How uTask Print Used Custom Software to Save a Business

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orders since launch

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end users since launch

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partnered printers across Australia

About

uTask Print

uTask Print is an all-in-one print order and delivery system based on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Its online platform works like Airtasker or Uber, connecting customers who need printing with best-fit suppliers.

Trade customers (like marketing agencies) can also use the platform to quickly order new collateral for their clients.

Problem

A Printer Without Differentiation

In 2022, Transparent Print was one of dozens of print shops in South East Queensland.

Margins were low and, in a landscape dominated by big players with deep pockets, competition was increasing brutal.

The company needed a path to greater profitability – fast.

Its director planned to shift to an Airtasker-style model, pivoting away from the commodity print market to instead connect customers with suppliers.

The problem: Transparent Print didn’t have an Airtasker-style platform.

Key Challenges

Vendor Choice

Searching for a Software Developer

uTask’s director knew that he couldn’t work with a standard marketing agency.

What he needed was a foundation – scalable, future-proofed – not a run-of-the-mill WordPress website.
But he also couldn’t turn to a pureplay software house.

SEO, UX, and visual design were all still big parts of the uTask vision, and he’d seen too many developers hyper-fixate on code at the expense of front-facing features.

So he chose an agency that blended the best of both – full-stack development, complemented by digitally native marketing.

Us.

Solution

Building a Platform and Website

A platform like uTask isn’t like a normal business website – there’s no playbook, no templates, no standard set of pages.

So we needed to work hand-in-glove with uTask’s director to scope out the exact functionalities he wanted his new digital space to have.

We weren’t constrained by the limitations of a drag-and-drop app builder, either.

The entire site and its back end were developed with Laravel, an open-source PHP framework designed for lightweight, responsive applications.

Features

How the Platform Works

For Customers

For uTask Print

Print Job and Supplier Matching

Customers can place orders for printed collateral through a simple online ordering form. Each order can be customised as much or as little as possible from a range of existing products.

As soon as an order is placed, the uTask platform will either charge the customer a fixed price (if they’ve selected a non-customised product) or put their order out for quotation (if they’ve customised the product).

The platform will then automatically find print suppliers who can deliver the order within the customer’s timeframe. ‘Get a Quote’ jobs are open to bidding from multiple suppliers.

Online Print Store

To make ordering easy, we built an e-commerce interface that lets customers buy from a range of existing products.

Those products can be purchased as-is at a fixed price, in which case the platform will automatically match the customer with a right-fit supplier.

If the customer chooses to modify the product – changing things like dimensions and GSM, for example – the order will instead be put out for bidding.

Any of uTask’s print suppliers can then quote the customer directly.

Customer Dashboard

uTask customers can do everything from one central dashboard: order new products, manage existing orders, track past orders, manage artwork, and update their details.

Artwork Library

Different print collateral needs different artwork. With a self-service artwork library attached to their profile, customers have access to a Google Drive-like feature that lets them upload and organise different visual assets.

Secure Online Payments

Retail customers pay for their print orders using Stripe – one of the world’s largest payment processing services.

Trade customers like marketing agencies, though, have more options. They can pay via BECS, request purchase orders, and even set up retainers that the order costs of their customers can be deducted from.

Video Guides

To help users adopt the uTask platform as effectively as possible, we created a hub for the uTask team to upload video guides and tutorials. All videos are auto-hosted on Vimeo to keep the site running as fast as possible.

Results

From Commodity to Category Challenger

The fully functional uTask platform launched just 18 weeks after project commencement – on time, on budget, and to scope.
Transparent Print’s metamorphosis had begun.

Within weeks, the platform had accrued hundreds of customers and suppliers, successfully landing major Gold Coast brands.

Business costs dropped. Revenue went up. The transition was working.

Now, more than 2 years later, uTask gives thousands of customers access to over 1,000 independent printers across Australia.

It’s become a successful challenger to big players like VistaPrint and Officeworks – and one that we’ll keep supporting through new features and platform updates.

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