"The reality is that a lot of commercial printers think just knocking on someone’s door and saying ‘Hi, I’m from Healeys can I print something for you,’ is an okay strategy," he says. "But it will be a case of ‘join the back of the queue’."

What is needed, says Harris, is something a little bit different to bring to the table. And this is something Healeys Print Group has always been keen to offer.

The company  was established 50 years ago when current managing director Philip Dodd’s father bought a post office and stationers and started the gradual process of branching out into single-, then two-, then multi-colour commercial print. Since then the printer has ensured it can offer a unique one-stop shop proposition to its charity, fine art, publishing and local small business customers by expanding into lots of different areas, including digital – small- and wide-format – cross-media, artwork and data services.

Another key differentiator is the firm’s web-to-print (W2P) offering, says Harris. He explains that being able to order print quickly and simply is enough of a godsend for time-poor businesses that the fact Healeys is, as of a year and a half ago, the proud owners of a Vpress Coreprint system, makes a huge difference in securing new business.

"Basically, any large organisation with multiple buyers or operating in multiple locations has a real need for a W2P product, and the larger the organisation the bigger the problem with ordering print like business cards," he explains. "Take one of our charity customers. Previously one lady there was in charge of ordering letterheads so she would have 10,000 delivered to her at a go that she had to find room to store. Now individuals in the company order their own and all she has to do is a monthly audit. Previously she was spending loads of time looking after letterheads, which was crazy. She was probably spending a good three or four hours a week on that."

"We have five clients now using this system and we wouldn’t have secured that work had we not had a W2P solution," adds Harris.

He does concede though that these contracts would still have been brought on board had the firm been using another W2P system. His past experiences with another vendor suggest, however, that both Healeys’ and its customers’ experience of the system wouldn’t have been as problem-free as with Coreprint.

"We did previously use another system, but there were disagreements about quality – the previous vendor just didn’t support the software very well," he says, reporting that as a result, Vpress impressing Healeys with a personable and pro-active ethos was key when the printers decided to go elsewhere: "You look at the perceived support you’re going to get from the organisation, you look at the personalities selling the products," he says.

Editable templates
Also crucial was the software’s pricing model and the fact that it allows in-house product template creation rather than forcing a printer to pay the vendor to do this. "Most important was that we could make a lot of the template amendments ourselves," explains Harris. "If you look at some of the more expensive systems, yes, you can create some fantastic templates, but you have to use the vendor to do this. Of course, if you land a very big customer you can justify spending several thousand pounds creating the templates. But if you create the templates in-house you can take a more speculative punt on organisations."

"Vpress’s price model also suited us better," he adds. "Vpress is a more modest up-front cost than some other packages and then a click-charge model, which if you become wildly successful, I guess, could end up costing more, but is more suited to someone gradually building their W2P offering."

Vpress has certainly delivered on the strong service support Healeys were after, reports Harris. He reports that there have been barely any problems with the software since its installation and that when one small glitch did occur, Vpress had sorted the problem even before Healeys was even aware of it.

"There was one occasion where an update happened that introduced an error elsewhere," says Harris. "But within the hour, they’d corrected that."

One slight issue the firm has had with the software however, has been with the look of the client’s user interface. Harris reports though that an add-on module, coreWebServices, bought to also allow more flexible interface functionality, has completely resolved the issue. "One of the added benefits of the web services module, aside from the ability to craft our own bespoke system, is that the user interface can also be completely overhauled," says Harris. "One of the things that we wanted to do with the Coreprint system from the very start was to alter the look and feel so that it fits more with the Healeys way of doing things."

Vpress qualifies, however, that most customers are more than happy with the customer interface that comes as standard with the Coreprint system and don’t feel the need to purchase the coreWebServices module to improve it. A wide variety of interface options are available with the standard Coreprint package, the vendor adds, and Vpress works with all customers to ensure their interface works for them.

The only other issue Healeys has experienced was struggling with internet bandwidth at the start of the software’s life. So Harris would recommend anyone installing this or a similar package to ensure their IT infrastructure allows for speedy processing right from the off.

He would also recommend that printers going down the W2P route are careful to allocate plenty of manpower to the venture. Healeys have in fact taken the person in charge of the software off all other duties to ensure the system runs smoothly. "We decided it should be a department in its own right, as it’s a very important growth area," reports Harris. "So we moved our guy sideways so, although he still supports creative, his primary function is on W2P."

The final bit of advice Harris would offer those new to W2P would be to ensure the firm is really going out and selling the offering. He explains that, though such a system is a great way of gaining the edge over the competition, clients are still at the stage where they need to have the benefits really spelled out to them.

Customer engagement
Harris explains that it was only recently the firm truly got to grips with this and so in fact its Vpress system has only been utilised fully in the last six months. "The system was purchased because there was an opportunity and the company thought it was best to pitch for this contract having got the software," he explains. "But that wasn’t won and nothing else was done with it until I joined the team. You’ve got to actually go to people and talk to them about how W2P can change the way they engage with their printer."

Now the company has got the hang of selling the wonders of W2P, the future is looking very promising indeed. "We’ve forecast that by the end of our financial year in September, W2P will account for around a quarter of our turnover, and that’s from a standing start six months ago," reports Harris.

The system doesn’t only attract clients by offering to make their lives a lot easier, but also by reducing the hassle and costs at Healeys’ end. "From our perspective, we’ve automatically booked the job into our system, it creates print-ready artwork automatically, it will process everything up to the print stage, so all of a sudden we’ve dramatically reduced our admin costs."

"We’re still pushing for growth in other areas of the business, but a lot of our growth will come from W2P and it means we can grow without increasing admin costs," he adds.

For Healeys Print Group, branching fully into W2P using the Vpress Coreprint system has, then, been a resounding success. Gone is any risk of ‘Hi, I’m a printer, can I do some work for you?’ Instead, Healeys can say with full confidence: ‘Hi, I’m a printer with a reliable and easy to use W2P system that could make your life a great deal easier.’

SPECIFICATIONS
Platform SaaS. Can be fully integrated into existing e-procurement/MIS
Reporting Full reporting available from orders/job-tracking and further management information
Template management Either Coreprint Managed or Coreprint Pro, whereby you can control and create your own templates
B2C Coreprint engine can be used to create bespoke B2C W2P system
Included Free digital asset management tool for images
Price Coreprint starts from £750, with a charge of £100-£1,000 for template creation. Coreprint Pro starts from £7,500, with extra software modules costing between £350 and £2,500
Contact Vpress 01242 246970 www.vpress.co.uk