Designers Need to Flex Print Muscle
While it’s true that you could probably stay inside your house for a year by relying on Internet services, one of the greatest strengths of the Web is that it fosters communities and relationships, not isolation. Graphic designers, for example, suddenly have the opportunity to define a whole new way of buying and managing print, and improving their interactions with vendors and service providers.
In case you haven’t heard, a raft of online print services are springing up, from print auction sites to online print brokers to application service providers (yikes, another acronym to learn: ASP), which streamline the process from print order-taking to invoicing for printers and their customers. And all of these sites and services are the subjects of hot debate, especially among vendors and printers. Do auction sites “commoditize” print buying? Do printers really want their customers to be able to see the status of their job in the queue?
The Creative Component
But most of the discussion I’ve heard has been just that-between vendors and printers, not print buyers. Print buyers are busy being non-committal about how they’ll use the Internet in their businesses in the future, but online service providers are spending lots of time and energy debating the merits of their particular business model and berating (albeit politely) their competitors’ business models, and arguing about what’s the best route for printers to be successful and profitable in age of the Internet (check out the eProduction forum at www.printplanet.com to see what I mean).LINK And despite projections for huge growth in business-to-business services on the Internet in the next five years-to $220 billion by 2003, according to Forrester Research-the fact is that hardly any creative professionals use online print services today.
A recent TrendWatch survey, for example, found that online print sales represent less than 1 percent of all print sales, but other TrendWatch data shows that more than 8 out of 10 creative professionals purchase print for their clients, and a significant majority recommend printers to their clients even when they’re not directly involved in the purchase. What this means is that you, the creative professional, can have a huge impact in the shape and direction of these nascent online print services in the future, and that both online service providers and printers themselves have to start factoring you into their equation for success.
A Union Made in Ink
The best metaphor I’ve heard used to describe the print buyer/supplier relationship is that it’s like a marriage. Indeed, both creative professionals and their prepress and print suppliers like to foster an ongoing, perhaps lifelong, relationship. Over time, each party gets to know the others’ needs a little better, and in a strong marriage, everyone’s needs are served. And like a marriage, communication is key. Without clear and upfront discussion of each party’s roles and responsibilities, the process and the final product will suffer.
That’s why it’s incumbent on you, the digital designer, to check out the various online print services and find out which one best meets both your business and production requirements. Now don’t go getting all defensive and recalcitrant on me, snubbing a new technology in favor of the status quo. And don’t hem and haw about wanting to wait and see how the market and the technologies shake out. The Internet isn’t changing the way you do business; it’s {I}improving{/I} the way you do business, and you have a golden opportunity right now to influence how it will serve you best.
The Choice is Yours
The great aspect of a young industry such as online print services is that there are so many choices. If you’re a control freak and want a network with your one-and-only printer that automates transactions and provides you with all kinds of information on your print jobs and account, talk to your printer about signing up with Collabria or Noosh. If you want a reality check about the cost and turnaround that your printer provides, submit a RFQ for a project to an auction site like printbid.com and see what it yields. Consider if or when sites like iPrint, which provide templated print services, might be appropriate.
If you don’t find a service that meets your exact needs right now, don’t despair. You, my designer friend, are in the catbird seat. Vendors will be more inclined to listen to your needs and desires now, as they’re scrambling to define their niche and gain a foothold in this market, rather than after they’ve been bought up by some print or media communications conglomerate. In other words, you’d better speak now or forever hold your peace.
This article was last modified on June 30, 2023
This article was first published on March 8, 2000
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