Ruddocks’ client, the NMBS, is benefiting from simple editable online templates through the e4print Pro web to print system.
Customers want easily editable, brand-compliant templates, and that is exactly what Ruddocks has been able to give them, using a link between its e4print Pro web to print and Chili Publisher editing software.
You are never too old to learn something new, and Ruddocks, the 126-year-old business-to-business design, marketing and print company in Lincoln, has certainly learned something from a project that involved rolling out an online template-driven site for a client to create marketing literature.
‘The key learning from this experience has been that having a plan of action is priority number one, two and three,’ said the company’s digital manager, Tristan Palmer. ‘We developed a number of templates that met our clients brief, before the client decided they wanted to achieve something different. Making the end product easy and seamless to use is vital for the end user and that’s where Chili Publisher has been a real asset.’
It was in July 2013 that Ruddocks introduced e4print Pro, the web to print solution that integrates the online editing capabilities of Chili Publisher with Tharstern’s Primo MIS, and Ruddocks has worked alongside pre-media software distribution and integration business Workflowz, which distributes Chili Publisher in the UK, Ireland, South Africa and Oceania regions, to get the most out of the solution.
The result has been a flexible online system that Ruddocks has built alongside its clients, specifically tailored to their needs. This has enhanced its relationship and credibility with its clients, and in turn opened up greater opportunities.
The client involved in the project referred to above was a national buying group that wanted to offer its members (of which there are more than 700) a series of online templates that allow them to create marketing literature to promote their stock holding.
Many of the members of the buying group have little access to creative skills or are restricted by the cost of these services. To overcome this, Ruddocks’ creative team designed a series of retail themed templates which were then uploaded to Chili Publisher.
Mr Palmer continued: ‘By working with the suppliers for the buying group we have been able to build and integrate a PHP-based database of 800-plus products that the members can pull directly into each template. It was vital that each member can edit the price of each item, so that they can set their own selling price. It is also important that should each member wish to they can edit the titles and descriptions. Our end users can now create specific marketing material relatively easily using the templates, without the need for specialist design.’
Each buying group retailer can now access the correct product titles, descriptions and recommended retail price from the supplier, without having to rely on creating their own copy text. By using the Tharstern link, all of the orders placed online are tracked through Ruddocks’ MIS, removing administration time.
‘We developed a mini website around the whole template driven site, to give information to the user as well as to promote other services,’ added Mr Palmer. He said that it was very important in a project such as this to allow the necessary time to build the system.
This example is one of a number of projects that Ruddocks has worked on using this technology, albeit the implementation for the national buying group is one the most complicated projects it has done with Chili Publisher so far. Other simplified projects it has done include certificates with variable names and course details, business cards that are fed from both input text and drop down menus, and newsletters with user-editable variable content.
‘This project shows how seamlessly Chili Publisher embeds into the application, and how easily its rich feature set can be customised to each end user’s needs’ said Kevin Goeminne, chief executive officer of Chili Publish. ‘Combined with Workflowz’ years of expertise, professional training and support, this project will give Ruddock’s customers access to more advanced online editing capabilities than ever before.’
Alan Dixon, chief executive officer of Workflowz, added: ‘It’s always great to engage with clients who wish to push the boundaries and go beyond the simple and obvious. Ruddocks has both creative and technical teams, and this allowed the simple conversion of exiting InDesign templates, mixed with a comprehensive data-feed to populate the templates. The result is a simplified end-user experience and one that is to be paying dividends to the end-user, the account and Ruddocks alike.’
