There is no longer any need to send a courier back and forth with discs and hard copy proofs, no longer any need to arrange time-consuming meetings and no longer any need to splash out on travel, accommodation and expenses in order to proof your projects. All links in the repro supply chain can now be accessed from the comfort of your own office at the click of a mouse.

The flag-bearer for virtual repro is Scottish start-up Reprobrand, which launched a service earlier this year that offers brand owners and designers the chance to manage all stages of their repro online (see below). Reprobrand says that its offer is a natural progression from conventional repro and the company has already proved a hit with customers, securing deals with printers in places such as Ireland and Turkey.

But is this the way that all repro services are inevitably destined to go, or is it merely marketing spin to win new business?

Let’s face it, the virtual repro concept is hardly a new phenomenon. Almost all repro houses and printers are now in a position to offer some degree of online repro, whether it’s electronic file submission or the ability to approve proofs remotely – simply sending a file by email could be seen as virtual repro.

The internet, coupled with the right software systems, has also allowed companies to set up offshore repro facilities, which enables customers to outsource their pre-press requirements. But do these developments mean that all aspects of repro will go the same way?

Critical mass
“To a greater or lesser extent repro will go online, in the same way that industrial repro went to desktop publishing five or six years ago,” believes Brian Holt, marketing manager of Woking-based Repropoint. “However, you will always get someone coming in with a faded dyeline print that you need to scan – demand for that sort of service will never go away.”

Repropoint set up its own online system after one of its biggest customers requested it. Its e-Propoint software allows clients, among other functions, to create print-ready PDFs, manage artwork online and view current projects. “Once more and more large corporates start to lean that way then the house of cards will start to tumble,” says Holt.

Another company that set up a web-driven pre-press offering as a response to customer demand was Online Reprographics, which serves the architectural, engineering and construction sectors. John Foy, sales and marketing director at the company, says that 75% of its work is received as data transfer files (it has a number of overseas customers for which this is the primary method) and that the firm’s clients particularly like the online collaboration tools.

“In the old days a lot of print was created. An architectural drawing would be produced for a project, we would copy it and then send it out to someone by courier. This would then go back and forth between the interested parties until they finally reached agreement. Web collaboration tools have taken all of that out now,” explains Foy.

One of the commonly perceived downsides of online repro is the disappearance of the personal relationship, but Foy is adamant that the level of service the company provides is no different than it would have been 20 years ago.

“We’re a company that is awake to what we are printing. If a file comes to us and something’s wrong with it we’re experienced enough to fire it back at the client. There is still a control element to it and the process isn’t completely automated. All we are doing is using technology to deliver a traditional service in a modern way.”

New skills
London repro house Colour Systems has also embraced technological advances to offer an innovative service. Its Virtual In-house Production (VIP) tool has been snapped up by magazine behemoth Emap and Printing World publisher Haymarket. Joint managing director George Berg explains that repro houses are having to adapt to the times and develop new skills – such as enhancing digital images rather than traditional transparencies – as technology encroaches on different areas. He sees a future where conventional and virtual repro will exist side by side. “There will still be a demand for conventional repro for pages that are trickier to produce, that perhaps require montages or re-touching, while easier pages – one picture and some type – can go virtual,” he says.

The decision to go virtual or to stick with conventional repro for many buyers will eventually boil down to cost. “With virtual repro systems you get all of the advantages of conventional repro – such as excellent colour – but as you are doing more of the business-end work you pay less of the unit-end cost,” says Berg.

Virtual repro users will also be able to avoid spending thousands of pounds on servers, hardware, disc and disaster recovery space, and then constantly shell out to update these facilities.

“Virtual systems are the most cost-effective way of doing things. If you can get the right system in place and if you’re sending lots of pages down the line then you benefit greatly from the economies of scale,” explains Berg.

Given the cost savings that virtual repro promises, it’s hardly surprising to hear that more and more buyers are using, or are considering using, this type of pre-media service. One buyer says that his company saved between £5,000 to £7,000 per job on high-res proofs by moving to an online system. “It also saves on couriers, account managers’ resource time and of course the environment,” he says.

However, he goes on to explain that the online system is only used for certain jobs – for large pagination work where colour matching is not as critical as content – and he concedes that some of the internal brand managers within his company are still much happier viewing hard copy proofs.

Perhaps this provides a glimmer of hope for those repro companies that choose not to offer an online option. Repropoint’s Holt, for one, believes that there is a future for both conventional and online repro. “Waterstone’s sells beautiful books off-the-shelf, but if you go in and ask for something that it hasn’t got in stock, then they turn to the computer to find out how much it costs and how long it will take to get hold of a copy. Then they will order it for you online,” explains Holt. “But Waterstone’s is still in the hard copy business of selling print and it will still survive. I’m definitely not condemning anyone who is not prepared to think about it [virtual repro] at all – all I’m saying is that this is where we see the future.”

Balanced offering
A decade or so ago, if you’d asked the major pre-media suppliers how they saw themselves operating now, it’s unlikely that many would have predicted an online future. But with very few hardcore pre-media specialist companies left today, those that have survived and those that look set to thrive are the ones that have managed to strike a balance between offering a blend of the old and the new to meet their customers’ requirements.

And as Online Reprographics’ Foy points out: “We’re not a bunch of internet geeks – we’re a bunch of printers who have found the right software and a way of working that enhances our service and makes life easier for us and for our clients.”

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CASE STUDY
Reprobrand

Steven Barron and Fraser Macdonald, who boast more than 40 years of print industry experience between them, developed a plan to set up their own repro service back when the internet was in its infancy. However, these plans were put on the back-burner until around 18 months ago. By then, the internet had started to encroach on all areas of society and it had also had a major impact on repro, where it was now commonplace to send files back and forth by email or FTP.

Barron and Macdonald recognised that there was a gap in the market for a repro company that operated wholly in the virtual realm. “Through various discussions we got a feel for what customers were thinking,” explains Macdonald. “People had been doing this for some time, but it was a sideline. We wanted to make it core to our business.”

According to Macdonald, Reprobrand’s services can be “as much or as little as you want”. Clients can upload, download, amend, create and approve new or existing work through an internet portal driven by Esko software. Artwork is stored in a central location and it can be viewed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Macdonald says that since the firm launched it has had lots of interest in the service, but the major challenge it faces is convincing clients to embrace the web.

“Lots of people have trepidation about conducting business over the internet and we need to try to educate them that they can trust files and payments,” says Macdonald. “What they’re doing at the moment already works for them, so it’s going to take a radical shift in attitude and it will take time.”

Macdonald and Barron intend to sell their service on the commercial benefits that virtual repro offers – namely reduced costs and improved time to market (all important factors for the brand and packaging sector that they’re targeting). They’re also using the marketing message ‘future proof today’.

“The power of the internet will only grow and we’re setting ourselves up to go along with that,” explains Macdonald. “So many printers and repro houses have already fallen by the wayside. If you don’t embrace and invest in technology, and then continue to reinvest, then the inevitable will happen.”