At Conservatree in Theale an AccuraOnline web to print system is bringing in larger orders from its biggest clients. Simon Eccles visited.

Selling online has certainly paid off for Conservatree. Since launching a website dedicated to personalised calendars a few years ago (www.calendarprinters.com) it has seen them grow to be responsible for 20% of its business, all printed on its year-old HP Indigo 5600 digital press. It is now working to put more and more of its commercial print customers online with the web to print module of its DDS Accura MIS.

Conservatree was established in 1992, but acquired in 1995 by Chris Goslar, who remains the managing director. A brief two-year merger with another company did not work out, so in 2012 the directors bought the company back again. They moved from Reading a few miles to the current premises in a modern industrial unit just south of the M4 in Theale.

‘We bought the machinery, including the old Indigo and a B3 Ryobi, goodwill and customers, and were able to take the staff with us,’ said Mr Goslar. ‘We went into the merger with a £1.3 million turnover but this had declined to £750,000 by the time we bought it out. We’re now up to £1.5 million.’ The company employs 12 people.

Originally an all-litho operation, Conservatree installed its first digital press, a second hand Indigo, in 2006. This was in service until the end of last year when it was replaced by a new HP Indigo 5600. This is configured for CMYK plus white ink, with the white seeing quite a lot of commercial use, according to Mr Goslar.

‘It’s been called Conservatree since the beginning,’ he said. ‘The original founder was very much into printing on recycled envelopes. We still try to be at the forefront of awareness of the impact on the environment.’

In the early days, all estimating was done manually, but the company installed its first MIS, from Printpak, in the late 1990s. By 2000 it was ready for something bigger. ‘We looked at Printcafé and Tharstern before deciding on DDS Accura. We were early adopters of the platform and have worked with them.’

 ‘We used Accura for costing and estimating at first, then invoicing. We now have the web to print solution.’ This is hosted by Accura at a remote data site, so no local hardware, knowledge or web programming are needed. Features include a web store, live proofing support and an eDocBuilder plug-in that allows in-browser artwork editing and data handling, plus an option for interactive design. ‘You get live job tracking, orders, stock levels, all online,’ Mr Goslar explained. ‘Most web to print systems are third party add-ons. This is fully integrated so orders go straight into the system.’

While calendars have very much proved the worth of web to print for the company, these do not actually use the AccuraOnline module. ‘It’s a different website that we developed ourselves a few years ago,’ said Mr Goslar. ‘It lets you choose everything including start dates, number of months etc. Once an order is placed it generates a PDF and an order sheet. This has to be manually entered into Accura. We’d like a direct link eventually.’

The AccuraOnline system is regularly used for commercial work by the company’s ten largest clients. One of these is Enterprise Rent a Car, a large car hire company, which orders business cards and stationary online using templates that have been set up in advance.

 ‘Template setup in Accura is very easy,’ Mr Goslar finds. ‘You take a PDF file designed on a standard layout program, and tag it. A business card takes about 15 minutes. After tagging it goes into the Accura database.

‘A client logs in and sees a list of recent activities, quotes and statuses of all quotes – confirmed, ordered, rejected. There’s an order screen that shows status as either active, on hold awaiting proof approval, delivered or invoiced. Proofs, delivery notes and invoices can be viewed on-screen. You can also see stock levels and place repeat orders.’

AccuraOnline is starting to bring increases in commercial business. ‘Online orders often come in between 5:50 and 7:00 in the evening, when customers don’t expect to be able to get through to us on the phone’,’ Mr Goslar notes. ‘We’ve noticed that when customers use the Accura W2P we tend to get increased business from them. I wouldn’t say it makes them reliant on us, but it’s easier for them to deal with us.’