Founded in 1954, colordruck Baiersbronn offers customized and specific packaging solutions for industrial and commercial companies in the food, confectionery, pharmaceutical and non-food sectors. As a packaging service provider, it is one of the technology leaders in Europe, with advanced development and the highest quality standards. What the company brings to the dynamic packaging market is innovation, the extensive know-how of its approximately 280 employees and 65 years of experience in the industry.
“Through the consistent further development of our digital business model, the processes could be automated even more as well as aligned for the future. We very much appreciate the cooperative and partnership-based collaboration with CloudLab, as it is always solution-oriented.”
Back in 2016, colordruck Baiersbronn had the idea of setting up a ‘Packaging Digital’ division alongside the ‘Packaging Production’ (long runs) and ‘Packaging Service’ (packaging) divisions. The idea was to set up a separate web store for personalized packaging products in quantities of 1 or more, divided into an open shop for end customers and a closed shop for business customers. The purpose of the closed shop, which included a login section and a business customer account, was to mainly offer customizable and customer-specific packaging in small quantities of up to 5,000 units. On the other hand, the entire product range should be available in the end customer shop.
Both stores were to offer just the right packaging concept for every industry, every product and every occasion. The team was always aware of the importance of packaging for brand identities - as a silent salesperson at the point of sale - as well as for the protection and safety of the product during transportation.
The aim of the new Web to Pack portal was not only to open up all the benefits of mass customization to business customers via VDP (Variable Data Printing), but also to give private customers the opportunity to design variable packaging products without any prior knowledge. Seamless integration of the software into existing workflows and production environments was also a fundamental requirement. Thus began the search for a reliable partner. In the end, colordruck Baiersbronn was impressed by CloudLab and its Web to Pack solution packQ - a powerful and state-of-the-art packaging design tool.
The collaboration between colordruck Baiersbronn and CloudLab began in March 2019. Astonishingly, only seven months passed from the commencement of the project and initial software training in Dortmund to the go-live of the complete system! In other words, the CloudLab team implemented the solution in an incredibly short time. The stores have also been supported by CloudLab since October 2019 and continuously developed further in cooperation with the customer.
Particularly relevant for the implementation was the customer-specific design theme, which was developed by the design agency Silberpuls from Berlin. CloudLab simultaneously took care of integrating the theme into the new store environment - including stylish UX design and an attractive UI.
The Web to Pack portal’s responsiveness was also taken into account. As more and more users are accessing websites with mobile devices, the web design was based on a “mobile first” approach. All the elements of the store environment were initially developed for mobile use and then optimized for desktop, focusing on a suitable product arrangement, the various filter views and, of course, general usability.
Integrating all the products into the new system was one major task; linking them via interface to the Symphony workflow system from ctrl-s was another. ctrl-s is a software developer from Stuttgart that specializes in the digital transformation of print shops. For the project, CloudLab developed a new ctrl-s interface that seamlessly integrates packQ with the workflow manager. The interface controls the print jobs and corresponding status messages are fed back to the store. After its implementation, a strategic partnership even developed between ctrl-s and CloudLab, which offers advantages to customers of all sizes to this day.
The CloudLab packaging designer is used in both stores. With the modern HTML5 designer, users can edit products directly and make adjustments. Functional cross-platform tools are available for precise design, labeling and approval of the print data. Thanks to the 3D preview, work is always done directly on the print product: This is "What You See Is What You Get" in its purest form..
packQ from CloudLab is based on a revolutionary mass customization technology that simplifies the complex and costly process of customizing and ordering packaging products. the CloudLab proprietary cloud-based WebCAD system is used for this purpose. With the CAD solution, colordruck Baiersbronn can define packaging designs with individually configurable sizes and offer them to customers. It is also possible to modify the architecture of existing packaging products from the FEFCO/ECMA catalog. And since WebCAD is a CloudLab solution, there is no complicated integration of an external CAD system.
After the design process in the editor, the print data is created fully automatically by packQ, prepared and sent to the Callas Preflight software, which is perfectly matched to the workflow. No further manual intervention is required. This optimizes the received data for the further production process and ensures consistent quality control. In summary: Designs can be quickly released for print production and design development times are significantly reduced, resulting in enormous cost and time savings.
The innovative shopping cart separates items according to production times. Delivery times are also automatically calculated and displayed to the customer there. If the delivery address is an international one, delivery times are automatically adjusted.
In October 2019, colordruck Baiersbronn went online with the web shop designyourpackaging.de. Thanks to the collaboration with CloudLab, the store is clearly laid out, offers many functions and a clearly structured ordering process for individual packaging products.
We would be happy to discuss your requirements with you or show you a solution concept in a personal web demo.
