About us
We are a software company with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia with a team of engineers tactically located for global client coverage. Our team comes from the Print on Demand industry and we have deep understanding of the problem to be solved - because we have lived it. We know the stresses of machine down time, peak season, bad raw materials and brand expectations. It's that which drove the creation of ZenSmart.
Who are we?
Our team is made up of experienced software developers, designers, and project managers who work together to deliver outstanding efficiency and cost outcomes for our clients. We believe in open communication, and are committed to delivering the highest quality results.
Our mission
We have built print on demand automation solutions that have created a best practice capability and made a profound difference to some of the largest factories in the world. Our vision is to make this capability available to all print on demand sites, from photo to direct mail, apparel to merchandise – and sites large or small, without the big up front price tag. Your success will be our success
About us
Our story starts all the way back in 2006 when we founded a business called albumworks, (which continues trading today at albumworks.com.au and which we remain very proud of). We were one of the world’s first photobook brands borne from the first generation of HP Indigo digital presses.
Albumworks was a business in two halves, our own brand and a white label print on demand supplier. It grew ʻveryʼ quickly – both as a retail brand and a white label solution. We picked up contracts with 2 of the top 10 retailers in Australia, won a series of specialty retailers in stationery and camera retail plus equipment manufacturers such as Canon. We maintained those contracts for many years.
But with rapid growth came a challenge. How do you deliver to quality and SLA with a large product range, many finishing workflows and maintain ruthless control of your Cost of Goods when you are growing at a rate of knots? And to top it all off we had a fierce commitment to two concepts: Lifetime Customer Value
and Real Time Cost.
(A quick digression… our Lifetime Customer Value philosophy required that production be capable of adjusting to ʻspecialʼ levels of service for our Silver and Gold level customers. We did not care about any single order when it came to our high value, repeat orderers – it was the sum of the value that was pivotal and ensuring we got the rebuy. A commitment to Real Time Cost meant that we had to be able to see the true cost of the Order and be able to see it by slices of product code, product group and brand and combinations of those variables across time – thereʼs more about this philosophy in our Blog).
The only way we could deal with the sheer number of permutations that our manufacturing reality and business strategy created was by a very special piece of software. So we dialed up an IT team and built a piece of software, just for us. We internally referred to this platform as Zen – because that was the place we wanted to end up – truly understanding our production reality as we strove to achieve production calmness with a fierce focus on the bottom line.
We knew we had created something unique and which gave unique capability – unique in control over cost, unique in insight and unique in ability to personalize the customer experience. So, in 2020 we made the big call and threw out the hard coded, internal platform we had built and began building anew as a low code/no code, totally configurable, open systems platform with a beautiful user interface providing total automation from order to ship and every stage in between – we called it ZenSmart, and we took it out to the global market in late 2021.
Now 4 years later ZenSmart has developed into a platform that totally runs production in sites from half a dozen staff to hundreds and volume per annum ranging from thousands into the millions. We have taken our vision of efficiency and cost control and transformed our clients and have built a global team of wonderful people that delivers support around the clock.
But thatʼs only the starting point…
Andrew Smith
Founder
Melbourne, Australia – June 2025
Recent Posts
- 20 April, 2026
Find out how ZenSmart can create a smart, flexible manufacturing automation outcome for your business with big reduction to your costs.... or just get some advice!
Let's Talk 🙂
Whether you’re just exploring automation, looking for advice, or ready to book a ZenSmart appointment – we’re always up for a chat. Reach out and let’s talk.
Our Purpose
We have delivered print on demand automation solutions that have made a profound difference to some of the largest and most diverse factories in the world. Our vision is to make this capability available to all print on demand sites, from photo to merchandise, apparel to giftware – and sites from big to small, without the big up-front price tag. Your success will be our success.
Our details
Pictureworks Group Pty Ltd
ABN 28 119 011 933
trading as ZenSmart and ZenWorks LLC, a Delaware Corporation
Head Office:
Level 2 / 696 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
AUSTRALIA
sales@zensmart.ai
