One of the most effective web-to-print (W2P) strategies is to make sure ordering from you is easier and offers more benefits to the buyer than from another print vendor. Integrating your W2P system with their procurement system is a great way to make you the preferred vendor. Many corporate accounts have procurement systems (a.k.a., "Punchout Procurement") from Oracle, Ariba, and others. All the item's that the company's employees can order in your W2P storefront are known as a "punchout catalog". 

If you want the company's print and related business, integrating your W2P software with their procurement system can benefit their employees, their management, and you.

Using W2P Software Integration for Customer Retention

With a W2P integration like this, you represent a frictionless transaction for their employees. They are automatically logged in to your web-to-print system using what is called "Single Sign On" or SSO. The employees don't need to create their own account or remember a password with this approach. The integration seamlessly handles it for them! Because it's so easy for them to place orders with you this way, they are more likely to order from you rather than another vendor. Another benefit is the order information including items ordered, cost, purchase order/chargeback/cost center numbers and the like is tied into their system. Their management does not need to get the data from you, nor do you need to spend time gathering it for them.

Using W2P Software Integration to Punch Out the Competition

Of course, this type of integration requires some effort by your customer and some extra cost for you. And both of these are actually great news for you. Why? After your customer invests in making this integration work, they will not be quick to reopen that process for one of your competitors. After all, doing business with you is now very seamless and very easy so where is the need? Plus, their IT staff will see no need to redo the work with another vendor. As a result, your business connection is now very sticky. As long as you don't take their business for granted, you can expect a long and very likely growing relationship. And because there is some cost involved in setting up the procurement integration, some of your less astute competitors won't even try, leaving all the business to you.

Using Aleyant Pressero to Integrate with a Procurement System

As you might expect, Pressero supports procurement system integration, as well as Active Directory / LDAP integration, and Digest Authentication. Contact us to discuss your growth opportunity and for more details.