Mark Staffieri of eProductivity Software (EPS) was the guest at a recent webinar hosted by Konica Minolta’s Tatjana Ferguson about the benefits of adopting a Web to Print system.
Last month, EFI sold eProductivity Software to affiliate business, Symphony Technology Group. EPS is now operating as a standalone software business whilst continuing its relationship with EFI and Konica Minolta globally.
At the webinar, Staffieri discussed the business change and reiterated that is very much business as usual.
“It is business as usual, we continue to work with our partners Konica Minolta on a global scale and we are excited about what this means for us moving forward,” Staffieri said.
Ferguson said the global Web to Print market is forecast to grow from US$983 million in 2020 to US$1,500 million by 2027, while Staffieri said having a Web to Print system will no doubt help make a client be more likely to ‘stick’ to their printer as the service provision deepens and broadens.
“Web to Print can make the printer more like a consultant and allow you to act as a trusted advisor to your customer. This means you can be the first responder when it comes to other services and products they may require,” Staffieri said.
“It can also remove barriers, provides a window of visibility, and opens up conversations for other services that can be offered. It also opens up opportunities across geographies and time zones.”
He added having such systems in place also makes it possible to track and measure performance through the provision of reporting and analytics which can show how a client is going and what their spending habits are.
A number of polls were carried out during the webinar, with one returning that only 40% of printers tuning in were happy with their current Web to Print system.
Printers were also able to ask questions which Ferguson and Staffieri answered.
Among them was whether EPS systems would allow for a job to progress without manual intervention from quote phase, through production and to invoicing.
“It does negate the need for manual processes in the traditional sense. Ideally what we want to do is move more of the standard product types to online ordering and allow a customer to configure a product which will dynamically drive a price, which they can approve on the spot. In terms of automating job progress throughout the workflow, absolutely there is possibility integrated into your MIS platform which can be utilised for billing,” Staffieri said.
The systems were also now much more simplified for adding new products in a more streamlined, faster way.
“Over the years we have seen the administrative component become more complex. We would encourage customers to think about trying to standardise products to a certain degree, maybe limit the number of choices to a customer. But ultimately the admin side of things in our system has gone through quite a refresh lately to make it a lot simpler to add products.”
Staffieri added there are also benefits for inventory management using the systems and urged any printers interested to get in touch with their Konica Minolta rep.
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