Web-to-print: Unlocking the W2P Potential

There’s an important question you need to ask yourself. How do you Web to print?

Yes, there are a number of ways to embrace Web-to-print (W2P) workflows. You can house marketing, sales collateral or branded items on a site that can be used and personalized by a corporate client with offices in multiple locations. You can upload mailing lists to do direct mail programs for customers. Or you can be the great Oz behind the curtain, controlling the production and dissemination of print-related products to a client’s end user.

But as you ponder the W2P talking points—the importance of data security and using that relationship to latch on to a customer until the apocalypse—and what the offering can do for your clients, take a step back and ask yourself this question. What can W2P do for you? Because as you read this, there are printers who are fearlessly moving mountains, empowered by what they’ve garnered from their W2P experiences and parlayed into unlikely partnerships.

Ditto Finds Fertile Ground

One such bold trekker is Ken Shriber, who 20 years ago teamed with his brother, Steve, to form Ditto Document Solutions (now called Ditto), a Pittsburgh-based copy and production center catering to law firms and corporate legal departments. That has evolved into printing (including direct mail, signage and collateral) and direct marketing for other companies in the surrounding tri-state area. W2P has been a rich source for activity during the past 10 years, and the company currently hosts 35 active sites and 15,000-plus registered users pumping out an average of more than 500 jobs per day.

Ditto relies on Xerox’s XMPie StoreFlow W2P software, which complements the firm’s digital press arsenal that includes a pair of Xerox iGen4s, three Nuvera 120s and two color 560s. According to Ken Shriber, Ditto has worked diligently to hone its offering.