Digital print shops open for 24-hour business

Surrey-based NetCollaborators has launched an online upload service for the digital print and graphic sector aimed at small business customers and corporates with outsourced print contracts.

Even in today's networked world, digital print shops are still limited by the geographical location of their customers.

The problem is finding a sustainable method of transporting digital files for reproduction.

This is especially acute for those that offer specialised services such as large format and or special finishing services.

The overhead of using a physical courier includes time, reliability, as well as costs for delivering digital discs.

Despite an ever-growing array of digital transport options no single electronic solution seems to have ticked all the boxes for either the client or supplier, so clients are not able to connect with some of the very specialist, high-value shops that have been launched and the suppliers are not reaching their potential market for lack of a customer-friendly solution.

NetCollaborators claims these problems are in the past; it has developed a simple to use, secure, digital file upload service which is easy enough for the non-specialist to use, providing they have a modern browser and connection to the internet via broadband.

It is designed to complete the digital service cycle by making maximum use of the expanding access to internet service by broadband networks.

Customers can reliably send in their digital files for reproduction at any time of day or week.

NetCollaborators has built the upload service into a refreshed website for a Gloucester-based digital print shop which has been in use for seven days a week since February this year.

The company will establish a standalone but linked web presence if a web refresh is not required.

All NetCollaborators services are based on the web cost model, with a fixed weekly subscription taking care of ongoing communication and storage costs.

Businesses or consumers can register for the service from anywhere in the world.

Different levels of registration are available to meet the business needs of the print shop; some need to support a call-off contract with large customers, whilst others want to deal openly on the net and call for a more robust registration process.

For the client it takes seconds to set up by automatically activating the secure Java technology based service and then it is 'drag and drop' and their side is finished.

"We know this works well for small business and even 'switched-on' consumers have taken advantage; it is only the start of a stream of services to develop the digital online business.

We believe this can be a major benefit for out-sourced printing services and, if asked, we can offer online administration and billing applications to complete the package at internet pricing", commented Charles Barbor, Marketing Director for NetCollaborators.

He added: "We are well down the line with an advanced service option that features a range of copy submit and full online editorial controls.

!We have several interested customers from sectors as diverse as the construction industry to publishers in the education world.

We are taking the opportunity to harness a range of server-based applications using the broadband network and clients seem to want more and more".

Email still remains a time-consuming and unreliable medium for shipping around large image files.

Clients lament the time and hassle it can take - with their precious email service locked up for minutes and even hours with great uncertainty of a successful delivery.

ISDN 2 comes with added expense and is poor at handling big files, plus it is very specialist so suppliers cannot really tap into the growing home-based working revolution.

FTP with multi-access platforms is still plagued by worries over compromising client security.

Despite years of development it still seems awkward, with users having to manually set up their local machines and, with no standard approach, clients could up end with a multitude of service packages on the their desktop if they want to access to range of competitive suppliers.

NetCollaborators is based in Camberley and specialises in digital technologies to enhance small business performance production, sales and customer service.

It launched the NetCollaborator CRM service in 2005; one of the earliest online-based CRMs specifically designed for the SME - small business market place.

It has specialised in the open source Joomla web system and has several very active web-based SME users in the UK and Europe.

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