2018 in Review, and a look ahead to 2019

Seasons greetings!

As 2018 comes to a conclusion, I wanted to reflect on an incredible year and share with you a sense of what to expect in early 2019.

2018 in Review

Online Stores

In 2018, we focused many of our product efforts on bringing even more value to our online store platform (given that a vast majority of total revenue processed by InkSoft comes from e-commerce sales in Stores).

2018 Online Store Highlights

• We introduced Rapid Product Creator to speed the process of creating e-commerce production-ready products…this was my personal favorite new technology and I think many of you would agree.
• Introduction of embroidery file format support in Rapid Product Creator.
• Tons of new store building components to provide more flexibility
• Significant features and enhancements to product management

All-New InkSoft Core

InkSoft Core is a really big deal! Core is all-new technology that allows users to manage customers, orders, production, purchasing, and receiving–all in one system. Core represents nearly two years of product engineering, design, and development. Core is certainly the single most ambitious project we’ve ever initiated!

Why do we call it “˜Core?’ The “˜core’ of any successful printing business lies in its ability to effectively and efficiently manage a decorated order through its entire lifecycle. We’ve always been focused on helping our customers sell more effectively — and our goal with Core was to ensure our customers can best manage the production process to execute on those increased sales.

Core includes a whole new set of features designed for the print industry, and it’s going to revolutionize the way decorators do business. Get ready for:

• Complete shop management with our “Shop” platform (product management, production tools, automated purchasing)
• Integrated CRM (customer relations and organization)
• Art management
• Shipping label management
• Order management
• Much more!

2018 InkSoft Core Highlights

We launched InkSoft Core in a limited beta ahead of schedule, and we are adding more customers weekly. We will soon provide access to all customers!

• We’ve implemented early feedback from beta users’ feedback
• Training materials are completed

If you haven’t yet seen the power of InkSoft Core please check out this video overview and see all the features included here.

Other notable achievements

We continue to reinvest in InkSoft, as we have done throughout our nearly ten-year history. So many software companies have the goal to build something great and sell their business. We have a different perspective on what it means to build a great company: Cultivate a team of rock stars to build genuinely useful technology, constantly improve it, help people improve their business results, and have a lot of fun while doing all that. This is what we will continue to do. In this spirit, 2018 resulted in:

• New InkSoft team members
• Web server hardware architecture investments
• Tons of internal processes and system improvements

What to expect in early 2019?

2018 was awesome, no doubt. And 2019 is going to be epic! Let me be clear: 2019 will be the single greatest year in InkSoft history from every measure. The most important measure to us, however, is your success. Our efforts don’t matter unless they impact you and your business. This can’t be lip service…we know we have to deliver…and we will. This I promise.

Now, here’s a taste of what you can expect in Q1 of 2019

We are already underway in active development and testing all items listed below! We have quite the headstart and are excited to make this technology available in early 2019.

New Design Studio

Oh boy! I’m pumped about the new Design Studio. It’s gorgeous, simple, and 100% mobile responsive.

New Design Studio Highlights

• A new and radically simplified user interface
• Integration in the InkSoft Store platform
• Guided, step-by-step user experience to help move your customers from creation to checkout
• All new optimized cart and checkout
• New image uploader workflow

“My Team”

We’ve invented a new and better way to manage your team members and their permission levels/access.

“My Team” Highlights

• Role presets
• Access and permission customizations

InkSoft Proposals

And finally, we will be launching what I believe to be the single greatest innovation ever from InkSoft: Proposals. We’ve totally reimagined art approvals, quoting, invoicing, manual order creation, and proactive visual proposals. We’ve created one simple way to achieve all the above. Proposals will have a massive impact on your sales growth and sales efficiency.

Proposals Highlights

• Leverages Rapid Product Creator to build mock-ups and decorated product ideas
• Ability to create and reuse services and fees
• Ability to send as a proposal or invoice
• Add custom products quickly
• Ability to estimate pricing quickly
• Gorgeous mobile responsive branded proposal landing page
• Online approval, commenting, and payment capabilities
• Fully integrated with InkSoft Core

Now, you can expect plenty of other enhancements and features along the way. Plus, we might have a few surprises in store!

From all of us here at InkSoft, we want to thank you for being a part of our family, and for trusting us to partner with you for business success. It’s your feedback that allows us to continue to create the best sales and production platform for our industry.

Happy Holidays from all of us, and here’s to a wonderful New Year.

Until next time,
(Thanks for scrolling).

JP Hunt and the InkSoft Team