As a family-run company, we are fascinated by these prospects. It is not the change associated with these prospects that acts as a deterrent, but rather the expected investments on the one hand and the uncertain acceptance of our customers on the other.
In the printing industry, we have been confronted with advancing digitalization since the 1980s. We were always at the front, ahead of the large field of pursuers. This also applies to digital printing. We put the first machine into operation in 1994, before the breakthrough of the Internet. With our modern, high-quality digital printing equipment and the know-how we have acquired over the years, we are still one of the market leaders today.
The long road to online printing
We have been offering our customers the first solutions for “online printed matter” since 2009. From today’s perspective, the solution at the time was very modest. The infrastructure has developed significantly since then.
Today, we offer our customers a personal Web2Print Business portal. All of the company’s business stationery such as letterhead, envelopes and business cards are stored here. Order business cards for new employees quickly and professionally thanks to the CI/CD-compliant templates.
It only takes 2 minutes to order these print products, even by cell phone, and they are sent to the desired delivery address in the specified quality.
Even more complex print jobs can be completed directly. Personalized flyers, split delivery to different addresses. Today, our platform communicates directly with external systems, so print jobs are completed even more efficiently.
It took countless small steps to get to this point in the digital journey. The journey is far from over, and continuous improvement will take us further forward. Sometimes we pause, look back and then forward again. And yes, it’s always worth thinking outside the box.
Own know-how is important
Close contact with our customers – I deliberately avoid the term “customer centricity” – means that the requirements of the market are brought directly to us. We implement these with internal know-how and in teams with suppliers. We do not try to digitize every process step, but also look at the process sequence. We would like to draw your attention to the following quote:If you digitize a shitty process, then you have a shitty digital process.
We recommend that every company manager build up their own digital knowledge in their company. Regardless of whether they are marketing or IT specialists or, ideally, a free spirit who thinks “out-of-the-box”.
You think artificial intelligence, augmented or virtual reality are not yet topics for you?
We do not yet have any specific applications for ourselves or our customers, but they will come.
Conclusion
You can resist digitalization, but you can’t stop it. Shape your digital environment. Look ahead, also to the “high-flying ideas” mentioned at the beginning. It will certainly be exciting.
And when you successfully implement a project, not only do the investments pay off, it’s also a lot of fun!