PrintingSolutions.com will offer printing, website and graphic art design at affordable prices. The company's proprietary product will be a website that will provide customers an avenue to create business stationery. PrintingSolutions.com will allow customers to track their purchases from start to finish. They will be able to view their selections online and make modifications at any time; customers will have access to service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
6.1 Development Requirements
The software that supports the online print shop is a collection of integrated software modules that will enable PrintingSolutions.com to quickly create, maintain, modify, or replace individual components. PrintingSolutions.com will create its proprietary software modules using development and technical standards and practices, and without significant dependencies on specific operating systems, databases, or Web server technologies. As a result, the company will be able to move portions of its software between different databases, operating systems, and Web server products to upgrade capacity or take advantage of price or performance improvements, as they become available.
The following is a description of the key software modules that will be found on the PrintingSolutions.com website:
- Design Workshop. This will incorporate features found in desktop publishing software that enables customers to easily create a wide variety of custom-printed products. The workshop will be designed such that what customers build on the screen is what they will receive in their hands. This is achieved by considering all aspects needed to produce on-screen images and transferring them directly to the final printed product. Since customers will be able to view and proof their orders before they are printed, we believe the percentage of orders that shall require reprinting due to design error will be significantly reduced.
- Product and Pricing Engines. Our various engines will contain a wide range of product designs, features, and pricing information. To support the broad array of product variations and customization options offered, we will design these databases to be highly flexible. This will allow us to modify our records as the market dictates.
- Secure Shopping Cart. We will provide a customized order basket designed to store and securely process orders. The Secure Shopping Cart will be integrated with the systems of members, thus reducing the need for human intervention in order to produce and complete an order. The company believes that by designing the system in this manner, the order and completion process will be vastly more efficient and are less error prone than current processes.
- System Reporting and Diagnostics. This program is designed to track customer action on participating websites. PrintingSolutions.com will utilize this program in order to remain aware of industry and retail trends.
- Custom Website Resources. By allowing participants in the private-brand program to customize and control their own print shops, we will eliminate the need for costly, time-consuming programming efforts. We will allow these participants to directly manage product prices, configurations, and sales tax assignments, which decreases customization and maintenance expenses for PrintingSolutions.com.
6.2 System Standards and Integration
Design Standards
PrintingSolutions.com will offer the following design standards:
- High-speed operation.
- Optimized screens incorporating data from several modules on a single display.
- Great depth to handle the most sophisticated requirements.
- Tightly integrated standards to minimize errors, data entry, and time, and maximize the speed and information content on displays and printouts.
- Consistent look and feel, uniform prompts and similar data flow for every module.
- User-friendly. Rich in useful features such as help displays, pick boxes, numerous user-changeable flags and user-modified options.
Depth and Integration
PrintingSolutions.com will have depth, which means that the software will allow the customer to go beyond the basics. Depth will apply to each module individually: estimating, cost collection, and accounting. Software without depth is limited and can be frustrating to a consumer.
The company will have the ability to confirm customer information when processing an estimate. We will also be able to convert an estimate to a job and automatically allocate inventory, verify credit limits, allow for coverage, and put all outside buys on a 'must buy' list for purchasing and updating work-in-process. When a job is billed, all information will be fully automatic. Then, after billing, the work-in-process, job history, job archives, accounts receivable, sales tax, sales commission liability, sales revenue, production scheduling, active job file, and inventory files will all be automatically updated.
We will have depth in accounting. This implies the following:
- A job scan will be pre-billed or partially billed.
- The sales tax will be computed for all states taxes, including any county or local tax.
- More than one accounting period can be open at the same time.
- Allowing several bank accounts and classes of Accounts Receivable to automatically compute and track sales commissions and multiple plants with individual and consolidated financial statements.
