Grafik plus, located north of Paris, France, has converted to web-to-print and offers this as a new service to its clientele. Mr. Frédérik Le Corre, director of Grafik plus, explains…

Why web-to-print?

Our clientele consists of major accounts and SMEs who entrust us with commercial printing jobs, including marketing communications collateral, press kits, as well as the preparation of stationery.

The web has changed the expectation levels of our customers, who now expect instant access to data. Furthermore, it seemed logical to us to put in place a web-to-print system for our clients in order to facilitate order taking and to edit or annotate documents online. They have the power of a tool like InDesign through a web browser.

Why did you invest in Apogee StoreFront?

Apogee StoreFront has the advantage of offering a modern interface and deploying easy-to-use shops in the colors of our clients. And since the solution from Agfa Graphics is directly linked into our prepress workflows, we can easily shift from digital to offset. On top of that, Apogee Storefront is offered as a cloud service at a very competitive price.

To whom are you addressing your service offer?

This solution is offered to major accounts who want to decentralize orders management of procurement while imposing a very strict graphic charter. Users customize their documents without modifying the established corporate visual identity. We go further by proposing templates online. Using these, one of our clients composes invitations for various events without having to use an agency every week.

How have you made your customers aware of this new service?

We organized demonstrations at the premises of our clients. We also have an online shop for demonstrations which presents all the types of products that one can order in just three clicks.

What are the initial results?

Some of our long-time clients were very quickly won over and we have already put in place a half-dozen shops.

We also had to arrange a kind of 'commando' team to handle these orders. If we facilitate purchases for our clients, we must also produce at the lowest possible cost and within even tighter deadlines! 
We are thinking about the future and we have already invested in a second digital press. We are also thinking about investing in resources that are better suited to handling certain types of work like business cards.