“Setting the Table for you to
Serve Up More Documents for Printing’
Our
demo is an actual working site: http://flattware.rayflatt.com/.
An explanation of what it is…
Who is Flattware?
•
Developer and Provider of printing software services.
•
Conceptionalized and managed by Ray Flatt, printing & publishing guru
…electronic publishing visionary & pioneer.
What is DocumentGenerator(DG)?
•
A service. Not a software to buy. A pay as you use approach. An Application
Service Provider (ASP).
•
An affordable web-based template publishing service that creates personalized
print ready PDF files.
•
A way to have your customers generated personalized PDF files via the internet.
Who needs it?
•
Anyone that needs multiple versions of the same design with a high frequency of
changes, formatted and rendered ready to print. It is template based locking
down what is common on the document and allowing variable information to be
entered and proofed via the internet.
Who
needs it? Some examples…
•
Anyone that has multiple locations…branch offices, retail outlets, etc.
Examples:
Business cards, letterhead, branch flyers, sales leaflets, etc.
•
Anyone that wants to do true personalization using variable data entered by the
customer.
Examples:
Birth announcements, wedding invitations, phone cards, etc.
•
Anyone that wants to move the entry and proofing process upstream to the
customer.
How does it work?
•
You work with your customers to design & define the templates. Defining a
template is simply taking a design for print and determining where you want to
have images uploaded and re-sized, plus determine where you want type to be
personalized.
•
Our technical staff turns them into technical code and web capture screens
(HTML forms) that can be either standalone web pages or nested within pages on
your current web-site.
•
Your customers enters the variable information via a web page with ability to
upload images. Font selection and font sizing are optional.
•
While your customer is still online, our server generates or renders the
completed PDF document returning a low resolution version for their viewing and
approval.
•
Upon their approval (and optional capture of appropriate billing/shipping
information), our server will generate the high resolution version suitable for
print production (ready to print by your facility.) Your will be notified by
eMail as to where to pick-up the high-resolution print document/customer
information via FTP.
•
You print the job and ship.
Why did I create this system?
I
just recently closed a design/photography/prepress/printing company. What I
learned through this ordeal (I mean experience) was that much of the process I
was accustomed to performing was now in the hands of the customer. Design was
important for the initial printed piece, but afterwards much of what we did was
repetitive formatting to a designed template. My biggest problem was getting
the content correct…BAD DATA or TYPOS. I never seemed to recover the cost of
preparing the document, proofing (which no one wanted to pay for) and getting
OKs (approval process). Overnight
letters were additional cost that everyone expected me to absorb.
What
I needed was a process of moving these functions upstream to the customer. Make
them responsible for the content and at the same time provide them a low cost
(or virtually free) proof. In addition, why not have the customer do all the
order entry. This would leave me to do what I do best…PRINT.
What kept me for doing this when I was in the printing
business?
Money!!!
Everytime I approached web developers about this process it always resulted in
quotes in the thousands of dollars for something I wasn’t even sure was going
to work like I had visualized it. Then I didn’t know what it was going to cost
to make additional software changes.
Like
you, I made my money printing, not buying software and giving it away.
So what makes this process affordable?
It
rolls the entry and proofing over to the customer while automating the
high-resolution production without you investing in people to get it ready to
RIP. The resulting file is a locked down high-resolution file for you to drop
into you imposition software or simply drops it in your digital queue. In
addition, this is a process to streamline order taking and customer service.
All
this without you investing in any new hardware or software, by simply buying a
service based upon template set-up and transaction cost.
A
service that can be cancelled anytime (No Contract).
After
template is set-up, you only pay when you use it.
What does it cost?
•
A fixed affordable one-time charge
for each template put on-line
…(creating control parameters).
$50
for simple template
(ex: 1 page, 1 image, up to 12 variable zones).
$75
for medium template
(ex: 2 page, up to 3 images, 20 variable zones).
$100
for complex template (ex: up to 4 pages, up to 7 images,
reasonable variable zones)
Lower
pricing for multiple forms set-up at a single time or
other special situations. Or we can train you how to
define (code)
you on control parameter files and HTML capture
screens.
•
NO Charge for each low resolution PDF proof generated…change and view via
the internet as often as your customer wishes. The low resolution PDF for customer viewing and approval will have
a screen field that states “For Proof Only” that will keep it from being used.
•
A transaction fee (or commission) for each personalized PDF completed into an
order (high resolution document PDF generation).
Pricing
starts at…
$2 per simple (high resolution) PDF file
generated.
$3
per medium PDF file,
$5
per complex PDFfile.
Lower
pricing is available for higher volume use.
•
No investment by you for software or hardware (unless you are not already
connected to the internet).
•
All this runs on our server accessed by you and your customer via the web.
Where do I see it in action?
Our
demo is an actual working site: http://flattware.rayflatt.com/.
Have
a personal “RGB” JPEG image available to upload. Use the site all you
want,…just don’t enter a real credit card number(or, else I will go on vacation
using your credit card number…you will not be billed for any services using
this demo site.
Remember
this is a demo/prototype web-site…not much time was spent on the design (the
site or the templates). The purpose of this site is to demo functionality.
Important:
This service can be linked to your existing web-site even though it runs on our
server.
What do I do next?
Talk
is cheap (actually free).
For
a no obligation free consultation and quote. Give me a call and we can discuss
your possibilities.
Contact
Info:
Ray
“Bubba” Flatt
mailto:ray@rayflatt.com
(615)
887-9042
