| | Graphic Communications Manufacturer Vivid Impact Corp. Competes by Giving Clients Use of WS_FTP Pro
Kentucky-based Vivid Impact Corporation has earned a solid reputation for producing top-quality, high-definition graphic printing jobs from give-away coupons for national fast-food chains such as KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut to technical manuals for heavy-machinery manufacturers. Seeking an advantage in an increasingly competitive business, Vivid looked for a more convenient and cost-effective way to transfer materials such as logos, advertisement slicks and high-definition graphics to and from customers as opposed to using overnight mail, UPS or couriers. WS_FTP Server and WS_FTP Pro proved to be the answer.
Vivid had been using WS_FTP Pro since 1997 to efficiently transfer large files involving manufacturing, production and accounting tasks among in-house servers. But its competitive breakthrough was to use WS_FTP Server to receive large graphics files from clients via the Internet. Recognizing that FTPing files is fast becoming a market expectation, Vivid went the next step and provided customers free use of WS_FTP Pro software that was licensed to Vivid. In return, Vivid ingratiated itself to its customers, eliminated hassles, in effect added deadline time for customers, and overall saved themselves and their customers time, headaches and money.
"When reviewing FTP products, we found Ipswitch's WS_FTP Pro by far the easiest to manage from our perspective," says Steve Mattingly, (MIS Manager). "With WS_FTP Server and Pro, customers can send the print job while on the phone with a Vivid account executive. Often, the file is on our system before the account executive and customer have finished their conversation. We now save a great deal in time and delivery costs and the customers love it because it makes life so much easier," says Mattingly.
Vivid had been using WS_FTP Pro internally for quite some time to move files from its UNIX server to PCs and vice versa. When Mattingly went to Ipswitch's Web site to get information on a new version of the client software, he noticed a reference to the server software. It looked easy to use, so he downloaded a trial version and discovered that it was in fact very easy to use. He then realized that if he could make the client available to customers, it would be a tremendous boost to productivity and efficiency.
Prior to using WS_FTP, Vivid was utilizing Microsoft Windows NT FTP server. "People found it very difficult to use," points out Mattingly. "The biggest problem was that in providing a customer access to the FTP site, Vivid would have to make that person a user on its Windows NT system. This created problems with getting permissions on Vivid's end as well as maintenance issues." Now, all customers have to do is open up WS_FTP, select the file or files they wish to transfer, drag it and then drop it from their system onto Vivid's system. The FTP transfer is essentially an instantaneous process and can be done at any time of the day.
The Vivid server is set up so that each customer with WS_FTP Pro has his own area that no on else can access. And if there is more than one contact at an organization accessing the server, each individual is provided separate areas to access for even greater security. Each customer has one gigabyte in disk. This is important since files are often high-definition graphics and are so large that even a 100-meg zip disk isn't big enough to hold them. Vivid's pre-press department has access to all areas and is able to access the necessary files for a specific job.
Reflecting on his decision to implement WS_FTP at Vivid, Mattingly says he didn't have to get a sales pitch to be convinced to purchase WS_FTP from Ipswitch. "Knowing the type of solution I was looking for, I conducted research on FTP software. My focus was on price and ease-of-use and that's why I decided on WS_FTP it was extremely easy to use and continues to be for us and our customers."
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