Web2Publish – A Few Clicks to Customer-Centered Product Communication

Product communication is increasingly characterized by individualization and efficiency. The priint:day lecture “Web2Publish - A few clicks to customer-centric product communication” presented the innovative approach that companies can use to tailor their catalogs and publications precisely to the needs of their customers in the shortest possible time. By using Web2Publish, processes are optimized, and accountability is strengthened in the sales teams.

The catalog as a valuable, cost-effective sales aid

In sales, every detail counts – even the seemingly small but strategically important tools. The catalog is a tool, which in terms of production costs appears almost insignificant compared to a sales appointment but offers enormous value. A personal sales appointment with a doctor costs around 1,000 euros – the sales representative spends an hour with the head physician, preparing for the appointment and following up afterwards. This investment in personal relationships is, of course, indispensable, but it is also quite costly.

By contrast, the catalog that the sales representative takes with them costs only around 25 euros to produce. But this small amount has a big impact: The catalog remains in the doctor's office for years and ensures that the company remains present even when the sales representative is absent. It is a long-lasting, tangible marketing tool that can be picked up at any time, thus strengthening long-term loyalty to the company.

The vision of the Global Product Manager at Aesculap

The Global Product Manager at Aesculap, responsible for providing sales tools in over 120 countries, had a clear and future-focused vision for their organization’s catalog. In a workshop on automated catalog production, he expressed that he no longer needed a catalog because the opinions of the sales staff on this issue were very different – some demanded it, while others did not.

His vision was to create personalized catalogs, where responsibility for costs would no longer lie with him, but directly with the sales staff. In the future, sales representatives would decide for themselves which content was relevant for their respective customers and put it together individually. Supported by business intelligence (formerly SAP BI, now AI), the catalog could even automatically provide product recommendations that might be of interest to the customer. The goal was to provide a personalized 1:1 edition of the catalog in consistently high quality for customers worldwide.

The challenge of data quality and the shift towards personalization

When it came to the question of whether catalog production could be automated, it turned out that the existing data was not yet sufficient. Although a catalog can be created automatically – faster and more cost-effectively – the actual vision was to deliver a personalized catalog for each clinic.

This also meant a shift in responsibility: In the past, the product manager decided on the content of the product range; with the personalized catalog, this decision was now increasingly taken over by the sales department, which was better able to assess the individual needs of customers. To realize this vision, a flexible and efficient solution is needed: Web2Publish.

Web2Publish – Efficient document creation in self-service

Web2Publish is a module of our software that enables users to create documents in self-service – precisely when they are needed. This “on-demand” principle ensures that documents can be generated quickly and flexibly.

Another advantage of this is the “manifestation of data”, where the generated documents present information clearly and authoritatively – “in stone” – therefore creating trust, especially in sales. In addition, Web2Publish ensures that all documents are always up to date because they are based on current data and can be created in the required cycles.

The “instant” principle completes the many advantages to this solution: Documents can be created instantaneously at any time, which ultimately leads to significant time savings.

Although Web2Publish may not be the right solution for every company, it’s clear that this module is at the cutting edge of technology and enables modern approaches to document creation. While other companies may choose different paths, the flexibility and up-to-dateness of Web2Publish make it a future-oriented choice.

The need for a database of catalogs and publications

A database is important when the administration and maintenance of catalogs and publications becomes necessary on a larger scale. Let's take a fictitious catalog with 1,000 pages for which I use 1,000 records. No database is needed yet. But if the catalog is published in 20 languages and, in addition, several industry-specific catalogs are to be created, the number of pages quickly rises into the tens of thousands. If these catalogs are to be maintained and regularly updated over the years, a powerful database is needed to efficiently manage and organize the content.

Such a scenario was the basis for the development of the priint:planner 14 years ago. With this module of the priint:suite, companies can automate and optimize the management of catalogs and publications. It enables documents, which can be in PDF as well as other formats such as InDesign or Illustrator, to be stored in a central cloud storage system. In addition, effective workflow
management is essential to distribute tasks and coordinate the creation of publications. Depending on whether the documents are created in InDesign, Illustrator or other programs, the processing is done via the server, using rendering services, InDesign servers, PDF renderers and priint:cloud – a very typical setup for the priint:suite.

Power user versus occasional user

The user interface for power users is designed to manage the complex publication process, with features such as dashboards, Kanban boards and production monitoring. This user interface is intended for users who regularly work with the publication process and have the necessary expertise.

In contrast, sales staff who only occasionally deal with publications cannot use this power-user interface. A simplified user interface has been developed for them, which is based on the same workflows and templates but is much more user-friendly. This means that even occasional users who are rarely entrusted with creating publications can do so quickly and without errors.

Personalizing publications – A pragmatic approach

In his presentation and demo, Horst Huber presented the Cordes Graefes project, where personalized catalogs were created in only four steps.

These steps or wizards are configurable. It became clear that a complex database is not absolutely necessary. Instead, a simple Excel document with basic product information is used to personalize catalogs – including individual prices and promotional texts.

This pragmatic approach shows that you can quickly achieve initial success with simple means and good workflow integration, without the need for an elaborate database or a complex curated assortment. This enables fast and flexible personalization of catalogs and other publications.

Future perspectives

The priint:suite continues to evolve to meet the unique needs of organizations. Starting in 2025, the Web2Publish module will be available as part of standard delivery, with even more flexible configuration of the wizards and advanced features such as priint:cloud support. The fact is that increasing responsibility for revenue growth is migrating more and more to line-of-business departments, which therefore need to be equipped with user-friendly tools. The priint:suite offers these tools, which enable departments to create and manage their publications themselves - without the support of power users. The user interface for these new target groups is greatly simplified to make the process as efficient and error-free as possible.