In today’s fast-paced business landscape, where efficiency and speed are paramount, the printing industry, along with most other industries, is undergoing a significant transformation through the integration of automation.
The business world is striving to keep up with ever-evolving technological trends and consumer demands and the printing industry is no exception.
Implementing automation software has become crucial for print businesses, especially those in the web-to-print and custom print and personalization arena, who are aiming to enhance productivity, reduce downtime, streamline day-to-day operations and ultimately boost profitability.
Revolutionize Customer Experience through intuitive, seamless, online print personalization. Zero design hassles, just smooth operations and happier customers.
What is print automation? Why it’s a game-changer?
The goal of automation in printing is to create a smooth workflow from the very beginning of a job order to the point of delivery.
Great print automation reduces time and people-power spent on manual repetitive tasks across the workflow that can introduce errors and hinder productivity. It eliminates “touchpoints” where necessary and essentially increases speed to market.
Importantly too, is that through this streamlining, print businesses are able to keep prices competitive and greatly enhance services and indeed products for their customers. It’s a win-win.
From receiving orders, creating optimal print-ready files, manually uploading print specifications and parameters and ensuring the highest possible quality end product, to handling billing shipping and deliveries, there are numerous key points at which a print workflow can stumble, causing breakdowns and bottlenecks in production.
This is where automation software comes in. A technological game-changer that can revolutionize the way a print business operates and furthermore, according to an HP-sponsored study from Napco, businesses that have implemented automation, even on a small scale, show increased profits and production, higher throughput and increased speed to market, compared to those that haven’t.
How to choose your print automation software
Selecting the right print automation software is crucial. There are numerous products on the market, so how do you know what to choose?
You need to map out your workflow and highlight the pain points. Identify your goals, the specific needs of your customers and the unique complexities of your custom products and materials.
You need to understand exactly what you’re trying to create for your customer and choose a software solution that can deliver it and that can adapt to the changing needs of your business and the market.
It should seamlessly integrate with your existing workflows, have the flexibility to adapt to the different printing techniques and processes that you may offer now and in the future.
In short, it should enhance, not hinder.
The key role of print automation in print personalization
For printing stores specializing in custom printed gadgets, clothing and personalized products, automation is absolutely critical because there are so many different areas of potential automation for each personalized product and as such so many different areas that can break down, letting both the retailer and the customer down.
Reflect on the myriad challenges of providing customized printed products: extended pre-press print production, heavy workload on design teams, continuous customer interactions for defining unique designs, endless hours in the studio creating mockups, manual editing of print-ready files, and frequent production errors. Does this sound familiar?
Such hassles often lead to further issues like difficulties in managing tailor-made orders, missed deadlines due to operational inefficiency, and high return rates caused by lengthy lead times and a mismatch between the expected and actual custom products.
What can really make a difference? The right print automation software, like Zakeke! Zakeke is designed specifically with these retailers in mind. By automating their processes, Zakeke will help custom print sellers reduce the risk of errors, deliver consistent high quality, boost the speed of order fulfilment, cut manual and costly manual tasks and ultimately enhance customer experience.
From order placement to print-ready file preparation, Zakeke ensures a seamless process, allowing custom print stores to focus on what matters most – delivering superior, personalized products to their customers without burdening their team or risking the inability to scale due to an overload of operational tasks associated with customization.
Automating your printing business and embracing personalization with Zakeke
So, you’ve decided you want to up your automation game? Zakeke’s Visual Customizer e could just be the game-changer you’re looking for. It eliminates the need for time-consuming, manual preparation of custom print-ready files and reduces the risk of errors, creating a more reliable, efficient system and ensuring the consistent delivery of high-quality products.
How does it work? Zakeke’s system allows customers to personalize products in real-time directly online (with a super user-friendly interface) and then sends designs straight to merchants’ printer or engraver post-sale, streamlining custom order management. No more lengthy pre-press processes and burden on design teams.
Ideal for printers and printing providers, Zakeke is more than a web-to-print solution. It could be the best technological partner to grow your business by helping with pre-press management, printing workflow automation, and managing various printing techniques.
One of the greatest advantages is that Zakeke, being a cloud-based platform, provides straightforward integration and operation, presenting a superior alternative to conventional software solutions. It seamlessly integrates with a range of printing workflows, maintaining existing operations without interruption – a flexibility vital for businesses aiming to adopt automation without the complexities of a full-scale revamp.
The printing industry is changing, and automation software like Zakeke is playing a big part in this. Zakeke offers strong customization and easy automation and blends well with existing systems. This helps printing businesses, whether they serve retail or larger markets, unlock new levels of efficiency and customer satisfaction.
In other words, embracing print automation software like Zakeke unlocks new opportunities for growth and enables printers to thrive in today’s digital era.
