Most printing companies today have a web site and most accept electronic files in one way or another.  But accepting files via email or FTP, while more convenient than the old deliver-the-disk method, leaves much to be desired in terms of both customer convenience and workflow efficiency for the printer. Web-to-print solutions, on the other hand, were designed to offer a more formalized and more fully featured method of getting files from the buyer to the seller and into the production process.

These days, however, what we were calling “Web-to-print” has morphed into something much more sophisticated and we really need a new name.  Most notably, the digital assets that are being submitted through these systems don’t always go to print, so “Web-to-print” is much too limiting.  Some assets are available for download electronically and might never be printed.  Others may be used in email campaigns.  Still others may be destined for the Web as banner ads, customized landing pages or more. In fact, for the customers, it is not even about print, really.  It is more about managing business communications or marketing collateral, which is likely to include some print.

In 2008, Graph Expo’s Must See’ems expert panel identified Web-to-print as number six in its list of the Top Six Survival Technologies for 2009. Number 1 was MIS, Number 2 was Information Technology as a core competency, and Number 4 was workflow.  In my mind, all four of these are tightly linked and almost need to be grouped as a must-have megasolution for the modern provider of printing services—or is it business communications services, marketing communications services, marketing services?  It’s pretty confusing out there in this time of dynamic change.