Switch 11 was released in March and has changed its approach to automation. Instead of the all-in-one setup of PowerSwitch you are now able to put together your own custom platform by adding only the modules you need.

One developer provides several products that don't break the bank. Apago, located north of Atlanta, Georgia has been providing software to the Graphic Arts Industry for 20 years. Their products are affordable and can accomplish a complete web-to-print workflow when used with SWITCH. Apago has several products and currently three plugins for use in SWITCH:

Enfocus started off the Chili Publisher World Tour by announcing the addition of Chili Publish as a Crossroads Application Partner. Chili Publisher was showcased in the October 2011 Tour in New York, London, Paris and other cities. Among the new features were the Chili Publish Plugin for SWITCH, the Chili Publish Flash Viewer and the Chili Publish iPad Reader. The Crossroads partnership gives SWITCH and its counterparts a connection directly into web portals via Chili Publisher API.

Pairing the right products can easily give you "fill-in-the-blanks" automation. The correct team of automation software can have you up and running right after install and have you on your way to a very fast return on investment. One set of products that provides a large set of customizable tools right out of the box is Enfocus SWITCH 10 with the Callas PDFToolbox 5 plug-ins. Although together both products have hundreds of features and ways to customize automated workflows, the fill-in-the-blanks automation that is available is what will get you hooked right away.

CHILI publish is new and it is not like any other online publishing product on the block. Think of it as a platform you control on your own server. A webserver to brand as many sites in as many ways as you want. A system that provides control over what your users see and access.

Now that the busy season is over, it's the perfect time to analyze the results to make improvements for the next year. Looking back on the busy season, problems always cropped up, one or two customers didn't get the best service and everyone worked extra hours to get everything out the door. Use this time after the rush to gather data for budgeting, hiring and upgrading for the new year.

If you have invested in a fully automated web-to-print solution with financial database, congratulations, all the points in this article should be covered by your system. If your web-to-print solution is more of an online order and delivery system, you will need to help out your manufacturing system.

The following items need to be part of a web-to-print solution for it to succeed and profit.

I was surprised to hear that some shops are still using postscript files to send to their presses, printers and copiers because they want to use the "Number of Copies" feature for their on-demand workflows. This process works just fine; however, in a PDF workflow it is an extra step.

The PDF alone does not have any features for printing a number of copies, but there are many ways to get multiple copies or page count information into RIPs, including older ones. Here are some examples of automation strategies for a number of different configurations: