Vpress: an engine for print

Vpress’s technology is used by a host of corporate organisations, print management companies and printers to provide simple to use, template-based creation, proofing and online ordering of printed items.

There’s every chance that one way or another you’ve received a piece of print that has been created using Vpress’s technology. The name is not well known, either in the printing sector or beyond, yet Vpress is working away behind the scenes at a host of major corporates, print management companies and a significant number of printers.

In fact, six out of the UK’s top ten print management firms use Vpress technology; around 30% of the FTSE top 100 companies do, about 65% of the major banks and financial institutions, and around 75% of the mobile phone companies. Organisations such as the NHS (certain trusts in any case) use Vpress to create items such as badges. All told, more than 360 corporate organisations use Vpress, and in excess of two thousand pieces of artwork are created and ordered through it every day.

“There’s a huge need for this kind of software, and the company has grown almost entirely through referrals,” says eCommerce director Kelvin Bell. “We do power a good percentage of the print market.”

With the bare minimum of marketing then, Vpress has succeeded in getting its software through some of the UK’s most impressive doors already. The technology is quite simple. It consists of a suite of modules, which together form Coreprint – a simple online system for creating, proofing and managing a variety of print jobs through the setting of templates and creation of print-ready PDFs. It promises to dramatically reduce production costs and administration, and is able to link directly into a production workflow.

There is a Point of Sale module, for example, in which a database can be fed into templates and artwork quickly produced. It allows organisations with several local outlets around the country to produce localised, targeted material for their own areas, while retaining the central brand guidelines.

A Direct Mail module enables users to create and personalise mailers. Corexpress is a secure but simple to use basic stock management system, which Vpress says printers are starting to look at as an alternative to bigger MIS systems, and further modules include those for corporate stationery, marketing literature, badges, and rubber stamps (the typical turnaround for which Vpress claims it has reduced from six-eight weeks per order to two weeks at the most).

Coreprint also integrates with all the main e-procurement systems, including Ariba, Oracle, and SAP, and more importantly the in-house Vpress development team can undertake integration work to order with just about any legacy system.

Bespoke development is in fact something of a forte for the company. Bell continues: “This company is able to respond incredibly quickly because we develop everything in-house. We can turn a client’s wish list into reality in five to eight working days, and if they need to move really quickly we will send a developer over to the client to find out first hand what the requirement is and bring a comprehensive technical brief back to the development team in Cheltenham.

“It’s our job to make sure the technology is cutting edge and that we stay ahead of the game, and we have never lost a customer who has said they’ve found a better system.”

Coreprint includes substantial customised reporting facilities, and Vpress has continued to provide costeffective new solutions for a market that it feels too often charges far too much for basic software. Vpress’s most recent product launch was Corequick, a cut down version of Coreprint for the small and medium sized printers and print managers, which costs a one-off charge of £99+VAT plus a small fee starting at £3 per item for the automatic setting of artwork on the system – a fee which reduces with usage.

Vpress sees the system being of use in cutting administration costs for the smaller enterprises, while helping to tie clients in to the business. Used for creating, proofing and ordering print items from business cards to posters over the web, Corequick can be branded for the user, and features templates that are intuitively completed, with relevant business rules applied. The print-ready PDF produced can be fed straight into production workflows or digital press engines.

“With our other solutions we have successfully captured the corporate sector. What we have done with the release of Corequick is provide an affordable solution to the SME sector, so printers and print managers can secure and grow clients’ print requirements for the longer term by being seen to embrace technological advances,” says Bell.

It’s important for Vpress that not only the functionality of the software closely fits the requirements of customers, but also the manner in which the software is paid for does. To this end, Bell stresses that Vpress’s clients benefit from a pay as you go model – the days of licensing software will become a thing of the past he says.

“We’ve always offered our products as Pay-As-You-Go. We have found that licensing was not where either we or our customers wanted to be. We can keep it scaleable and that’s what customers like, as it allows them to grow their accounts, and then the better our clients do, the better we do.”

Clients, whether they are printers, print managers or print buyers, are very often demanding three aspects to the software as standard, continues Bell. He lists these as: the ability to support ondemand production for business critical requirements such as business cards, posters and flyers, which Vpress supports through linking directly into a digital press workflow; the support for a digital asset management system so that images can be changed between templates; and personalisation.

Bell says that customer demands on these kinds of issues have been influenced by their experiences as consumers – Internet purchasing behaviour has led to people just expecting a greater degree of sophistication from technology these days.

Personalised print is one area that Vpress expects to grow significantly. Like many new concepts, the initial market growth has been sluggish, but things are starting to pick up, and Vpress’s software is poised to take advantage.

“Very little happens quickly, but when the financial and the pharmaceutical companies get on board you see it starting to work. The momentum is definitely out there for personalised print,” says Bell.

“As that momentum gathers pace, Vpress intends to ensure its software technology is at the forefront of taking print production into more sophisticated times. “We now have a firm base of solutions that are proven in the market and our innovation will build on that. We are a highly progressive company with a catalogue of successes” says Bell. “We have a global client base, the technology is home-grown and we own it, Vpress is independent; the working directors own the company and do not rely on venture capital investment. Our technology aims to be the future engine behind the print industry.”

Case Study – Graphic Repro

When Graphic Reproductions (Nottingham) needed a solution to manage the largest mortgage provider in the UK’s print requirements: Vpress were the only technology company who provide the answer. The system needed to be flexible enough to cater for hundreds of different companies with over 1000 advisors selling the clients products in their own brand, but ridged enough to enforce regulatory details required by the Financial Service Agency. Coreproof was the only answer as the Vpress development team were able to mould the system around the clients while ensuring approved print files were fed directly into production, says Steve Hardy, Director

Case Study – Banner Business Supplies

image2office is the print management arm of office2office Plc. This rapidly expanding business is blazing the UK by offering seamless print ordering to all of its clients by integrating directly into its state of the art online stationery ordering system. Corporate customers create, proof and order a variety of printed commodities, personalised to their requirements in both brand and regulatory detail. Vpress’ role was to develop the print module that seamlessly connects to o2o’s back office systems, ensuring an easy, fast, efficient ordering experience - which really has contributed to the business being a leader in client facing technology.

Case Study – Hutchinson 3G

When leading mobile phone service provider 3 UK wanted to do something different for the their business stationery by allowing internal users to design and build their own designs using differing colours and approved logos, Vpress were approached after other technology companies failed to deliver. Vpress effectively designed a way which Users could select the design of their stationery in the branding of their choice from details supplied by Oracle. Once an order is placed the order is approved by the Users department head before being fed directly into production workflow.