached, but don’t expect 100% perfection. 9. Use your data! Print management information systems offer real-time insight into shop performance. Custom reports can analyze sales trends, inventory levels, staff productivity, order history, storefront activity, shipping, and more. This data lets you close the loop on the costs of production and job profitability, providing you with critical information to make business decisions in real time. 10. Consider SaaS and the cloud Rather than paying a large upfront fee, Software as-a-Service usually involves a pay-as-you go model. Because the technology resides in the cloud, rather than hosted within your shop, the vendor bears the cost of maintainance – there are no costly servers to purchase and no IT staff required. It also makes it easier to scale. As software has become more sophisticated and cloud computing made it more reliable and accessible, now is an ideal time to reevaluate your workflow. Evaluate your entire print workflow to identify opportunities for improvement, then, most importantly, get the commitment of your team to change. To download this entire eBook, visit see.presswise.com/graph Official Show Daily | PrintingNews.com GRAPH EXPO | September 13, 2015 | 27
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