LA HULPE, BELGIUM, Nov. 3 —France-based print house, Imprimerie Clément, has bolstered its production by investing in the KODAK NEXPRESS Digital Color Press and KODAK INSITE Storefront System. The new solutions will help the company exploit new commercial opportunities and generate additional revenue.
The new Kodak solutions represent Imprimerie Clément’s latest investment in digital, an area the company embraced in early 2008 following growing demand for short print runs.
“Our objective was to offer personalized printed materials to large customers seeking new ways to more effectively target their marketing activities,” explains François Clément, CEO, Imprimerie Clément. “We chose the NEXPRESS M700 Digital Color Press because it was the most cost-effective solution offering the best printing quality, and it could process a wide range of substrates. Plus it meant we could work with the same supplier for workflow, plate imaging, plates and digital printing.”
Eighteen months later, the company is more than satisfied with its investment. The ability of the digital press to process short print runs at low cost, with ‘just-in-time’ deliveries, has proved a great hit with customers, including key accounts, purchasing platforms and offset printers. Offset printers call on the company’s services for variable data printing (representing almost 40% of digital activity), as well as for urgent short-run jobs of 300 copies or less.
Imprimerie Clément is very satisfied with the entry-level of the KODAK NEXPRESS M700 Press. With a rate of more than 4,000 A4 sheets per hour, it easily meets the company’s needs. Imprimerie Clément can now print on a wide range of media, including recycled papers, affording it a distinct commercial advantage.
Web to print: ordering printed materials via the internet
Imprimerie Clément prides itself on attracting new customers through its innovative services. One example is the deployment of the KODAK INSITE Storefront System, a powerful online procurement and management platform. Dedicated to a customer who is a world leader in the energy industry, this virtual store is designed to handle catalog orders for static documents, either print-ready or personalized. Thanks to the KODAK INSITE Prepress Portal System, which runs on same server as the INSITE Storefront System, this customer can provide its branches with personalized home pages and simplifies the production process by considering any comments or corrections posted by the customer online.
“We developed a catalog of twelve products, ranging from leaflets to brochures to folders,” says Clément. “The branches associated with this key account can order their printed materials directly, on an as-needed basis, and without going through the parent company, which simply validates the orders on the website. This personalized and dedicated virtual store allows the customer to select the required type of transport, check prices and order printed materials. In the near future, it should also be able to pay online using a credit or debit card.”
However, it is the customer who derives the most benefit from this technique, with access to its order history and task monitoring, instant views of placed orders and the status of orders in progress. Plus, the pricing engine, based on MICROSOFT EXCEL Software, automatically generates a price spreadsheet for each defined product, making it easy to work out the price for each option per unit, per page or per order.
Designed for traditional, digital or combination production environments, the KODAK INSITE Storefront System connects directly to the KODAK PRINERGY Workflow System – the brains of the process – which directs the job to either offset or digital printing, depending on the required quantity.
Full control of the process
In addition to this user-specific service, Imprimerie Clément also offers its key customers a Web to print solution for ordering business cards or letterheads on an as-needed basis.
Imprimerie Clément is also migrating to KODAK THERMAL DIRECT Non Process Plates. This enables the company to eliminate the time-consuming chemical development stage, while at the same time making a significant contribution towards its environmental commitments.
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