Web-to-print solution combines economy and scalability

When Serla Print Solutions, a subsidiary of the Serla Print Group, one of the largest print companies in Ireland, decided to advance the e-procurement side of its business, it started exploring the various options available. Ultimately, the company chose marketingunity, a powerful and innovative print procurement software package that would boost the efficiency of its operations. 

Des McCullough, Managing Director of Serla Print Solutions, takes up the story:
"e-procurement was becoming an increasingly necessary part of our work, as our clients increasingly request doing business with us online." 

"We therefore needed to develop effective e-solutions, especially in relation to online ordering. We started searching for possible solutions and investigated various companies, one of which was marketingunity, a traditional software house that we had originally heard of by a word of mouth recommendation."

Future-proof cost-effectiveness

"Marketingunity offers us plenty of scope to extend our online offerings, as it integrates marketing operations with our core print procurement function. We chose it because it met all of our current needs, plus some likely future ones" says McCullough. We were also looking for a product that would be installed and supported by the developers, not just a reseller with limited knowledge. marketingunity market their own solution, so they are obviously well equipped to provide comprehensive backup. 

"For our customers, we wanted a system that would be easy and intuitive to use. They needed something which wouldn’t require any training, as they believe our systems should make it easier, not harder, to do business with us."' 

"We were also interested in the visual aspect, we needed something that would be visually attractive to our customers. Marketingunity’s solution excelled in all three of these areas - back-up, ease of use and visual appeal. Furthermore, the price wasn’t prohibitive, so we decided to go ahead and purchase it."

Ordering online

Initially, the company bought the module that was most critical for its business: Online Orders (now Catalogue Manager). This also enables Serla Print to use variable data for items such as business cards. 

Des continues: "The module has been performing very well. A lot of our customers have now signed up to marketingunity and use the system regularly. The key benefit is its ease of use, which was one of our main requirements." 

"The module enables us to offer a unique service to our customers, who can place orders at any time of the night or day. As many of our clients are in different countries and different time zones, this is an important consideration." 

"Marketingunity has also streamlined the company’s complete ordering process. It has proved especially useful with items such as business cards, as the customer can now carry out all of the proofing process instantly, before placing their order." 

Des remarks: "It has speeded up our ordering system and made it more cost-effective. Our customers love it - one remark that we keep hearing is that it makes life a lot simpler for them. Before we had marketingunity, they had to procure items by fax or email. Now they have a system that gives them both ease of access and ease of use." 
"Marketingunity has supported us well throughout. They have an excellent Customer Service team which responds very quickly to any requests or queries. We have been very pleased with marketingunity, and expect to be purchasing further modules in future.