Scaling with print - Dot It dotes on GraFx Publisher for foodservice visualizations that work

The struggle - Making variable work by going digital

When Dot It started out, they focused on the niche world of restaurants and food preparation. As a manufacturer of food rotation labels, Dot It soon found its customer base needed a service that offered a greater depth of customization. “Over 10 years ago we started getting requests from companies for custom labels and print on-demand,” reveals Jarod Joyce, senior creative manager at Dot It. “At the time, a lot of variable print was custom-built. I remember we used this horrid and much older e-commerce system that forced us to hand-code everything just to get text on a label.” By 2015, Dot It clearly needed a platform that allowed the company to simultaneously service its own clients and facilitate its own in-house designers.

The solution – Corporate templatization for easy user creation

Jarod and the team needed a digital graphics solution calibrated to the specific printing needs of the business. A partner recommended CHILI publish, and it wasn’t before long that both companies started creating a fast and intuitive online platform that connected clients to their labelling requirements. “We don’t do average variable print. We have to give our customers the ultimate editor,” says Jarod on the customizable nature of GraFx Publisher. “We work specifically with stores that are under a corporate umbrella. So the users that are using our product are actually individual locations from a larger corporate company. The corporate level controls the artwork, protects the brand, and helps keep everything consistent within the templates. That means we sometimes get to create pretty complex templates. And yet we have to supply users with a simple and intuitive editor that enables them to create marketing material that’s on the dot, if and when they need it. Real-time editing and creating – deceivingly simple, but simply brilliant.” A smart investment that has generated about $250K in variable print sales revenue since its integration.

The results – Real-time scaling for Dot It and customers

With clients needing access to custom templates, GraFx Publisher provides a digital foundation for a graphical editor that makes designing and manufacturing labels quick, easy and accessible.“We have worked with multiple variable print solutions over the years, and CHILI publish has provided the best technical documentation and support by far. Building templates is much faster and more intuitive than it was with our previous provider, so transferring current variable customers was easy. In fact, I’ve trained a full team of people via Slack on how to navigate the back office and create complex templates. They get the hang of it easily. It’s so streamlined we almost never have to intervene personally.”

Template creation and implementation is a matter of days. The Dot It team works fast and can turn around a template from artwork to conception to a variable product available in the store online in a mere 3 days’ time. Within GraFx Publisher, Dot It finally gets to save templates within the solution with access different versions of any template - a huge timesaver for customers and company alike.“By using GraFx Publisher templates and their variables, our customers can save up to $40K annually in custom design fees.”