Beyond the In-house Print Shop: Creating More Sophisticated Documents that Bring Your Brand to Life

This article, the fourth and final in a series, is designed to provide you with an overview of the issues and costs associated with enterprise document management. Parts one, two and three are available for your review.

Most manufacturers look to external vendors to print their marketing collateral—those documents aimed at generating leads and enticing prospective customers to take action—as well as complex “in the box” literature. This externally-sourced printing has historically been the domain of traditional offset printing. However, over recent years, it has evolved to include a variety of high-end digital printing systems as well.

Manufacturers often work with external printers because the nature of their documents requires sophisticated set-up, high-quality color, paper or customized finishing. Building this capability in-house is expensive and dependent upon specialized staffing and expertise.

Virtually all businesses rely on commercially-printed materials as the primary medium for important business communications, including marketing brochures, promotional materials, direct mail, annual reports, product and user manuals, and other in the box literature. These documents require longer turnaround times—generally days or weeks—and range from moderate to very high volumes. Analysts estimate that U.S. companies spend approximately $100 billion annually on externally-procured printing.

Trends in External Printing
In recent years, multiple trends have developed within the external printing industry, the first of which is flat utilization. Unlike rising desktop printing trends or declining in-house printing, demand for external printing has remained relatively flat. As a result, print-for-pay providers are constantly looking for ways to increase revenue by bringing in new customers and by offering expanded services to existing clients.

Digital printing of these materials that were formerly printed via offset is also on the rise. While digital color printing has been around for a while, manufacturing marketing departments are still early in the adoption curve. Many are just now accepting the quality of digital color as an alternative to offset printing.

Another trend is document personalization which capitalizes on knowledge collected about customer preferences to rise above the noise of competitive messages. Manufacturers are eager to leverage investments in Customer Relationship Management tools by using data to create highly personalized documents. External print providers are eager to provide this digital printing service.

Finally, the establishment of long-term relationships with manufacturers by commercial printers continues to be commonplace. While these local relationships can be vital partnerships, they can distract from more cost-effective print sources, such as national printers who may be willing to provide value pricing when they have excess capacity on their printing presses.

The Current State of External Print
Due to the overwhelming number of providers, most manufacturers view external printing as a commodity. Often using a three-bid approach, buyers get comfortable with familiar providers and become complacent in the comfort of those local relationships. At the mercy of buyer habits, users often do not have enough information to make a good decision.

There is also a heavy focus on cost per job. Manufacturers may aggressively bid jobs or use reverse print auctions without taking into account best practices or their ability to leverage the buying power of their entire enterprise. A cost-per-job orientation appears cost effective, but additional expenses often result from change orders and rework.

The enterprise process is often overlooked as well. By focusing only on the most inexpensive channel for procuring print, manufacturers miss a substantial opportunity for process improvements enterprise-wide. Operating in isolation, or in a fragmented way, print buyers overlook the broader application and options available to the entire enterprise.

What the Future Holds for External Print
As the previously outlined trends continue, several developments are expected to pan out in external print. First, print is expected to be viewed as custom manufacturing. With advancing capabilities in desktop printing and correctly-aligned usage of centralized printing resources, manufacturers will regard external printing as a specialized resource responsible for “custom manufacturing” of high volume and high impact documents.

There will be a competitive market for each job. Rather than rely on local or convenient external print sources, manufacturers will extend their reach to national providers via digital job submission and proofing. Best practices will be leveraged to provide advanced production capabilities while ensuring competitive pricing for each job.

Growing costs and pressure to save time and money will lead to a greater focus on the supply chain. Optimizing the supply chain offers as much savings as sourcing excellence. Manufacturers that improve process controls, design for manufacturability and embrace just-in-time delivery will minimize document inventories, out-of-date materials and waste.

There will also be a greater focus on cost per response. When it is no longer viewed as a commodity, the expense of external print will be measured by the cost per response, rather than per piece or by job. Total print supply chain life cycle costs are factored into the benefit analysis of externally-sourced printing.

Finally, to create low-cost and high-value documents, external printers are becoming advocates for personalized communications. With selective data mining, thoughtful document composition and digital printing technology, providers can produce documents that command dramatically improved response to marketing communications.

Enterprise Document Management and Your Company
With this look into external printing, along with insight offered throughout this series, you can agree that enterprise document management is certainly an area that needs to be addressed if your company wants to attain cost savings and better profitability. For more information on managing print in your enterprise, contact us today.