Connected content-to-customer operations
How Cloudstore Works
One connected workflow from content and order intake to production, shipping and delivery. Cloudstore connects digital content, sales channels, Order Management, product configuration, production workflow, distributed print operations, shipping and fulfilment. Authorised stakeholders receive role-appropriate visibility of the orders, jobs, production stages, shipments, exceptions and delivery events relevant to them.
At a glance
The lifecycle at a glance
Five connected stages take an order from content and intake to delivery, with shared visibility throughout.
Content and sales channels
Digital assets are registered with rights rules and made available to ecommerce, web-to-print, retail, trade and API order sources.
Order Management and product preparation
Each order is validated, products and assets are associated and configured, and the production jobs required to fulfil it are created.
Workflow and distributed production
Jobs are prepared and routed to suitable, authorised destinations, then printed, finished and quality-checked.
Shipping and delivery
Connected shipping and carrier systems handle dispatch, labels and tracking, where supported and configured.
Shared visibility, reporting and royalties
Authorised stakeholders follow role-appropriate status throughout, while data, reporting and royalty records flow back to the platform.
The walk-through
Follow an order through the platform
Content and customer orders enter Cloudstore, Order Management creates and routes production jobs, connected shipping handles dispatch and delivery, and status returns to one consolidated order view. The schematic below steps through the sequence.
- Content and orders
- Cloudstore Order Management
- Production jobs
- Print production
- Shipping and tracking
- Customer delivery
- ↺ Shared status & exceptions return to one consolidated order view
A single parent order can become multiple order lines, which generate one or more production jobs — potentially at different production destinations — resulting in one or more shipments, all kept within one consolidated order view.
The complete operational lifecycle
From content registration to reporting, each step is connected and kept linked to the order it serves.
- Content registration
- Product and catalogue setup
- Order receipt
- Order validation
- Product configuration
- Production-job creation
- Workflow preparation
- Production routing
- Printing, finishing and quality control
- Packing and shipping integration
- Dispatch and delivery tracking
- Reporting, royalties and operational analysis
The central module
Order Management & Orchestration
Order Management is the heart of the platform. It receives orders from multiple channels, structures them as parent orders and order lines, associates products and assets, validates and approves them, and creates the production jobs required to fulfil them — handling dependencies, split production, multiple destinations, partial completion, multiple shipments, holds, cancellations, reprints and exceptions.
Cloudstore retains one consolidated order view even where fulfilment requires multiple production jobs, locations, packages or shipments.
- Multi-channel order intake
- Parent orders
- Order lines
- Product and asset association
- Validation
- Approvals
- Priority
- Due dates
- Job creation
- Job dependencies
- Split production
- Multiple destinations
- Partial completion
- Multiple shipments
- Holds
- Cancellations
- Reprints
- Exceptions
- Consolidated status
- Order history
Production
Production workflow and routing
Jobs are prepared, matched to capable destinations and routed by a range of factors, with rerouting where an exception requires it.
- Preflight
- Production preparation
- Capability matching
- Media and finishing requirements
- Capacity
- Location
- Rights restrictions
- Delivery requirements
- Due dates
- Manual intervention
- Rerouting after an exception
- Returned production status
Shipping
Shipping & Fulfilment Integration
Two-way connections with shipping and fulfilment systems carry data out and bring status back, where supported and configured.
Cloudstore connects, where supported and configured, with:
Data sent out
- Recipient information
- Package details
- Dimensions and weight where available
- Requested service
- Dispatch request
- Label request
- Customs data where applicable
- Order and job references
Status returned
- Shipping service
- Rate where supported
- Label
- Tracking number
- Collection status
- In-transit status
- Estimated delivery
- Out-for-delivery status
- Delivered status
- Delivery exception
- Return status
- Proof of delivery where supported
Update frequency varies by connected system. Cloudstore provides live or regularly updated status visibility rather than guaranteed real-time tracking on every integration.
Visibility
Full lifecycle visibility for every authorised stakeholder
Authorised stakeholders see the information relevant to their role — they do not all see the same information.
Across the lifecycle, Cloudstore relates the statuses that together describe where an order and its jobs have reached:
- Order status
- Job status
- Production status
- Approval status
- Quality status
- Packing status
- Shipment status
- Delivery status
- Exception status
- Usage and royalty records
Exceptions
Exception management
When something does not go to plan, the exception is surfaced and kept linked to the work it affects.
- Missing artwork
- Failed validation
- Rights conflict
- Approval hold
- Product-configuration problem
- Media unavailable
- Production destination unavailable
- Printer failure
- Production delay
- Quality-control failure
- Reprint required
- Packing problem
- Shipping delay
- Failed delivery
- Return
Each exception remains linked to its parent order, order line, production job, production facility, shipment and responsible stakeholder.
Surfacing an exception helps the right team act on it; not every exception is resolved automatically.
By role
Audience-specific views
How the same connected workflow appears to different authorised stakeholders.
Ecommerce operator
- Submits or receives
- Submits orders from one or more storefronts, with product, configuration and delivery details.
- Cloudstore coordinates
- Cloudstore validates each order, creates the production jobs and coordinates routing, dispatch and delivery.
- Status they see
- Sees consolidated order status, job progress, shipment and delivery status.
- Exceptions that matter
- Cares about validation failures, production delays and failed deliveries.
- Restricted from
- Does not see other operators’ commercial data or rights-holder royalty records.
Customer-service team
- Submits or receives
- Responds to customer enquiries about specific orders.
- Cloudstore coordinates
- Cloudstore presents the consolidated order view linking jobs, shipments and exceptions.
- Status they see
- Sees order, shipment and delivery status and any exceptions affecting the customer.
- Exceptions that matter
- Cares about delivery exceptions, returns and reprints.
- Restricted from
- Does not see production cost or royalty detail unless authorised.
Print service provider
- Submits or receives
- Receives assigned production jobs and updates their status.
- Cloudstore coordinates
- Cloudstore routes suitable jobs, tracks production status and surfaces production exceptions.
- Status they see
- Sees the jobs assigned to them, with the specifications and due dates needed to produce them.
- Exceptions that matter
- Cares about job specifications, due dates, quality-control failures and reprints.
- Restricted from
- Does not see end-customer commercial data or unrelated orders.
Rights owner or gallery
- Submits or receives
- Makes authorised content available for production under rights rules.
- Cloudstore coordinates
- Cloudstore enforces rights rules and records authorised production and usage.
- Status they see
- Sees authorised production activity, usage and royalty records according to permissions.
- Exceptions that matter
- Cares about rights conflicts and unauthorised-use prevention.
- Restricted from
- Does not see unrelated operators’ or partners’ commercial data.
Trade customer
- Submits or receives
- Places consolidated orders that may contain many lines.
- Cloudstore coordinates
- Cloudstore keeps one consolidated order view even across multiple jobs and shipments.
- Status they see
- Sees overall order progress and the status of each shipment.
- Exceptions that matter
- Cares about partial completion, multiple shipments and due dates.
- Restricted from
- Does not see facility-level production detail or royalty records.
Production manager
- Submits or receives
- Oversees production capacity and exception handling across facilities.
- Cloudstore coordinates
- Cloudstore allocates load, surfaces exceptions and supports rerouting where needed.
- Status they see
- Sees job and production status, capacity and exceptions across authorised facilities.
- Exceptions that matter
- Cares about capacity, production delays, destination availability and rerouting.
- Restricted from
- Does not see end-customer commercial data beyond what production requires.
Data
Data, reporting and royalties
The platform consolidates records across the lifecycle to support reporting and, where configured, costs and royalties.
- Order history
- Job history
- Production records
- Facility activity
- Shipping and tracking records
- Delivery events
- Exception history
- Usage records
- Production costs where configured
- Shipping costs where configured
- Royalties where configured
- Partner reporting
- Operational performance information
Bring content, orders, production and delivery into one connected workflow
Talk to us about connecting your content, commerce, production and fulfilment on the Cloudstore platform.