Carefree reliable hosting wins over customers of pre-press providers

EskoArtwork focuses on its own added value for its customers thanks to the expertise and flexibility of Hostbasket.

View and approve proofs via the web has become an accepted procedure for the customers of a pre-press solution provider like EskoArtwork. These are usually large files that are viewed by means of a web browser. In order to be able to read these files, the company is currently using a web-based solution, WebCenter, to streamline files in an intelligent way while keeping the bandwidth usage as low as possible. Since 2007, EskoArtwork is working together with Hostbasket to manage the servers, required for the WebCenter application, for its customers. Because of this partnership customers are more inclined to buy the product and EskoArtwork is able to focus on its own core business.

Streaming is the best solution to exchange large files

EskoArtwork is a worldwide provider of design, pre-production and collaboration software and services for the packaging industry, and provides workflow solutions for the commercial printing market. Brand owners and printers are the key customers. The company was established in 2007 after the fusion of Esko-Graphics and the Artwork Systems Group, that develops professional pre-press software for the labeling, packaging and commercial coulour printing market. EskoArtwork employs 900 people worldwide and the company has distribution partners in more than 40 countries. The main office is located in Ghent.

Before going to press, some technical pre-press activities are applied to a packaging, label, periodical or brochure to have them ready to press. The modified file is then again submitted to the customer for approval. There are three ways to do so. A paper proof can be delivered to the client, which is a slow and expensive method. The proof can also be delivered via e-mail, but the files are usually too large. The best solution is to view the file by means of a web browser, give some comments and approve it without downloading the whole file. Moreover, all persons involved in the process are working with the same file version. Since many years now, EskoArtwork is working with WebCenter, a solution that manages the complete approval process of the printed matter. File streaming is thus of major importance.

Carefree server management

EskoArtworks WebCenter is a web-based communication tool for all actors within the supply chain of the packaging industry and the commercial printed matter (designers, sales, IT, marketing,…). “It's the perfect solution to simplify the communication between all parties,” says product manager Freddy Pieters, who has developed WebCenter to become a state-of-the-art management platform for files enabling the company to increase efficiency, reduce the margin of error and the time-to-market.

WebCenter can be implemented in two ways. On the one hand the client can develop his own web environment to manage the servers. However, this requires the necessary skills and an available infrastructure. On the other hand WebCenter can be purchased at EskoArtwork and the management can be done by the hosting company. Freddy Pieters explains how EskoArtwork has taken advantage of the situation: “More and more customers were looking to outsource WebCenter to a hosting company. So I came up with the idea to contact such a company and examine the possibility of working together. And, on the advice of our IT department, the choice fell on Hostbasket in 2007.”

Together with Hostbasket, Freddy Pieters developed the hosted version of WebCenter. EskoArtwork has its own dedicated servers situated in the Hostbasket data centre in Lochristi. “In case the customer don't want to do the management of the WebCenter servers himself, we propose to take care of the hosting. The customer pays a fixed monthly fee on top of the start-up cost that covers the software and service as well as the hosting. We outsource the hardware hosting to Hostbasket,” said Freddy Pieters. The EskoArtwork customers, who have no contact with Hostbasket, don't have to worry about the management of their servers - they can work carefree. “Our customers are very enthusiastic about this possibility,” underlines Freddy Pieters.

Focus on own core business

“In former days our customers were complaining not to have the skills to implement WebCenter in their company and to manage the application,” remembers Freddy Pieters. “Thanks to the excellent hosting services of Hostbasket we can now offer them the possibility to have the management done by us. This is very important to us; it's not about time gain or savings.” The hosting costs are integrally carried by the customer. “So we don't make profits on the hosting itself,” underscores Freddy Pieters, “but by providing this service to our customers we can remove some obstacles for them and at the same time we manage to sell our own solution.”

In case of downtime the EskoArtwork customers can contact the Hostbasket helpdesk, 24/7. “This is one of the reasons why we chose Hostbasket to do the hosting. We are not able to provide continue support to our customers; it's not part of our core business. It is a matter of course that Hostbasket monitores the support and intervenes rapidly in case of problems,” said Freddy Pieters. “We don't get many reactions of our customers and that's a good sign,” he says. “The quality of the hosting is our concern, not the customer's. Reliable hosting and dedicated servers for them are as normal as water running from the tap. Thanks to the flexibility and the expertise of Hostbasket we can focus on our own added value for our customers: deliver a fully integrated pre-press solution in a high-performance environment,” he concludes.