PrintWeek, 08 May 2008
Neil Parr-Davies, digital services manager at Cambrian Digital, has cut job times with this system that automates everything from order to delivery
What does RedTie Quotation do?
It’s a very clever server-based application that allows customers to quote jobs, order work, upload PDFs and check status updates for their work. It also gives us a host of back-end features to manage the site and the workload.
Why did you choose this particular software package?
It met our requirements in nearly every respect, which was not surprising as it was designed by digital printers and not software engineers.
Did you look at any other similar systems?
We looked at Xralle and PrintJob.
Why did you make the purchase?
We had been guilty of treating digital print the same as litho and jobs were taking a long time going around the various departments, all the time costing us money and slowing us down. We needed to have everything automated and kept within one department.
What features do you particularly like?
The way the system can be used as a basic MIS. It’s not just quoting and receiving files from customers – it’ll print you everything from a job bag to a delivery note. I like the way it cuts out all the unnecessary steps between customer and production departments.
Is there anything you dislike?
The quoting mechanisms could be a little bit more finessed, but that’s a small detail.
Is there anything that you wish it had that it doesn’t?
I mentioned to RedTie that I wished it had a function for customers to approve their work online, instead of phoning us once they get a proof. They thanked me for the idea and got to work on including it in the software.
How fast is it?
We had a job arrive at 4.45pm recently and the customer was amazed to find it delivered to him by 10am the next morning. We don’t do that every time of course. We normally say 24- or 48-hour turnaround, but it does show how quick things can go through now. With our previous system, it would have taken half an hour just to make the job bag.
How reliable is it?
So far, it’s been 100% reliable.
What’s the quality like?
Superb. It is a really solidly built application. Key to this are the little details like the that fact the quoted price constantly recalculates within the page as you change the various options.
How easy is it to use?
From the customer’s point of view, it’s really simple. It becomes necessarily more complex as you get more into the backend, but you don’t need to be an IT expert to set it up.
How much time or money has it saved?
It saves us several hours per job.
Has it won you any new work?
We are seeing new customers signing up every day.
Would you say that it offers value for money?
Absolutely.
Were there any difficulties experienced during the installation or after?
No, we were able to get everything done within half a day.
What about the pre- and after-sale service?
Very good so far.
Who do you think the machine is right for?
Digital printers, or litho printers with digital departments.
Under what circumstances would you buy another?
We’ve already bought the companion software, RedTie Template.
Conclusion - User’s verdict
- Speed 5/5
- Quality 4/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Value for money 4/5
Supplier’s Response
Phill Rodgers, R&D director at RedTie, says:
Contact RedTie 01604 234456"We are very pleased to hear the RTQ works so well for Cambrian. Its features are a result of working with printers to automate their repetitive tasks and, after four years of development, we have a very stable platform, which is a focused, effective time- and money-saving tool. In the next few weeks, all RTQ owners will receive an update to provide further intelligence on their cost calculations and the online approval feature that Neil requested."
Matt Whipp, printweek.com, 10 September 2007
RedTie has released homegrown web-to-print software RedTie Quotation and RedTie Marketing.
Aimed at SMEs and regional offices of larger companies, the template-based online tool creates variable-data print jobs for marketing and other purposes. The software is already being used across HP's regional sales forces and solutions architects as well as for Suzuki's regional dealerships. Software firm Sage has also signed up to the service.
RedTie managing director Marian Stefani told printweek.com that around 20 printers, including litho, digital operations and copy shops, had also created accounts on the system, although she declined to name the companies.
She added that the software is unique in its simplicity, creating files that are optimised for the press to which they are to be sent.
"It's a print-ready file, not a PDF file that has to be impositioned," she said. "There's no pre-press."
The company has partnered with a database firm to securely handle variable-data applications. Data is loaded into the system for each print job and then dropped as soon as the job is complete.
The service and templates are customisable, meaning it can be re-skinned and embedded into an existing site. Clients can also edit the parameters of the files created so that they are optimised and sent directly to particular presses. The software also includes a facility to provide customers with instant quotations for the work they want done.
Setting up a fully-featured RedTie system costs 7,650, with a hosting charge of 150 per month and a file creation charge of 1. This latter is irrespective of the size of the print job.
Stuart Turton, PC Pro NEWS, 7th September 2007
RedTie is putting print marketing into the hands of the individual with its new software.
Resembling an online desktop publishing package, the RedTie software offers a set of highly configurable marketing templates - including direct mail forms, postcards and stickers - which can be personalised with customer names, information and pictures. The software effectively eliminates the need for small business to outsource print marketing to designers.
Once created, the click of a button sends the campaign to RedTie's printing facility where it is produced and shipped in anywhere between six and 48 hours, depending on volume.
The software is currently being trialled by blue chip companies such as HP, Suzuki and Sage, but RedTie is now targeting smaller businesses.
"The entry barrier for these services was huge; cost, technology, facilities. Our public is not technical, so we knew we had to create an easy interface, we wanted the whole transaction to take place on the internet," says Marian Stefani, managing director of Red Tie.
Web-to-print is not a new idea but RedTie has the backing of industry giant HP, which supplies the Indigo printing presses used by the company, and will now begin actively recommending the software to its clients.
Printing World, 28 December 2007
Software firm RedTie is targeting its recently launched online template and quoting systems at small and medium-sized firms trying to beat the squeeze on time and software costs.
RedTie Template (RTT) lets customers log on to the internet to edit and order documents. It enables printers to create a branded site for each of its clients and has image library, administration and reporting capabilities.
"Its an entry-level tool, but can do the sort of things that our blue-chip customers require, says RedTie software developer Phillip Rodgers. The barrier for smaller printers getting into web sales is not just complication and skills, but also money."
The site is hosted and maintained by RedTie for 150 a month after an initial outlay of 6,750 for the software.
"Companies can spend between 40,000 and 250,000 for bigger systems. We can sell ours to a printer that has just bought its first press, perhaps, but that is without major IT and is time poor", says Rodgers.
RedTie Quotation (RTQ) allows customers with some understanding of print to manage quotes and jobs online. It aims to reduce admin on smaller jobs and free up staff time to increase profitability.
The firm claims the tool, which costs 4,750 plus a 150 monthly charge for hosting, technical support and upgrades, is quick to install and is cost-effective.
"RTQ is a complete, web-based, customer-management system providing instant quotes 24 hours a day. It lets you create and manage exclusive logins for each of your customers", says Rodgers.
Philip Chadwick, PrintWeek, 27 September 2007
In the next five years, print buyers will want to place orders almost exclusively on the web. A new generation of twenty- and thirty-somethings will look favourably on companies that have solid and simple web-to-print offerings rendering those that get left behind as dinosaurs. A case of evolve or die.
Or at least that’s the view of one player in the industry. Mariane Stefani is managing director of RedTie, a software developer upstart which has recently launched new web-to-print software. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that she views web-to-print as the future of the industry, but her route to market comes specifically from the print side.
RedTie is the sister company of CCS Digital, a commercial print firm in Northampton. A few years ago, it wanted a web-to-print product for its calendars and gift products. But Stefani explains that it was frustrating to find a web-to-print provider that had a cost-effective system. She also found many to be too complicated.
So the firm came up with its own system and called it RedTie. With help from HP, the software has been tested and is now available to buy, but Stefani has found the UK market frustrating to crack and she feels that printers are not clued up when it comes to making the big investments in IT.
"Printers should ignore web-to-print at their peril," she cautions. "The buyers are savvy and a generation of 25-30 year olds will expect to be able to order print over the internet. But to ask a print company to change is quite a big thing."
Barney Cox, PrintWeek, 24 January 2008
Three years ago, CCS Digital was looking for a web-to-print system to drive the next stage of its development, and it decided on digital print fulfilled via the web. The firm is unusual, as a big part of its business is personalised printed products for the consumer, such as calendars and photo gifts. Back then, it decided to upgrade its service with a change in production equipment from colour copiers to an Indigo digital press, and by moving customer interaction to the web.
"We saw the internet coming and needed something that exploited it," says RedTie product development manager Phill Rodgers. He claims the firm’s requirement for a system that could handle high volumes of personalisation with minimal operator intervention wasn’t met by existing commercial products, which led to the move to in-house software development. "No one does it like we do," says Rodgers. "We’re printers and we were worried about the workflow, phone calls and overheads. If I have to explain something to a customer for 10 minutes, that’s 10 minutes I’ll never get back."
Going commercial
CCS didn’t just want an automated system to deal with customers though; it wanted the internal workflow to be as efficient as possible, especially when handling personalisation.
Initially, CSS developed the software for its own use, but the firm decided it was good enough to sell as a commercial product. RedTie was born, and the products were launched last autumn. At its show debut at Digital Print World, the RedTie stand was swamped with printers looking for an affordable way to adopt web-to-print.
There are two products in the firm’s portfolio: an online template-based quoting system RedTie RTQ, which boasts more than 30 users, and the web-to-print package RTT, which has 25-30 customers.
Rodgers says RTQ takes unknown jobs, while the template tool handles known jobs. Often they are bought together, allowing printers to price up more complicated work using RTQ while standardised items go through RTT, although some firms have simply opted for RTQ to turn around quotes. Rodgers says that at CCS, RTQ does the job of three estimators.
But what’s so special about RedTie’s RTT?
"Competitive systems made a PDF, which is no good if you’re producing calendars for consumer print," he says, adding that if it had worked that way, "we’d still be ripping the 100,000 13pp calendars ordered (from sister firm Create a Gift) for Christmas".
In fact, Rodgers goes so far as to classify products that just deliver a PDF, rather than hooking directly into the front end of the digital press, as being web-to-file, rather than true web-to-print.
"You can have a PDF, but I would encourage users to create JLT if they are using Indigo presses, and PPML for 99% of other presses," he says. And if JLT or PPML don’t fit the bill, RedTie is now a Creo PODS partner, and working on exporting VPS, VDX and VIPP files.
For digital work, the variable data format output is ideal as it drives the press directly with imposed pages, but for litho print RedTie has yet to crack imposition, although it plans to develop this feature.
Customer satisfaction
Reacting swiftly to its customers’ wishes is something RedTie prides itself on. It employs three full-time developers, three web artists and three support staff, plus two full-time workers driving work on to CCS’s Indigos, for those operations starting their digital business with web-to-print, and installing production hardware once the business model is proven and volume justifies owning production.
"People come here and see a business idea, and, until they are big enough to buy a press, we fulfil that role," says Rodgers. "It’s not our main focus, but it’s often part of our customers’ plans."
RedTie software attempts to provide everything needed, and following customer requests, CSS is developing integrations with accounts packages and MIS.
RedTie operates on the application service provider (ASP) model: you pay a fee to use the software, which RedTie owns, hosts and manages. This in itself isn’t unusual as many of the company’s rivals operate the same model, but other firms also offer customers the choice of buying a software licence and running the system on their own hardware, at their own premises or the data centre of their choice. RedTie will dedicate a server to firms that want a managed service, but only in the data centres it uses.
Standard or bespoke?
There are two versions of the RTT web-to-print software: standard and bespoke. In the standard version, there is only one administration area, or hub. While that can support unlimited multiple customers, it only offers one central administration area, so to allow customers administration rights, for example so the procurement department can vet and monitor spending, the bespoke product would be the best option, as it offers multiple hubs.
The price of RTT includes two days’ training at RedTie’s Northampton offices, which provides users with the skills to create their own templates and build customised sites for each of their customers. Onsite training is available for an additional £150 per day, as is extra training at £600 per day.
Should customers be unable to produce their own templates, which Rodgers says can happen due to time pressures, the firm has a template-creation charge of £40 per document up to 4pp, and by negotiation if bigger. The system itself has no restriction on document size or length, and the latest update to the software is a blank template that allows customers to upload any content, with as many pages as they like, as long as it fits the defined page size.
Three years after CCS invested in software development to build its consumer print business, it has transformed the firm, taking it into commercial print and, with RedTie, supplying commercial printers with a product that takes away many of their headaches, from a firm that understands.
"It was a shock to us just how good it was," he says. "Three years ago, I didn’t think we’d be selling it outright."
With many more customers wanting to join those already signed up, RedTie’s home-grown approach is proving popular with those who want a service that has been developed from a printer’s point of view.
