PeoplePrint will eliminate the need for a middleman by cutting the ordering and production process from more than 50 steps to seven, said managing director John Weichard.

“We’re an online print aggregator. It’s a bit like a Wotif for printing,” he told ProPrint.

“One of the big differences between us and print managers is that the print managers insert themselves into the process and manually handle a lot of the problems with the workflow.

“We’re making a lot of those problems go away. We’re making that a lot more efficient.”

Weichard said the big gains in efficiency had been achieved by combining a Kodak workflow engine with proprietary solutions.

PeoplePrint will also cut overheads for buyers and sellers of print by “bringing the customer and the printer closer together”, said Weichard.

“The cost of getting a job into the system is a big chunk of the revenue printers are making,” he said.

“We’re bringing all the buyers together online and all the printers together online and then enabling the buyers to match up with the best printer that’s suited to the job.”

PeoplePrint expects to raise $1 million from its first round of capital raising, which should be completed in about a fortnight, said Weichard. Systems are scheduled to be installed in early November and the business to start trading before the end of 2012, he added.

The site will be promoted to print buyers and printers by Heidelberg’s former sales and marketing director, Alastair Hadley, who joined PeoplePrint on 3 September as chief operations officer.

Hadley told ProPrint that the site would encourage first-time buyers into the market by simplifying the process and help printers capitalise on the trend to online ordering.

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