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Hosting vs. Licensed: The Second Most Important W2P Decision You’ll Make
By Vincent Tutino
These days, everybody either has a Web-to-Print solution or is planning to acquire one. As the saying goes, we have “crossed the chasm” and now Web-to-Print is not a luxury or curiosity, but rather an essential tool for gaining business and increasing efficiency.
If you are in the camp that is planning to acquire a Web-to-Print solution, you’ve made the right call. However, the decision-making process is just beginning.
Your next big decision is whether to host the equipment on-site or have the solution hosted in a provider’s datacenter. We will look at the pros and cons of both approaches, including bandwidth, security, automation, time-to-market, and maintenance.
An off-site solution, also called ASP (Application Service Provider) or SaaS (Software as a Service) is an attractive option. The hardware and software are located at a service provider and you don’t have to maintain it. You can focus on your business, i.e. running the print center. Typically, you can be up-and-running and accepting jobs quickly.
Another advantage of the Hosted model is you have less of an investment. You pay a monthly fee (and possibly a usage fee based on bandwidth) but there are fewer up-front costs. This might be desirable for organizations that know they need Web-to-Print but aren’t sure which solution will work best and just want to test the waters.
There are indeed advantages to the Hosted model. Next, we’ll look at the advantages of an On-Site implementation. A key takeaway is to consider a Web-to-Print solution that is available in both flavors, so you can make the right decision based on your business needs.
Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later
This is the classic example of buy versus rent. If you rent an apartment, you can move relatively easily. But the trade-off is that you can’t do much customization! Imagine asking a landlord if you could knock down a wall or install another bathroom!
Plus, if you stay in an apartment long-term, you could end up paying more than if you owned a home. And at the end of the day, you have no equity. Yet, depending on a person’s needs, renting might make sense.
The same is true for a Hosted or Licensed Web-to-Print solution. Some print centers may be testing the waters or have restrictions from their I.T. department. They may just be wary of maintaining hardware and software and would rather someone else “handle it.” As long as a print center makes the decisions for the right reasons, there is no wrong answer.
Successful Web-to-Print clients treat it as a long-term investment. You will be training your staff, and probably your end users. You don’t want to be switching interfaces every year. If a Hosted solution makes sense now, make sure you can migrate to an On-Site solution, using the same software, if your needs change.
You will probably want a custom workflow that matches your operation. As powerful as today’s Web-to-Print software is, most print centers have their own way of doing business. Instead of adapting to new software, let the software adapt to your business.
Hosted solutions sometimes come with a low monthly fee, but there may be hidden charges for bandwidth. Remember, unlike typical e-commerce transactions, print files can be quite large, especially for variable data jobs. If you pay bandwidth fees for both end user uploads and print center downloads, you could actually pay more in overages than your monthly fees.
With a Hosted configuration, if there are bandwidth fees, you are essentially being penalized for a successful implementation. The more that your Web-to-Print solution is used, the more expensive it can be. The true goal of a Web-to-Print implementation should be to drive costs down by increasing volume and efficiency.
Close to Home
We just discussed the financial aspects of a Hosted or Licensed Web-to-Print solution. Now, we’re going to look at the technical trade-offs.
By bringing a Web-to-Print solution in-house, you realize several benefits. If you are an In-Plant with users submitting jobs from within your enterprise, those jobs never leave the company, ensuring confidentiality. You also don’t need to manually retrieve jobs, which can require downloading hundreds of megabytes, especially for Variable Data jobs.
Indeed, if your Web-to-Print solution supports an automated workflow, jobs can be submitted, electronically ticketed, and sent directly to the appropriate production printer, based on business rules and printer capabilities, without any operator intervention. This is a significant advantage of an in-house Web-to-Print solution and is where the real efficiencies are achieved.
You might be hesitant to bring hardware and software in-house, and that’s understandable. You know PDF and CMYK not SQL or UNIX. Look for a Web-to-Print solution that works as an appliance. Many of the production printers you use today have an appliance (often Sun/UNIX-based) that acts as a front-end, but you don’t need to know the ins and outs of the technology…it just works. Also, consider a platform that can be serviced remotely by the Web-to-Print provider, so they can instantly perform upgrades and maintenance without travel fees or delays.
Doing Your Research
Remember what to look for when selecting a Web-to-Print solution. Ask your provider these important questions.
1) Do you offer a solution in BOTH Hosted and Licensed configurations? Is it the same software and can I transition from one to the other overnight?
2) Are there bandwidth fees for the Hosted configuration? Is there an unlimited option so I can have a predictable bill?
3) How do I retrieve jobs that my customers have uploaded? Is it automated or does an operator have to manually download the files? How long would that take?
4) How customizable can my workflow be? Besides a custom portal for job submission, am I able to set pricing based on users, including volume discounts?
5) Can I choose which jobs automatically print based on business rules and printer capabilities?
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Vince Tutino joined RSA in 2005 and has worked with RSA's largest enterprise customers gathering requirements, constructing the architecture for RSA implementations, and providing technical leadership to ensure the integrity and continuity of the solutions proposed and implemented.
Vincent has over 25 years of Engineering and IT consulting experience delivering systems and solutions for Citigroup, Cisco, Xerox, Kodak, Bausch and Lomb, Verizon, HP, Sun, U.S. Air Force and other Fortune 1000 companies. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from SUNY Binghamton.
For a more detailed analysis, visit www.rocsoft.com/contact and request the Free Executive Brief: "Where to Web-to-Print?"
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