Boca Raton, Florida - The 7,000th Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46 is helping to turn the Internet into a new-job pipeline for the JKG Group, a thriving prepress, print, direct mail and fulfillment center here. The Printmaster QM 46 is Heidelberg's compact two-up press, available in one-color and two-color configurations. JKG purchased the 7,000th iteration of the machine just four months after buying its first QM 46. More recently, the company added a second pair of Printmasters to its pressroom. All four of the JKG Printmasters are two-color models. "Although we've been running Speedmasters and Stahl folders successfully for years, we never looked to Heidelberg for equipping us at this end of the market," says Michael Kind, who founded the JKG group in 1984 and serves as the company's president. "Once we did, we were pleasantly surprised with the product they offered. Then the performance of our first Printmaster convinced us to switch over to QM 46s." Mr. Kind is keeping his quartet of Printmasters busy all of the time, thanks in part to the company's e-printing application; e-Stationery Pro* developed by LojX.com, an e-applications service provider to the graphic arts industry. To use this online service, customers click onto a highly secured, branded website hosted by JKG at www.jkgprint.com . At the site, customers enter the appropriate information to create their own business cards or stationery items on customized templates designed for maximum order entry speed and accuracy. The ordering templates make it easy for customers to instantly proof a digital version of their business card, memo pad, letterhead or other stationery item while online before they hit the submit button, according to JKG. That saves time and eliminates the need to fax or FedEx proofs back and forth. JKG's automated production process instantly receives the approved file and puts it in queue for jobs earmarked to go to the Printmasters. Simultaneously the program sends an email confirmation to the customer that includes a schedule for when all of the elements of the job will be shipped. The job queue funnels into a Quicksetter 400, Heidelberg's new two-up imagesetter, which thanks to a built-in RIP, can produce film or polyester plates directly from customer files. "The Quicksetter is an important part of the automated workflow for our online products," Kind says. "We just feed it the files and it produces polyester plates for our Printmasters - pre-punched and ready to run." The efficiency doesn't end with JKG's Internet-to-plate set-up, however. Kind reports that his new Printmasters makeready 50 percent faster than the machines he had been running. "Four minutes versus eight minutes may not sound like a huge difference," he observes. "But when you're printing dozens of short runs over the course of a day, the savings really add up." So much so that JKG can offer its online customers considerable savings on their printing costs. "e-Stationery Pro* is an Internet purchasing solution designed to simplify, expedite, and reduce the cost of any item you currently order with a standard shell format imprinted with variable information," JKG tells visitors to its website. "Initial studies done with clients using e-Stationery Pro* indicate an average savings of more than $30.00 per order after automating the process." In addition to improved efficiency, Mr. Kind is seeing "a marked improvement in quality" in the work his QM 46s are producing. "We're much more comfortable with the product we're sending out since we started printing on these Heidelbergs. They deliver better ink coverage and improved dot reproduction on every impression." Since starting the online service about 18 months ago, JKG has signed on 40 new customers - major corporations each with sales revenues of a billion dollars or more. "Being on the Internet allows us to sell and distribute our products throughout the world," Kind says. "Our business grew 47% this year and our profits have grown exponentially." The only downside is that "the Net is still a new way of doing business," so new customers require more than the usual amount of handholding. JKG has responded by instituting a "consultative selling approach" that emphasizes customer service. The advantage is that once a client gets comfortable with JKG's online system, he or she will be coming back for more, time and again. The speed and reliability of the program means companies don't have to warehouse business cards and stationery. Customers can buy what they require - just in time - whenever the need arises. JKG also runs an online fulfillment application and is developing a direct mail order function that works over the Net. Meanwhile the company's commercial printing business is also thriving, with a four-color Speedmaster 102 perfector and a five-color Speedmaster 72 serving as the main engines of production. Mr. Kind notes that his four Printmasters have had an impact on that side of the pressroom as well. "They're very much at home in a commercial environment. We use them to take some of the two-color work off our larger presses, so we can use the Speedmasters to go print bigger jobs." All of that's fine with JKG's pressman. "The Printmasters are a lot easier for them to use than the other small format presses we had in here," he says. "The water balance is not as sensitive, so makereadies are not only quicker, they're easier to manage." With the 7,000th Printmaster QM 46 helping to connect JKG's cyber-supplied customers to real offset printing, the company might soon be in the market for the 8,000th, 9,000th or 10,000th Printmaster. Kind isn't making any predictions, only noting that JKG has grown dramatically in the last few years and that "You need great equipment to take advantage of a great opportunity."