Ghent, Belgium – When Creation Reprographics began analyzing ways to improve daily client communications to create a leaner, more effective, production process, expanding the export side of its operation was a dim and distant consideration. However, after further investigation into the capabilities of WebCenter from Esko, it soon became clear that the UK operation could achieve time and cost savings through more transparent communication and at the same time boost profits and revenues by winning new business overseas.

“This time last year, we started looking at what we were exporting to other countries,” explains Matt Francklow, responsible for sales and marketing at Creation Reprographics. “After analyzing that data, we could see that our international business was quite profitable and an avenue of sales we wanted to pursue further. Then we learned that by using WebCenter, we could easily have localised user interfaces to simplify communication as well as grant user privileges based on geography. This means that with this complete online portal, communications are streamlined and there are virtually no geographic limitations in terms of the areas we can effectively serve. This opened up many new opportunities in a number of countries, including Germany and Belgium, but particularly in Poland. That is where we are targeting most of our resources now, but we will also continue to work in other countries where printing remains a growth industry.”

Founded in 2004 as a reprographics studio, Creation Reprographics provides a range of platemaking, proofing, design and management services. It delivers high levels of customer service for brand, label and wide-web print customers and supports brands with innovative technical production strategies, including moving work from gravure print to flexo for more flexibility without any compromise in quality. Creation Reprographics aims to provide clients with an advantage in a very competitive market, and its implementation of WebCenter is a critical element of that strategy.

“We are becoming much more brand focused, and we are also helping printers, who make up to 70% of our customers, do the same,” Francklow adds. “By driving that side of the business forward, we are helping printers appear more professional to their customers. Brands already know the benefits that complete solutions like WebCenter offer, and quite frequently they look for those benefits from their suppliers.”

Customization is key

A very close developmental relationship with Esko was crucial to the successful adoption of WebCenter. Francklow explains, “We wanted to be able to completely understand the solution ourselves so we could create something that exactly fits our needs. We knew that a standard packaged solution would not be optimum, and we wanted the ability to customize over time as needs and requirements changed.”

The first challenge was to streamline email communication, minimize traffic and ensure that everyone who needed to be involved in a given project had access to the latest information. “We wanted to make sure people are not bogged down by having to respond to endless emails,” Francklow states. “Also very often, not everyone has timely access to all of the information and knowledge they need. With the cloud-based WebCenter, everyone can access the same information for clarity on what the exact project status is. It enables much clearer communication across the entire process.”

Building for a brighter future

As part of Creation Reprographics’ continuous improvement strategy, the company has engaged with the University of Derby’s Invest to grow program. In return for a 30% investment grant, Creation Reprographics works with the University on investigating ways to drive technology forward that can aid operations in a variety of sectors. The company has also created student and graduate positions to help younger talent get their feet on the first rungs of the industry career ladder. “By participating in this program, we are doing our part to upskill the work force so they can gain higher paid positions in jobs that have a future career path,” Francklow states. “So they can say ‘we have done this degree, now we can go to these businesses and enjoy this career path.’ This approach helps us future-proof our business with the right technology and talent, and future-proof the industry by helping to groom the next generation of innovators.” 

WebCenter went fully live end of 2015 at Creation Reprographics. As for the collective anticipated benefit, Francklow says, “WebCenter will be the lynchpin of our business.  I fully expect to see time and cost savings of around 30%. There will also be some production capacity gains. It took some time to decide exactly what we needed, but we expect our hard work to pay off even more further down the line.”

WebCenter manages all the complexities of job creation from specification and design through execution. It offers a highly secure environment that is easy to integrate with existing business systems, no matter what the size of the company. WebCenter is GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) compliant.