Artwork Management

Why Growing Packaging Teams Are Stuck and How WebCenter Go Can Help

20 Jun 2025

Written by Shruti Ramanujam

Content Marketing Manager, Esko

Your inbox was never meant to be an artwork approval tool.

Neither was a shared drive, or a spreadsheet, or a Post-it on your desk.

Yet that’s where most growing packaging teams still manage critical packaging artwork today: across email threads, Slack messages, and disconnected files that are one wrong version away from disaster.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

We talk to FMCG brands every day who face the same bottlenecks. Their packaging needs are growing, their speed to market is shrinking, and their teams are stuck in tools that simply weren’t built for the complexity of modern packaging workflows.

Here’s the good news: you don’t need to buy an enterprise system that’s out of your budget to get out of this mess. But you do need a better system.

That’s exactly why we built WebCenter Go, a streamlined packaging management tool designed for fast-moving brands. It gives you just the features you need to get packaging right without the complexity of a full enterprise deployment.

Let’s unpack the problem and how WebCenter Go solves it.

The problem: Packaging Teams Drowning in Inefficiency

If you manage packaging for a small or mid-market FMCG brand, chances are your workflow looks something like this:

The marketing team requests an update to a product label.
The packaging designer emails the latest version to Regulatory Affairs for review.
Regulatory replies with edits in a PDF.
The designer makes changes and emails a new version to the brand team.
The brand team shares it with external partners (agencies, printers), who provide feedback in yet another round of PDFs and emails.
No one is quite sure which version is final, who approved what, or if the file is print-ready.

Sound exhausting? It is. And it carries real risks:

1. Errors Slipping Through to Print

Without a central system, you’ll almost certainly lose track of which version is final. All it takes is one outdated file to get sent to the printer.

2. Slow Approvals

Email-based reviews are hard to track and easy to miss. Approvals can drag on for weeks.

3. No Audit Trail

When you can’t easily show who approved what and when, you risk falling out of compliance.

4. Collaboration Breakdowns

Internal and external partners (agencies, printers, suppliers) operate in silos, leading to miscommunication and rework.

5. Tools that Don’t Fit Your Team

Many small brands look at enterprise artwork management solutions and realize they’re too complex, too expensive, or too IT-heavy for their needs. So, they stick with email and shared drives. At least until the next packaging error costs them dearly.

This is where WebCenter Go comes in.

The Solution: WebCenter Go

WebCenter Go was built specifically for packaging teams caught in this gap — too sophisticated to rely on email and spreadsheets but not looking to adopt a complex enterprise system.

It takes the proven foundation of WebCenter (trusted by the world’s largest brands) and delivers just what growing packaging teams need, in an easy-to-use, cloud-based package.

Let’s break it down.

1. Workflows that Match how you Actually Work

At its heart, WebCenter Go is a workflow engine for your packaging approvals.

You can easily set up approval flows with templates that match your team’s reality, whether that’s:

A simple 2-step brand + regulatory review.
A slightly more complex cross-functional flow with marketing, regulatory, NPD, and print vendors.
Different workflows for different packaging types (labels, cartons, sleeves).

Every stakeholder sees exactly what they need to review, when they need to review it, with no one chasing approvals via email.

2. Built-In Online Proofing

Say goodbye to static PDF markups.

WebCenter Go includes powerful online proofing tools that let you:

View artwork files in your browser (no plugins required).
Mark up files directly with comments, highlights, and annotations.
Compare versions in 3 different modes to spot artwork differences.
Run spell checks, color analyses, and other proofing tools to automatically catch errors before they go to print.

All feedback is captured in one place version by version, so there’s never any doubt about what has changed or why.

3. Full Version Control and Audit Trail

With WebCenter Go, there is one source of truth for every artwork file.

Every version is stored automatically (no more “final_final_v3.pdf” madness!)
You can always see who approved what, and when.
Built-in audit trails help you prove compliance with internal and external standards.

If your regulatory team has ever asked “can we show that this version was approved before it went to print?” WebCenter Go makes the answer a confident yes.

4. Compliance and Content Checks Made Simple

Packaging compliance is getting tougher and so is making sure what’s on your artwork matches what was actually approved.

WebCenter Go helps you stay on top of both:

Automated checks for allergens, claims, and other required text.
Automated content checks to verify that key content from your brief — claims, ingredients, legal copy, marketing text — is actually present on the artwork.
Customizable rulebooks to match your regulatory requirements.
Clear version history and approval records for audits.

5. Built for Fast-Moving Teams

One of the biggest advantages of WebCenter Go is that you’ll see value really fast. Its pre-built workflows and proofing tools work straight out of the box.

No IT required: You don’t need an IT department to maintain or customize it.
Intuitive UI: Designed so marketing, regulatory, and NPD teams can manage workflows without constant admin help.
Collaborate with external partners: Easily give controlled access to agencies, printers, and suppliers.

Now you might be wondering: I’ve heard of WebCenter. How exactly does WebCenter Go fit in?

How Does it Relate to WebCenter?

If you’re already a WebCenter customer, rest assured: nothing about WebCenter Go replaces or competes with it.

WebCenter remains the go-to solution for large, sophisticated packaging organizations, especially those with global operations and deep integration needs.

WebCenter Go is for a different audience: fast-moving brands scaling their packaging operations who want to get out of email-based approval chaos but don’t need enterprise-level configurability.

It’s built on the same foundation as WebCenter, but made for growing brands that need a simple way to manage approvals and stay compliant.

Who is WebCenter Go for?

We designed WebCenter Go with emerging FMCG brands in mind, especially teams who:

Need to move fast but can’t afford packaging errors.
Don’t have a dedicated packaging IT team.
Are on a budget and cannot deploy an enterprise system.

If you see your team on that list, WebCenter Go was built for you.

Ready to Simplify Your Packaging Workflow?

We’re launching WebCenter Go in a limited beta program, and we’d love to have you on board.

If you’re tired of drowning in email threads and missing critical approvals, this is your chance to modernize your packaging process without the weight of an enterprise system.

Join the waitlist here to get early access.

Your packaging team (and your inbox) will thank you.

About the Author

Shruti Ramanujam is a content leader who writes for SaaS, marketing, and packaging audiences. At Esko, she leads a Content Marketing team, balancing creativity and sharp storytelling with performance goals. When she’s not doing that or writing about herself in the third person, she’s reading fiction with no intent to optimize a thing.