The Web to Print benefits are very apparent to everyone today and even though businesses realize the advantages – there are Mistaken Drawbacks that either prevent or delay their decision of transiting from the traditional print model to the W2P business model. Some of the common issues that are experienced on the other side of the web to print fence are mentioned below along with explanation to why they are mistaken as being drawbacks and why several businesses today are readily applying these new business models.

Cost

Cost is one of the foremost reasons that immensely scare marketers and keep them away from any new application. In case of web2print application the front end costs of interface development, repository development, web2print templates designing, etc is what scares marketers away, however not all W2P solutions are costly. Since a wide range of options are available, they range from some rather inexpensive options that are available off the shelf, to some costly options that are greatly customized and beneficial proprietary oriented solutions.

One good thing here is the fact that the more widely these applications are being used by businesses, the more is the cost dropping down. This is true for both complex applications and especially the off the shelf applications, since more and more marketers are opting for it initially. The growing demand created an explosion of new Web to Print applications being released in the market, driving down prices of previous versions. Marketers that are using print provider hosted interface, especially in case of inventory or retail management, there is no extra cost to pay for at all.

The total cost incurred on setting up a Web to Print system depends upon the complexity of the system, whether it is a simple hosted model, or an ASP or W2P SaaS solution, and whether you are using marketing or printing partner hosting services or deploying the solution in house. What encouraging about W2P is that many of the solutions offered today come with fully customizable Web2Print templates, thus further reducing the cost.

Getting the Buy In

It is essential to known at this point that the initial cost spent on front end of Web to Print are often only the Offset costs, not only in terms of administrative savings but also through incremental savings in price that are volume driven. Depending on the level of sophistication and volume, the higher the volume and sophistication of solution, the earlier is the cost earned back. Since not all companies can generate the required volume the key to achieving the required ROI is to get the complete buy in of the company. Those who plan to get a Web to Print solution require buying it in at all levels of the business, ensuring it gets used by all. One best practice is such a situation is to implement incentive and training programs that involve employees of all levels vested in your new W2P solution before it is actually deployed.  This will not only generate the required buy in from all levels of employees, but also the added advantage of getting employees to help in any potential problem that may occur in using the system before it is deployed.

W2P Offset Model or W2P Digital Model

Normally when Web to print applications are discussed hot applications with the likes of customization, one off personalization and decentralized targeted marketing features are discussed. It is important at this point to know that cost justification is all about using web for any kind of print. It can either be a long term offset or a short term digital , presentation folders, labels, corporate identity materials, packaging, large format graphics, etc any thing that requires printing. If you can print it, it is in the output of a web-to-print back end system.

Cost justification of W2P solutions comes not from the complex features but from the ability to automate and streamline daily printing output and ordering.

W2P App Range

Making all applications customizable to fit the W2P printing model is not possible. Highly customized documents, in shape, size and content, cannot characteristically fit in the automated, template solution of W2P. however when it is designed once, it is possible to upload to be printed later on whenever-needed basis, even in case when the document is not modifiable.

Packaging is one example, where special requirements, dies variety, etc place challenges that are hard or not possible to be accommodated by an automated system however for those who are into mass efficiency over uniqueness of product, W2P production may offer the desired results.