How much is manual quoting costing your shop?

Punch in your real numbers. In under a minute you will see how much time, margin and won-business slip through manual quoting today, and what GelatoConnect Estimator would put back.
Hero ROI Estimator EU (1)

The fastest quote in the room wins the work.

Hear from the print leaders rebuilding their estimating around GelatoConnect Estimator - and the team behind the engine.

 

Paul Hudson, Hudson Printing - A hardcover quote in five minutes flat.

Print has always been too hard to buy. Paul explains how GelatoConnect Estimator turns customer language into technical specs, collapses complex jobs like hardcover books into a five-minute branded quote, and helps Hudson Printing dominate its local market.

Simon Smogur, ESP Colour - 12.5% sales growth, 19% added value, one quoting engine.

Simon walks through how ESP Colour replaced static spreadsheets and trade-print pricing with real-time, margin-controlled estimating. The result: faster responses, tighter margins, and the kind of consistency that's separating winners from the rest going into 2026.

Pradeep Sankaran, GelatoConnect - The hidden cost no PSP is talking about.

Most operators obsess over press utilisation. Pradeep makes the case that estimating - not production - is where growth quietly leaks away, and shows how automated quoting lets PSPs handle inbound surges and stop turning down high-volume tenders.

 

Why printers switch

Faster quotes, less effort, more wins.

Printers using GelatoConnect Estimator generate quotes in seconds, cut manual workload by more than 65%, and run hundreds of estimates a day without adding headcount.

15 sec
Quote time from RFQ to send
65%
Drop in manual estimating workload
2x
Higher win rate on quotes sent
200+
Daily estimates handled per shop

Quality you keep

98% on-time delivery and error rates under 0.35%, against 1.5% for shops still quoting manually.

Margin you grow

A 3-7 percentage-point lift in operating margin once accurate pricing and faster turnaround start compounding.

Capacity you unlock

Plug into new global brands and capture volume without adding estimators or losing nights to spreadsheets.

Hear from the print leaders using Estimator

paul-hudson-2

How Hudson Printing gives customers instant quotes with Estimator

“It doesn’t just make our estimation team faster and more automated — it also creates a powerful new path for buyers. They can go to a printer’s website, describe what they want, and get a quote instantly. The future of print buying isn’t ahead of us — it’s already here.”

Read the blog post
Smogur

How ESP Colour uses Estimator to win on speed

“Speed, being able to margin correctly and our estimators being confident that it’s right first time — that’s what we’re seeing so far, and we’re on a nine-week up-streak in margin vs. last year.”

Read the blog post

See the Estimator in Action

Watch deminar
Estimator Demo

By the numbers

Real outcomes from print shops on GelatoConnect Estimator

95%
reduction in quoting time at ESP Colour, from 30 mins to 90 sec average
2x
win rate increase at BSG, securing a £750K contract by responding first
3-4x
quote volume increase at Inkee with the same headcount
<3 mo
typical payback period reported by GelatoConnect Estimator customers
$8K-16K
monthly quoting labour cost in print shops with manual processes (validated model)
50%
of B2B deals go to the first vendor to respond (HBR)

Frequently asked questions

Print quote calculator, answered

What does the print quote ROI calculator measure?+

The calculator estimates the labour, win-rate, and revenue impact of replacing manual quoting with GelatoConnect Estimator. Inputs include current quote volume, average quote time, average deal size, and conversion rate. Outputs cover monthly labour saved, win-rate uplift, recovered revenue, and payback period.

How accurate are the ROI projections?+

The model is calibrated to actual customer outcomes — ESP Colour's 95% time reduction, BSG's 2x win rate, Inkee's 3-4x quote volume. Most customers reach payback in under three months. The calculator is conservative on the upside; many customers exceed the projection in the first six months.

What inputs does the calculator need?+

Current monthly quote volume, average time per quote (manual), average labour cost per hour, average deal size, current win rate. Five fields. The calculator runs against industry-validated benchmarks if you don't have exact numbers.

What outputs does the calculator generate?+

Monthly labour cost saved, additional revenue captured from faster response (50% of B2B deals go to the first responder per HBR), total annual ROI, and payback period in months. Plus a side-by-side of your current state versus projected state.

How do real customers compare to the calculator's projections?+

ESP Colour: 95% quoting time reduction, 200+ estimates per day. BSG: doubled win rate, secured £750K contract by responding first. Inkee: 3-4x quote volume with the same headcount. The calculator's projections are anchored to these confirmed outcomes.

What's the typical payback period?+

Under three months for most print shops with €300K-€5M revenue. Smaller shops sometimes reach payback in four to six weeks because the labour-cost savings hit the bottom line immediately. Larger shops with higher quote volumes often see payback measured in days.

How is this different from a generic SaaS ROI calculator?+

Generic ROI calculators take productivity multipliers from market research. This one is calibrated to print-industry data: real estimating times, real quote volumes, real win rates from real customers running on the platform today.

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