Solutions

Print Management Overview

POINT delivers technology enabled Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services and software solutions for print management that enable organizations to control costs and shorten the time to market for print media and direct mail projects that drive revenue, build brand, and inform customers.

Complexities of Print Management

In today’s competitive environment, companies must promote and differentiate their goods and services to be successful — and printed materials are a key component of this endeavor. Expenditures on certain types of print, such as direct mail, packaging, and point of sale are forecast to grow for the foreseeable future. These types of print are valuable for building brand and driving revenue; as such, numerous organizations within a company generate the demand for unique printed products -- yet the focus of these organizations is often on meeting quality and time-to-market objectives over cost savings.

The cost savings aspect of Print Management is frequently overlooked due to the fact that print spend is difficult to track and control because it’s often spread throughout many department budgets. Since a typical company spends up to 3 percent of its revenue on printed marketing materials the costs associated with managing print have increasingly come under scrutiny, especially on the heels of successful sourcing engagements for simple indirect goods.

In fact, many organizations spend 10 to 30 percent more than necessary on their printed materials due to limited knowledge of enterprise-wide spending and the inability to leverage spend volume. Mismanagement, manual processes, and redundancies further exacerbate the problem.

Costly Print Management Strategies

Companies have adopted different strategies to manage the print category, such as internal management, sole sourced contracts, or letting agencies manage print production and procurement. Each strategy has its own unique cost drivers.

  • Internal management of print production and procurement

Requires a significant investment in the requisite print domain expertise to effectively manage print production and procurement for cost control
Staff is hampered by the lack of visibility, and control, of the category spend throughout the print lifecycle
Incumbent technologies fail to promote supply chain participation with creative agencies or suppliers
Lacks the detailed reporting capabilities required to effectively regain control of the category

  • Sole source contracts

Pressure to reduce staffing has led many companies to enter into “sole source contracts” with large print suppliers
A company’s annual print requirements can be “rate carded” or priced via a “market basket.” As demand for print is generated, the specifications are passed to the vendor and priced according to the rate card
Sole source contracts often favor the print supplier – they get high asset utilization for print requirements that fit the rate card and can charge “at will” for the 20-35% of the remaining print jobs

  • Agency or broker management of print procurement

Most companies that outsource print production and procurement to agencies do so for convenience, not cost control
Companies typically pay mark-up on print of 17% or more or a hefty management fee
Agencies are free to use their own suppliers and have little or no incentive to drive lower prices
As large companies often work with many agencies, their ability to gain visibility across the enterprise is virtually impossible

The POINT Advantage

Built and delivered by a leading team of print production and procurement experts, POINT’s industry leading print management technology is used both as a software-based print management solution and as the technology component of a technology enabled print outsourcing service. POINT solutions for Print Procurement, Direct Mail Production and Government provide the ability to:

  • Transact print purchases using the most appropriate methodologies, including multiple bid, rate card and contract pricing, and reverse auctions
  • Develop, deploy and document best practice sourcing strategies, including product standardization, volume aggregation, and supplier qualification
  • Communicate key print project information with internal marketing and procurement staff and external suppliers such as agencies, printers and mailing facilities
  • Provide audit trail accountability of every transaction to ensure compliance with corporate procurement practices and other corporate compliance mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley
  • Define, track and report on procurement key performance indicator (KPI) and supplier service level agreement (SLA) metrics
  • Integrate print management processes and data with other enterprise ERP, procurement and marketing applications

POINT Print Management Solutions

POINT BPO services and software solutions allow companies to achieve significant savings and gain complete visibility and control of print expenditures. POINT Print Management solutions include:

  • Print Management Outsourcing
    Leverage technology enabled print outsourcing to effectively target and deliver verifiable print-related savings throughout the entire print supply chain.
  • Print Procurement Solution
    Manage all aspects of your print projects – from concept to completion – in one place and select the optimum purchasing strategy – RFEs, Contracts and Rate Cards - for the different product types you purchase.
  • Direct Mail Solution
    Streamline version, cell and specification management, track schedules and manage services procurement to allow for the timely delivery of more targeted direct mail while controlling costs.
  • Government Print Management Solution
    Automatic reconciliation of the GPO IPAC (Intra-governmental Payment and Collection system) files and integration of the print specific GPO SPA (Small Procurement Agreement) form into the Noosh procurement process.