Wright Business Graphics Evolves Prepress Automation with DALIM SOFTWARE

From Local Print Shop to West Coast Production Leader

Founded in 1970, Wright Business Graphics began as a two-employee print shop focused on business forms in Portland, Oregon. In July 2018, Wright was acquired by Ennis, Inc., headquartered in Midlothian, Texas.

Today, Wright is one of the West Coast’s leading suppliers of printed products, operating facilities across Oregon, Washington, and California. Its offerings span business forms and checks, folding cartons, digital variable data printing, commercial offset (including annual reports and brochures), envelope printing, and direct mail.

A Fully In-House, Customer-First Production Model

Wright takes a team-based approach to serving customers across the entire production lifecycle.

“We have a team approach to taking care of our clients throughout the entire production process, providing constant communication, clear answers and more control over their jobs,” - Eric DeRoos, Director, Premedia, Wright Business Graphics

From concept creation and CAD design through premedia, printing, die-cutting, folding, gluing, warehousing, and fulfillment, all production phases are handled in-house - never outsourced.

Early Automation Foundations and Partner Support

Before the Ennis acquisition, Wright brought in Kevin Shahalami in 2017 as a technical consultant and mentor. Shahalami had previously built an automated workflow using DALIM SOFTWARE at another company.

Together with Bay Digital, Wright built an automated prepress system for its wide-format division.

“That is how I began to work with Danny Cox of Bay Digital and learned all about DALIM,” recalls DeRoos.

“Bay Digital has been the best partner I have ever worked with, bar none.”

Bay Digital provided hands-on training, workflow examples, and ongoing support—helping Wright build confidence in automation.

Expanding Automation Across All Production Divisions

When Ennis invested in Wright in 2018, the wide-format division was sold, but the automation platform remained and was expanded across the business.

Wright operates four manufacturing sites:

• Two in Portland (forms and folding carton/commercial/digital)

• One in Kent, Washington

• One in Chino, California

From his office in Portland, DeRoos oversees automated workflows across all divisions.

“Everything in some capacity runs through DALIM,” says DeRoos.

“One example is automating and governing file processing and routing so only normalized production files are ever used for proof and press delivery.”

The result is a streamlined hub-and-spoke prepress model serving multiple facilities.

Standardizing Envelope Imposition and Preflighting

Envelope production is now almost entirely automated. Previously, imposition and file preparation were manual and dependent on individual expertise.

DeRoos designed a standardized file-naming convention that included job numbers, descriptions, envelope styles, and press identifiers.

“We identified 65 envelope styles and two press configurations,” explains DeRoos.
“This allowed us to automate preflighting, color management, PDF proof delivery, and imposition.”

Manual steps were eliminated, reducing reliance on tribal knowledge and freeing operators to focus on higher-value work.

Consistent Proofing Across Facilities

Consistency is critical to Wright’s customer experience, regardless of where or how a job is produced.

“We do not want proofs to look different,” says DeRoos.
“DALIM pulls job metadata and sends proofs to customers that are always formatted the same.”

Even though files may be prepared by different systems and printed at different facilities, customers receive a consistent proofing experience every time.

Saving Hours Through Automation

For Wright’s largest financial customer, daily files once required up to forty minutes of manual conversion and imposition work.

DeRoos reconfigured DALIM SOFTWARE to act as an sFTP server, enabling automated batch processing and delivery directly into production systems.

“Now, DALIM batch processes the files twice a day and releases them immediately for plating,” explains DeRoos.

In another case, custom proof formatting requirements were solved by building an automated queue—eliminating manual data entry and saving significant time per project.

A Versatile, Scalable Workflow Platform

DeRoos values DALIM SOFTWARE for its adaptability and scalability.

“It is very workflow agnostic and plays nice with other solutions,” he says.
“In my experience, DALIM has proven to be a true Swiss army knife in our industry.”

The system continues to evolve, with plans to integrate B2B storefronts via XML, enhance metadata routing, and expand 3D proofing capabilities.

Automation That Withstood Remote Work and Growth

Even during peak COVID shutdowns, DeRoos was able to manage workflows remotely without disruption. Despite staffing challenges, Wright maintained capacity and scaled production without increasing headcount.

“DALIM is essential in this day and age,” concludes DeRoos.
“We took the red pill… and we’ll never go back to where we were before automation.”