The 7,000th Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46 is helping to turn the Internet into a new-job pipeline for the JKG Group, a prepress, print, direct mail and fulfillment center in Boca Raton, FL. JKG purchased the 7,000th iteration of the Printmaster QM 46 just four months after buying its first QM 46. More recently, the company added a second pair of Printmasters to its pressroom. All four of the JKG Printmasters are two-color.

"Although we've been running Speedmasters and Stahl folders successfully for years, we never looked to Heidelberg for equipping us at this end of the market," says Michael Kind, who founded the JKG Group in 1984 and serves as the company's president. "Once we did, we were pleasantly surprised with the product they offered. Then the performance of our first Printmaster convinced us to switch over to QM 46s."

The Printmasters are busy thanks to the company's e-printing application. To use the online service, customers click onto a branded website hosted by JKG at www.jkgprint.com. At the site, customers enter the appropriate information to create their own business cards or stationery items on customized templates designed for maximum order entry speed and accuracy.

JKG's automated production process receives the file and puts it in queue for jobs earmarked to go to the Printmasters. Simultaneously the program sends an e-mail confirmation to the customer that includes a schedule for when all of the elements of the job will be shipped.

The job queue funnels into a Quicksetter 400, Heidelberg's new two-up imagesetter that can produce film or polyester plates directly from customer files. "The Quicksetter is an important part of the automated workflow for our online products," Kind says.