In the competitive world of custom printing, Stickerbeat has emerged as a powerhouse, growing into a $12 million online sticker business serving clients across the U.S. Their success story hinges on a single, mission-critical tool: Enfocus Switch.
If we did not have Switch, we wouldn't have any clients, we would have errors all over the place.
Bruce Petroff, Chief Operating Officer at Stickerbeat
This high-stakes reality is why the company views Switch not just as a workflow tool, but as the engine of their entire operation.
The Challenge: A Manual Model That Couldn't Scale
Stickerbeat offers a wide range of products, from vinyl stickers to window decals. Clients upload their artwork through a web portal. Early on, their process was entirely "human-oriented": art workers manually grabbed files, placed them on art boards, set quantities, and generated proofs.
While this model was manageable for 10 orders a day, the projected growth to 50, 60, or 70 orders quickly exposed the system's flaws:
- Slow Turnaround: Proofs could take anywhere from 3 to 24 hours to generate due to manual data entry.
- Unsustainable Errors: Human error led to costly mistakes like overprinting, underprinting, and misplaced orders.
- Stagnant Productivity: The company's prepress team was at maximum capacity, creating a hard limit on revenue growth.
The Solution: Enfocus Switch for Near 100% Prepress Automation
Recognizing the need for a scalable model, Stickerbeat implemented Enfocus Switch to automate their print production workflow. The goal was simple: take the metadata from the customer order and use it to drive the entire process, eliminating manual intervention.
Using Switch, Stickerbeat achieved a truly automated prepress environment where the order is "pretty much automated until the person that is loading the material onto the printer". The core steps, including file handling, metadata transfer, and proof generation, became instant and error-proof.
The result? Proofs are now generated "within hours of the order coming in", drastically improving the customer experience and production speed.
Unprecedented Growth: 6x Revenue with the Same Staff
The impact of automating the prepress workflow with Switch is best quantified by Stickerbeat's incredible performance metrics:
| Metric | 2018 (Pre-Automation) | Today (With Enfocus Switch) | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Sales | $2 Million | $12 Million | 6x Growth |
| Prepress Staff | 4 People | 4 People | 100% Efficiency Gain |
| Order Errors | Common and Time-Consuming | "Virtually Disappeared" | Maximized Quality |
As a result, Stickerbeat is able to process six times the volume of work with the exact same prepress headcount they had when they were a $2 million company.
Beyond Production: The Power of End-to-End Automation
Stickerbeat’s automation journey didn't stop at file prepress. Our partner, Significance, worked with the UPS development team to create a direct link between Stickerbeat's internal order system and UPS. Switch now automatically grabs shipping address information and generates the shipping ticket.
This backend automation allows their shipping team to handle four times the volume and ensures that the information is "100% accurate".
The overall benefit is a stable, reliable operation. The customer service team is no longer overwhelmed by calls about errors or missing orders, instead being freed up to "foster relationships" and focus on new projects.
For Stickerbeat, Enfocus Switch is more than just a software tool—it is the foundation of their ability to scale and deliver high-quality products. It is the core reason they can maintain their momentum and continue their successful growth trajectory.
Ready to transform your print business and scale your production like Stickerbeat? Discover the power of Enfocus Switch and its ecosystem for mission-critical automation.
