Postcard from the Channel Islands

The Business Challenge
IPS intended to run a Channel Islands-based digital print operation for the burgeoning UK online greeting card market. The business needed to process large volumes of customised graphical data into printed materials and out into the post every day.

To achieve this, IPS partnered with Deixis to set up communications company Transarnia, which was tasked with linking IPS’s Guernsey based digital print-on-demand production centre to UK postcard and greeting card producers. This involved regularly sending large numbers of graphic files from mainland UK across to Guernsey.
Ian Lacey, Director, Transarnia said: “Of course, always-online presence is business critical to this operation. We needed to deliver highly reliable, high capacity and bandwidth infrastructure to process and transit customers’ graphic assets for on-demand printing, all at a reasonable cost to IPS.”

The PEER 1 Hosting Solution
Transarnia considered various UK and Guernsey based hosting providers before choosing the resilient and rapid network infrastructure and the customized Managed Hosting solutions of PEER 1 Hosting.

Ian explained, “Our initial sales contact was so well handled and positive that we felt good about partnering with PEER 1 Hosting. The pricing was excellent compared to other providers and we knew PEER 1 had experience in supporting this kind of operation.”

The solution has delivered excellent systems reliability through heavy periods of traffic, and Ian is encouraged by the level of support PEER 1 is always ready to provide to ensure the infrastructure is running smoothly.
“We have developed a very strong day-to-day working relationship, which began with specifying and implementing the solution together and growing and developing the facility on-going. PEER 1’s team is very responsive to issues and queries so a good amount of trust has built up.”

The Solution in Action During the 2012 Summer Olympics
The first big test of their PEER 1 Hosting solution came when Samsung, as the official partner for wireless communication for London 2012 Olympics, offered free, customisable postcards via web, Facebook and Android mobile apps throughout the games. The apps were built by Touchnote, a London business offering a variation on the traditional postcard and personalised greeting card. The cards carried a user’s photo on the front and a personalised message on the back and were sent by first-class post to recipients around the world. An attendee at the Games could generate their own postcard at any time and expect it to be produced and sent immediately.

Working as the print partner to Touchnote and Samsung through five weeks of the 2012 Olympics, IPS and Transarnia took on the challenge to bring some 650,000 photo-postcard files into its Guernsey facility, produce them to the high-quality levels its clients expect, and distribute them immediately. This required high availability and the capability to handle high volumes of data traffic in order to meet tight production and distribution schedules. Cards were generally received within one day of sending.

Ian said: “It was a big challenge for our networks as well as our production systems. All of those postcards carried individual user photos, and with our production day volumes peaking out at just under 60,000 cards, that’s quite a strain on anyone’s bandwidth.”

Touchnote’s ‘Postcards from London 2012’ high volume project, supported by PEER 1 Hosting’s Portsmouth Data Centre and IPS, was a resounding success. Around one million postcards were sent during the five weeks of the games, with around 650,000 handled by PEER 1’s servers in Portsmouth and produced by IPS’s printing facilities in Guernsey.

Ian said: “With daily volume of cards peaking at around 60,000 units, the rapid flow of the cards and all their photographic content into the print and manufacturing facility was achieved through a combination of PEER 1’s high speed network and the dedicated graphics processing servers in the Portsmouth data centre. We kept pace and delivered on our role as the print partner.”

During the programme, a review of mobile phone apps for on-demand postcards was conducted by The Sunday Times. The review rated Touchnote as the clear market leader and reported delivery of a high-quality product within hours.

The Results
Within 18 months IPS has arguably become the number one provider of print-on-demand to the cards industry and now carries the daily traffic load for many prominent high-street and online greeting card brands.

Ian said: “The PEER 1 Hosting solution has enabled IPS to win new contracts with major UK providers who require infrastructural guarantees from downstream manufacturers.

“Without a high-capacity UK mainland based front-end the IPS print-on-demand card business could not have operated, as establishing the facility in Guernsey would not have been economically viable.

“PEER 1 Hosting’s solution has enabled IPS to offset bandwidth into the Channel Islands for server processing power in the UK. This allowed the print-on-demand operation to be cost-effectively located in Guernsey, where its delivery options for the output product are significantly better than in the UK.”

IPS’s print-on-demand service is continuing to grow and is taking on new and significant household name card producers. A new programme for artists to create and sell print-on-demand products is due in 2013. This will require an expansion of the PEER 1 Hosting-located server set.

Postcard from the Channel Islands

Transarnia needed to deliver highly reliable, high capacity and bandwidth infrastructure to process and transit customers’ graphic assets for on-demand printing, all at a reasonable cost.

The Business Challenge
IPS intended to run a Channel Islands-based digital print operation for the burgeoning UK online greeting card market. The business needed to process large volumes of customised graphical data into printed materials and out into the post every day.

To achieve this, IPS partnered with Deixis to set up communications company Transarnia, which was tasked with linking IPS’s Guernsey based digital print-on-demand production centre to UK postcard and greeting card producers. This involved regularly sending large numbers of graphic files from mainland UK across to Guernsey.
Ian Lacey, Director, Transarnia said: “Of course, always-online presence is business critical to this operation. We needed to deliver highly reliable, high capacity and bandwidth infrastructure to process and transit customers’ graphic assets for on-demand printing, all at a reasonable cost to IPS.”

The PEER 1 Hosting Solution
Transarnia considered various UK and Guernsey based hosting providers before choosing the resilient and rapid network infrastructure and the customized Managed Hosting solutions of PEER 1 Hosting.

Ian explained, “Our initial sales contact was so well handled and positive that we felt good about partnering with PEER 1 Hosting. The pricing was excellent compared to other providers and we knew PEER 1 had experience in supporting this kind of operation.”

The solution has delivered excellent systems reliability through heavy periods of traffic, and Ian is encouraged by the level of support PEER 1 is always ready to provide to ensure the infrastructure is running smoothly.
“We have developed a very strong day-to-day working relationship, which began with specifying and implementing the solution together and growing and developing the facility on-going. PEER 1’s team is very responsive to issues and queries so a good amount of trust has built up.”

The Solution in Action During the 2012 Summer Olympics
The first big test of their PEER 1 Hosting solution came when Samsung, as the official partner for wireless communication for London 2012 Olympics, offered free, customisable postcards via web, Facebook and Android mobile apps throughout the games. The apps were built by Touchnote, a London business offering a variation on the traditional postcard and personalised greeting card. The cards carried a user’s photo on the front and a personalised message on the back and were sent by first-class post to recipients around the world. An attendee at the Games could generate their own postcard at any time and expect it to be produced and sent immediately.

Working as the print partner to Touchnote and Samsung through five weeks of the 2012 Olympics, IPS and Transarnia took on the challenge to bring some 650,000 photo-postcard files into its Guernsey facility, produce them to the high-quality levels its clients expect, and distribute them immediately. This required high availability and the capability to handle high volumes of data traffic in order to meet tight production and distribution schedules. Cards were generally received within one day of sending.

Ian said: “It was a big challenge for our networks as well as our production systems. All of those postcards carried individual user photos, and with our production day volumes peaking out at just under 60,000 cards, that’s quite a strain on anyone’s bandwidth.”

Touchnote’s ‘Postcards from London 2012’ high volume project, supported by PEER 1 Hosting’s Portsmouth Data Centre and IPS, was a resounding success. Around one million postcards were sent during the five weeks of the games, with around 650,000 handled by PEER 1’s servers in Portsmouth and produced by IPS’s printing facilities in Guernsey.

Ian said: “With daily volume of cards peaking at around 60,000 units, the rapid flow of the cards and all their photographic content into the print and manufacturing facility was achieved through a combination of PEER 1’s high speed network and the dedicated graphics processing servers in the Portsmouth data centre. We kept pace and delivered on our role as the print partner.”

During the programme, a review of mobile phone apps for on-demand postcards was conducted by The Sunday Times. The review rated Touchnote as the clear market leader and reported delivery of a high-quality product within hours.

The Results
Within 18 months IPS has arguably become the number one provider of print-on-demand to the cards industry and now carries the daily traffic load for many prominent high-street and online greeting card brands.

Ian said: “The PEER 1 Hosting solution has enabled IPS to win new contracts with major UK providers who require infrastructural guarantees from downstream manufacturers.

“Without a high-capacity UK mainland based front-end the IPS print-on-demand card business could not have operated, as establishing the facility in Guernsey would not have been economically viable.

“PEER 1 Hosting’s solution has enabled IPS to offset bandwidth into the Channel Islands for server processing power in the UK. This allowed the print-on-demand operation to be cost-effectively located in Guernsey, where its delivery options for the output product are significantly better than in the UK.”

IPS’s print-on-demand service is continuing to grow and is taking on new and significant household name card producers. A new programme for artists to create and sell print-on-demand products is due in 2013. This will require an expansion of the PEER 1 Hosting-located server set.