MarketDirect StoreFront Erfahrungen

Great storefront on it's own

Kommentare: Overall the building process can be quite easy after using the software for a while and learning what works with our product management system (PrintSmith). SmartCanvas has been quite hard to figure out with little guidance from EFI but is very promising. In general by its self MarketDirect Storefront is strong, but could use a lot of tweaking when talking to other modules. After a few years we have grown our ticket templates to a few hundred and have grown our products to a few thousand. Planning out your categories up front will be crucial for customers to be able to find what they are looking for.

Vorteile:

I like all the different type of options when it comes to products, I appreciate the level of customization across the entire backend such as printing services, papers, products, design, etc.

Nachteile:

Some services and specs, filled out by the customer, don't come across to our PrintSmith depending how you have that setup. We had to rebuild all ticket templates in PrintSmith (yes a second time) in order to link products up to ticket templates from our storefront. This was our workaround, some things still don't come across until recently, SIZE wouldn't come over from the storefront into PrintSmith, so I think there is room for improvement here. I like the idea of product overrides, but in the new version it is not working. This could also use some updating keeping ticket templeting to a minimum. Can't copy products that have overrides. Because of this alone, I typically have to create a new ticket template for every product, usually due to the paper. SmartCanvas is very promising, but comes with a large learning curve and even then I feel that a well thought-out guide would be very helpful. Fonts don't show up correctly in certain views and makes paragraph styled text boxes extremely hard to see how type will flow from the customer side. I will say the level of control with SmartCanvas is very nice locking fonts, colors, sizing or allowing the buyer to fully customize the product in anyway.

Great functionality but alot of work up front

Kommentare: With the new system we are utilizing some of the features like business card templates where the client fills in their information and proofs it themselves before we even see it. Then its direct to print from there. Do no real work on our part is needed. We are able to do less work on the backend of things from an administrative standpoint and that takes a huge work load away from very few staff.

Vorteile:

I love that the software integrates well with PrintSmith our printing and accounting software. The easy of using the different template options is a very simple process. Clients seem to find the navigation of the new site very user friendly and easy to use. The integration however was a very difficult item to over come. It was a very time consumer task to accomplish.

Nachteile:

There are certainly features in the old system that would be nice to have in the new system - such as being able to drag and drop line items from one to reorganize things. It would also be very helpful if you were able to have more than 1 invoice open at a time to be able to create new orders based off multiple invoices by dragging and dropping into a new one. The integration with PrintSmith was not an easy thing - you basically had to recreate everything you had on PrintSmith again in MarketDirect StoreFront. We have spent years creating templates in PrintSmith and now having to basically recreate them again is crazy when before it was seamless. It’s also difficult that the pricing isn’t exactly the same from one platform to the other. Now we are forced to round up or down in MarketDirect instead of PrintSmiths pricing just automatically transferring.

REVIEW

Kommentare: Still learning - we'll get there

Vorteile:

Easy to use with inventory products - still learning

Nachteile:

Some features are not working properly. Not being told this until you fight to make it work only to find out when you reach out to tech support that the feature is not working properly at the moment.

Just what we needed!

Kommentare: I personally am willing to discuss further how well it works and what it all can do as i am so pleased with EFI and there willingness to help anytime. We have the backing of a powerful team and that makes me feel very comfortable. Again the user experience is so easy to navigate that up selling and selling to market segments never has been so easy.

Vorteile:

The best part of Market Direct Storefronts is that all our customers say that it is so easy to navigate making training a non issue. When users can navigate easily it makes them use it more! We were able to merge this system together with the EFI MIS we are using to run our business streamlining job creation and billing considerably. Same goes for the build(s) very intelligent software and easy to prepare sites. We probably use 75% of what the system currently has available to us; only because we haven't had the customer requests. The software has many further options that we are still using as requested by our customers.

Nachteile:

We have had customers come up with a few challenges for the software but we usually find either a workaround using storefront options or reach out to EFI service people and they can either help immediately or have professional services build or add to an upcoming software update.

My view through the healthcare lens

Kommentare: My overall experience is good. Implementation and transition from EFI webhosted to on premise took way to long to move and it seemed that we were running into things that had never happened before. The product is good when set up correctly. You all are going through major updates and changes. This is positive for your customers. A new approach to roll outs, documentation and streamlined access to help when you use an additional EFI product such as PSV would be so helpful.

Vorteile:

I appreciate that it has a look and feel of an amazon type experience. Customers in health care don't know or understanding printing. They want easy or shall I say intuitive experiences that remind them of something that they've done before on common ecommerce sites.

Nachteile:

I think that the maintenance of the store front from the "administer" side needs some improvement. The Admin area seems somewhat outdated. Limited in some respects of what other similar products offer in the space of day to day upkeep. My organization has to engage a freelance person who has experience with the tool to simply do things that should be simple but are really complex.

Big positives and small negatives for us

Kommentare: It has definitely impacted our workflow and efficiency in a very positive way. We are a large healthcare system with lots of form inour storefront. The ability of our users to see and interact with documents when ordering is a HUGE improvement over our old "blind" ordering system. Now that jobs flow autmatically into our PrintSmith Vision system, we no longer have to do the massive amount of data entry for billing that our old system required. This saves 10-15 hours per week on the admin side of things.

Vorteile:

Fairly easy customization of look and feel. Plenty of built in UI templates for those that can't/won't play with code. Good user management controls. We haven't any any load handling issues even with almost 2000 products and 900 users. EFI support has been responsive and proficient. Good user support forums. It has integrated well with our PrintSmith Vision install.

Nachteile:

Redundancy of some settings. The admin interface has lots of redundacy and is cluttered and inefficient. Batch product import or creation needs a LOT more work. No ability to batch publish items to categories. No ability to create snapshots or backups of settings to revert to in case of user error. Occasional random little glitches/changes (like sort order settings or other fine detail) that pop up occasional or following an upgrade. The inability to create a job template "on the fly" when creating a product that doesn't fit an existing template.

EFI MarketDirect StoreFront

Kommentare: Having this storefront has been highly beneficial to ColorMark. Many orders are received everyday with very little effort. With the automation built into the system, orders are take and sent directly to Rips for printing.

Vorteile:

Straight forward setups. You can have a client online in very little time. Connects well with Pace for ease of job tickets and inventory control. As well as bi-directional communication with all the above as well as Process shipper.

Nachteile:

In some cases we have stores that might have more than 1000 franchises that buy through the store front. When it is necessary to make changes and it needs to be done to many of the stores there is no easy way to address this problem. Opening up one customer at a time make a change and close, way to cumbersome when you compare that to either the universal importer or pace connection, where all changes can be made in under a few minutes. Additionally, the reporting is completely non-existent. After adding individuals to a site it would be nice to download all of the data to look for errors, missed data etc. No way to do that with this software. Can't even get to the Database to download from there.

Mid Market Suite

Kommentare: There is no doubt the Market Direct Storefront is a huge time saver for us. BUT it has also opened up opportunities for clients around the world, where they wish to offer a "storefront" to their staff around the world, helping them maintain brand consistency.
DSF was one of the main reasons for engaging with EFI.

Vorteile:

The software really is end to end with full integration and automation. EFI are also very open, easy to work with and it feels like a true partnership. The solution they offer covers everything we want and need to run our business and there is a constant drive to improve, to listen to customers and work with you to ensure you are getting the most out of the product. I particularly like the integrations with our equipment and other systems, which aids automation and efficiency. And for us the connection with DSF is a real plus, enabling us to process regular orders and open up opportunities we wouldn't normally be able to fulfill.

Nachteile:

it is a little unfair to comment on this as we are about to upgrade to the latest version, but its fair to say my biggest bug bear at present is the number of clicks. This is something I know has been addressed in the latest version. My only other grumble would be that the software can get "stuck" if you change a production method from say litho to digital within an estimate, it can sometimes take a few attempts for it to recognise the change.

Market Direct for InPlant

Kommentare: We have not yet fully launched the system after having it for many years. It was purchased long before any of us that are here now began. It is my understanding that the system was launched and being used then it was learned that it was not a full MIS system. The organization then purchased another EFI product, PrintSmith to do the management functions for the shop that were desired and the integration between the 2 systems was difficult.

Vorteile:

Unfortunately I am not yet conversant with the software. The previous employee set it all up and then left abruptly so I am not yet trained in it. It seems to work fine and I know many others that use it - however, as with most integrations, it doesn't work easily with other MIS systems such as PrintSmith Vision. We had to have programmers do things for us that it seems others would have encountered and would have been made part of the 'normal' programming of the software.

Nachteile:

Ease of integration with other systems. Redundancy with information needed - mainly multiple price lists that have to be maintained and be consistent. For example, we must set pricing in PrintSmith, then convert the pricing structures for Digital Storefront in a way that matches - so that when a customer brings work through the on-line site, the pricing is consistent if they bring work direct to the shop and we use PrintSmith. So if we decide to update pricing in one system, we have to update it in multiple places which causes more work and more potential for errors.

Digital Storefront

Kommentare: Overall the usage of the MarketDirect Storefront platform is positive. We are able to easily receive orders and move them into production. We are also able to easily customize sites to fulfill different customer needs.

Vorteile:

Overall the software is easy to use for both administrators and end users. For end users the sites are very easy to navigate and use. For administrators it is easy to customize site HTML and CSS if you have the skills, or it is easy to use the default templates if you do not. It is also easy to create and manage products, users, and user groups. We have several thousand products hosted on our sites. We are able to run our storefront job tickets into our MIS system with ease.

Nachteile:

While the software is easy to use for basic tasks, there are issues with more high level functionality. Part of the issues we have, stem from some of the administrative menus being cluttered and confusing. There are also some settings that are only available as overall site settings, and are not customizable for individual companies. Batch uploads/changes of products needs work, as it is currently very basic and the products need further configuration after they are uploaded.

Implementation During a Pandemic

Kommentare: We haven't had MDSF for very long but it is helping our unit streamline job orders and keep track of all incoming orders. It has also made the process easier for our customers to place and track orders.

Vorteile:

I like how easily I can edit the site and how much I can edit. I've used services in the past where the company had full control over the ordering site and we had to call them every time we wanted to update or change anything and it really didn't work out for us.

Nachteile:

I don't like that Market Direct Store Front and Print Smith Vision are very different from each other but expected to work together. It would be nice if MDSF was redesigned to match PSV better or at least integrate better. I felt like after setting up PSV I spent hours setting up the same stuff in MDSF. Very few things translate from PSV to MDSF.

Sense of Urgency

Kommentare: At the moment - getting a report of payment history to pull more than 1000 items. I had to file a case to get this and waiting to get the results to provide to my customer. Day 3 of waiting. I wish there were maybe a technical drop down menu that would possibly walk me thru doing this on my own. This would allow me to provide the results to my customer very timely rather than waiting days. Each case that I have personally filed have been answered but it is the waiting for the results or how-to.

Vorteile:

Very user friendly, works very well and never experience lags or delays daily on creating invoices.

Nachteile:

I feel that some of the features should allow us to make changes to so we don't have to create a case each time. For example - creating queries for reports.

MarketDirect StoreFront Rocks

Kommentare: As a former user of Printsmith site.. EFI/DSF has made a great product. Its simple to use and administer, Customers have grown to like it better that Printsmith site. I have about 40 customers on new Market direct StoreFront and about 200 Products.. and every one was custom designed .

Vorteile:

StoreFront get better with every update.. My clients love its ease of use. Very user friendly..

Nachteile:

Stacked Variables do not with in Direct Smile VDP. I can make it work with scripts, but those who do not know how to write scripts it can be tedious task to do stacked variables..

MDSF Review

Kommentare: MDSF allows a convenient way for customers with multiple locations to control ordering as well as branding standards.

Vorteile:

I like SmartCanvas and the UI of the Storefront Designer. Both are easy to use and make branding a storefront quick and painless.

Nachteile:

SmartCanvas needs the pen tool to allow more functionality in the designs as well as the ability to add text to a path. The product setup needs a ton of work. Importing all product types in bulk with the ability to associate images for each product would drastically improve storefront deployment. The reporting tool is overcomplicated. The reports should be clean with the ability to create reporting rules per company.

Feature Rich Software

Kommentare: It has been great. We have been able to supplement our traditional large custom quoted jobs with web orders by utiliizing MarketDirect for over 10 years. The automation of order input and distribution to our multiple devices has allowed us to cut out a lot of the costs associated with other orders.

Vorteile:

The product building features are easy to use and detailed. Almost any type of product I can think of can be created with MarketDirect in combination with VDP software.

Nachteile:

The pricing can be complicated to set up and maintain.

One Stop Shop for Your Shop

Kommentare: Overall, great.

Vorteile:

The EFI MarketDirect StoreFront has been essential to our location's operations. It's simple and intuitive, with extended functionality that streamlines our process; e.g. applying or changing statuses to multiple orders, editing order items after the order has been placed, etc.

Nachteile:

One feature I would like to see (if not already implemented) is the ability to view the order's files/documents without opening the order ticket. A small preview thumbnail of the artwork next to the order's info in the "Line Items" list would help with efficiency.

EFI Digital Storefront

Kommentare: Understanding our needs could be improved. While we understand that some of our asks may not be attainable, being able to be more flexible and provide quality solutions would be helpful.

Vorteile:

The upgraded look to the new storefront is much improved from the old version.

Nachteile:

The storefront is not very customizable without deep knowledge of HTML. If there were more options to change the flow of the ordering process, that would be a big improvement.

MDSF Review

Kommentare: It had its ups and downs, however the experiences with bugs and issues brought up with customer service, sales reps, and other reps made the experience bad because they were not willing to be responsible for their own products, and was consistently not helpful and was rude on top of it all.

Vorteile:

The SmartCanvas software was pretty decent, offered switches that worked like if statements which was much better than Design Studio.

Nachteile:

Every step is manual, as a result there is a lot of repetition, doing the same basic steps every single time. There are also quite a few bugs in the software, even the simple ones were open cases for months to years, and was not fixed even on the updates. Then the updates brought more bugs.. was unprofessional.

Excellent product

Kommentare: Overall this is a great product and really like the evolution of the product.

Vorteile:

I really like the ease of use for user and the administration side of the site is very user friendly.

Nachteile:

We had difficulties with the integration of paper catalogs with the Xerox Versant 80 printer on the EFI rip.

Additional Revenue Stream for our Company

Kommentare: Overall, I enjoyed the training process. I liked that each session was recorded and sent to us. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] has been really great to work with, super helpful and always willing to search for alternative ways to accomplish what we need.

Vorteile:

What attracted us to EFI MarketDirect StoreFront was the ability to create individual dashboards for each customer that we could customize to their products. We liked that it had the ecommerce functionality built in and that we could integrate with other internal systems. Our specific need for the software seemed to be one of the more complex uses for it and the EFI team has been really open and willing to push the envelope for what we need.

Nachteile:

Again, with our need being more complex, the development time has taken a lot longer than expected. Some of the functionalities haven't been working correctly so certain sites have not been able to launch yet. (Specifically the Box Products)

Shannon B

Kommentare: Overall experience has been amazing. We have gained new customers with the system being user friendly.

Vorteile:

EFI Store Front is not only admin user friendly but also user friendly. All in one software. Teach support is very responsive to emails and phone calls. One call and the issue is resolved.

Nachteile:

Only Con is not having a manual. There is an online but sometimes its not that details for visual learners.

EFI Fiery

Vorteile:

the functionality and ease of operation makes the fiery rip operate smoothly

Nachteile:

Haven't found anything yet, except maybe it does not intergrate with other devises

EFI MDSF Review

Vorteile:

I like the functionality and how easy it is to use.

Nachteile:

I think some features are outdated and needs to be updated. It does seem like they are moving in that direction though.

Not as good as OPS was

Kommentare: Efficient Customer Support

Vorteile:

User Interface, Customer Support, Ease of use

Nachteile:

Not as user friendly as the predecessor software OPS. Not able to link a custom logo to customer login. Not very effective Page access restrictions (some access must be granted to the Everyone Group in order to make the Storefront work)

Company Size Matters

Vorteile:

I am sure MarketDirect Storefront is a fine software for larger organizations. The available tools and options can make this a competitive web storefront.

Nachteile:

The problem is for companies with fewer than 10 employees, and without full time IT specialists or web manager, success is very difficult. After one year of working on our site using employees that have other job functions, we are not much closer to any success. You need at least a 15-20 hr/week employee to create, manage and update your website along with updating PrintSmith Vision. It is not the best solution for small employee companies.