How do you choose the right printing company?

Confronted with so many potential suppliers how do you decide which printing company to choose for your print requirements or how do you outsource your payslip printing?

How do you find the right service provider when there are so many to choose from?

Which one do you select and what selection criteria do you employ?

Until recently, companies did not pay much attention to the way they reviewed their print strategies and requirements. Little or no consideration for cost was given to the various print devices, paper, supplies, general print and consumables being ordered on a daily basis.

All that changed with the onset of the financial crisis.

Companies are more aware of the need to review their print requirements.

The biggest problem is that company executives or department heads have no idea how much it is really costing them to process, print and mail out a plethora of items each week.

They have no idea of the overall cost of their print bill, the quantity of supplies they get through in a week, the number of suppliers they are using and the time spent resolving hardware problems.

Money is wasted by the continued use of unnecessary devices, obsolete hardware, staff spending time on print and I.T issues resulting in hours being lost to dealing with different vendors and suppliers.

Many companies are now appreciating the benefit of an outsourced print service reducing the complexity of managing various suppliers and spiralling in-house costs and managing print and distribution in-house.

Outsourcing print whether to a print management services company see here or by adopting a managed print service here requires knowledge and understanding of what your organisation is trying to achieve.

Too often buyers focus on one thing only and that is PRICE.

Unfortunately choosing on price alone results in the customer being dissatisfied with the quality, service or the end product.

Price should not be the only consideration when evaluating suppliers and/or vendors.

“We are buying on price only” or “we want the cheapest solution” are typical of the current climate.

The buyer can not expect a great quality product or service if he/she is buying on price alone.

To then add value to a service or product so the customer benefits becomes an impossible task.

Most companies don’t want the hassle of sourcing suppliers to manage their print, payroll or billing few know where to start looking or what considerations need to be taken into account when outsourcing.

Print is the end product – from printed payslips and invoices, cheques, direct mail to the use of MFPD’s multi-functional print devices managed in-house, all deliver paper in some shape or format and not many companies are equipped to research and employ print services that will save them money.

What is happening in the market place?

It is a print buyers haven, assuming they have the knowledge to purchase print or skills to outsource the required business function.

Print management companies, print suppliers/consumables, vendors and manufacturers are desperate to win work at any cost and the buyer can get what they want at a price they are prepared to pay.

Companies seeking these services are going to market lacking the skills required to source the right partner to work with.

20 point checklist of tips to think about before choosing your print supplier

Before you even consider the following list you need to think about the services you require?

Have an approval criteria or list of what you are looking for notably:-

Are you wanting to outsource all your corporate print from letter-headings to billing and payslip printing? (Print Management)

Are you looking to reduce the number of print devices and print in-house (Managed Print Services)

Are you looking to reduce the cost of one specific area of print such as your billing or cheque and payment processing?

Once you know what it is you are trying to achieve then the following list will provide a useful guideline, it is by no means complete or exhaustive.

1. Choose a company that can offer innovative solutions capable of adapting to your business environment.

2. That can/will provide ongoing support, consultation and recommendations that take into account your evolving business needs.

3. That has a complete solution for your requirements i.e if you are outsourcing your payslip printing you might want to adopt multi-channel distribution that includes printing and sending them electronically.

4. Offers best in class service and delivery, experienced personnel, good operational processes and protocols particularly if you are outsourcing cheque printing. 

5. Check the quality of the work – what do they do, what is their niche and how will they deliver the service to you.

6. Technically competent – will the incumbent supplier be able to deliver what they say they can?

7. Is the proposed supplier financially stable?

8. Is the supplier reliable – will they fulfil/deliver the product/service in a timely manner?

9. Are they enthusiastic – can they demonstrate the extent of their knowledge of the product or service they are proposing?

10. Does the structure of the company indicate reliability and longevity in other words they aren’t going to disappear in 6 months time.

11. Do they have experienced personnel capable of advising beyond printing for example print management companies do more than just manage your print they are multi-channel partners they can provide expertise on direct marketing, SMS, data management, social media and promotional gift items.

12. Do ask for case studies and testimonials from current customers to authenticate the suppliers statements.

13. Don’t make your decision solely on price – cheap prices mean inferior quality and service.

14. Ask as many questions as possible no matter how trivial to ensure you are confident in the future service.

15. Establish what other services the supplier can provide this is useful for any future business/company developments you might have. For example they might provide direct marketing print and design capability or can advise you on your social media marketing strategy.

16. Visit the site or manufacturing premises – is it secure if printing cheques and payslips? If it’s a managed print solution ask to visit a managed site to establish how it works or request a reference site to discuss how the company are benefiting from MPS (managed print service)

17. Check the reputation of the supplier – ask for a client list and check the website what do they talk about, what services are they advertising?

18. Ask for a trial run for example can the print company offer to print some basic items free of charge? If it’s an outsource service such as payslip printing ask the supplier if they are able to take a data file and provide a print out for a minimum fee so you experience the service first hand.

19. Use social media to see how your supplier engages with its audience. Do they offer expert advice and help in the form of great content, are they on all the social media networks?

20. Be loyal to your print provider or outsource partner. Once you have found the right printing company or partner keep them. Having a good relationship will ensure you can look to them for all manner of printed or outsourced information and advice and in turn they are more likely to offer you discounts, give you a first class service and provide additional services.

Are there any criteria you would use in addition to the above?

How did you find your print partner and how successful has the relationship been?

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Will 3D printing change the world we live in?

If anyone was in any way uncertain of 3D printing, they probably aren’t now.

The world’s first gun made with 3D printer technology was made available on line and within hours its blueprints had been downloaded over 100,000 times. [Source: Forbes]

The controversy and security surrounding the production of the 3D gun made by a Texan based company I’m sure will be deliberated long in to the month of May.

But what many people don’t know is “what is 3D printing?”

What is 3D printing?

Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. 3D printing is achieved using an additive process where successive layers of material are laid down until the entire object is complete. [Source: wikipedia]

Imagine a gateau cake, instead of the customary 3 layers, each layer would be laid down systematically one at a time until the gateau is formed and looks like a gateau. In a nutshell that is 3D printing.

How does it work?

A 3D printed object starts with a digital computer aided design or CAD for short created using a 3D modelling program or scanned into a 3D modelling program using a 3D scanner.

The software program preps the digital file by slicing the design into hundreds or even thousands of horizontal layers and provides instructions in 3D printer language so that the printer can read the file to create each layer identically to the specification of the object required. As each layer is created they blend together with no visible layering creating a three dimensional object.

Will 3D printing become mainstream?

Many people have yet to hear or understand what 3D printing is and what it is capable of creating. Yet despite its seemingly newness to the world of media and print, the process associated with 3D printing has been around for decades.

Manufacturers have used the printers in the design process to create prototypes in traditional manufacturing.

3D started initially in the aerospace and automotive industry making prototypes and more recently its been coveted by surgeons for replacement bones. Some companies are using 3D printers for short run or custom manufacturing of bespoke objects.

Fast 3D printers costing thousands aren’t quite mainstream yet but with technological improvements it will get faster and become readily available as the price of 3D printers goes down.

The technology certainly has the capacity to affect industry and our personal lives.

Medicine is already making advances in bioprinters capable of reproducing human tissue for pharmaceutical testing its far reaching developments have already lead to entire organs and bones being reconstructed.

Research director at Gartner Pete Basiliere said” 3D printing is a technology accelerating to mainstream adoption. The hype leads many people to think the technology is some years away, when it is available now and affordable to most organisations. In three years a high quality 3D printer could got less than £1,500.00″.

3D printing can create any object in 3D, from replacement body parts to a pair of shoes.

But who will want to own a 3D printer and what do you intend to make with it?

Is 3D printing likely to be available from high street copy shops and is that where the public will go if they need a new door knob or a washing machine part? Taking a downloaded file of the object that you require to be 3D printed and call in to your local copy shop to get the replacement part?

The implications for this technology are far reaching. More importantly what are the limitations to what can be made using 3D technology? After all if a company can manufacture a blueprint design for a gun could the next thing be a WMD (weapon of mass destruction)?

Its likely to be a good ten maybe even twenty years before we see home ownership of 3D printers on a mass scale.

Even if you make your own replacement gizmo you still need the means to fit the part. Take a ball cock if you’re not a plumber you might find it difficult to fit it without the expertise of a plumber.

3D printing will have to become a technology that will enhance our home place and improve it, in much the same way as tablets and smart phones that have and still do fulfil a human need, 3D printing will have to offer the consumer something we don’t have presently.

And I dont see myself anytime soon becoming a purveyor of objects and figurines for my home.

Old mobile phones. But look how technology has moved on in just 5 years.

It is undoubtedly a technology capable of creating useful objects but the technology has future ramifications that are likely to be far reaching and as yet unknown with potential effects on the environment, waste and energy use.

Like any new technology if there is consumer need then this will drive it’s momentum and its use.

The introduction and mainstream use of such a technology when the consumer is ready for it will change the world as we know it and then we will wonder how we ever managed with out it in our lives.

Remember this?

As did the mobile phone and the VCR!

What do you think? A technology that society will benefit from or another fad?

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Integrated print management software ensures printed documents are secure and remain confidential.

Secure printing for any organisation is vitally important where sensitive information is concerned. Using secure print tracking software is essential in maintaining an organisations credibility.

Any breaches of the Data Protection Act of 1998 can lead to fines issued by the ICO (Information Commissioners Office).

Professional services companies and local government organisations are particularly susceptible where client data is concerned.

The days when reams of paper were left discarded at the printer should be long gone; leaving confidential information for anyone to pick up and read is careless in today’s office environment.

Sensitivity of data is paramount particularly in departments of local government such as childrens’ services who deal with sensitive data on a day to day basis.

Implementing a secure print management solution and secure network printing ensures that only the person who prints the information can collect and view it using user authentication.

Case study

For one City Council this proved to have a serious effect on the department and yet the situation could easily have been avoided. Two case workers who work with vulnerable children, printed reports to a shared network printer with no secure print software in place.

The first case worker was trying to print a report on child A but the device failed to print, the case worker left with the print job still in the print queue.

The second case worker then went to print a report on child B from the same device by which time the first case workers report had actually printed.

Both prints outs were collected by the second case worker who mistakenly and unknowingly picked up papers relating to child A.

As a consequence of this, the mother of child B was sent personal details of both child A and child B. This was reported to the ICO and the city council.

The mother of child A was also contacted by mother of child B and advised of this breach in confidentiality.

This incident happened because of human error; it wasn’t done intentionally but in this instance it caused embarrassment to the council. The incident was further compounded by the lack of secure print management software. The printing and despatch of sensitive data to clients did not include adequate checks.

Steps taken

As a direct result of the mis-management of information the council installed a new printing procedure requiring staff to enter an ID at the device before their documents can be printed and released.

Any documents which are not printed within twelve hours are auto-deleted from the print queue. This removes any unwanted print jobs from the system.

“Integrated print management software ensures printed documents are secure and remain confidential” 

Setting up print management software that networks printers and MFPs (multi-functional printers) is the the most effective way for safe guarding against print mis-management which can potentially lead to data protection breaches.

Print tracking software saves time and money and is the easiest way of avoiding data protection breaches.

Benefits of print management software

1. User authentication before the print job starts means that only authorised people can collect their finished print jobs
2. By enforcing print rules, print jobs can be allocated to the most economical and efficient printer
3. There is a potential print saving of up to 30% on print costs
4. With an effective print management tracking solution in place, printed jobs are only printed when authorised reducing paper wastage and complementing a greener office policy

If you require more information on how setting up a secure print management solution or print tracking software can help your organisation save money, enhance confidentiality and reduce print costs then contact Digital Print Management on: 01234-271156.

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I recently wrote about the differences between managing your print in-house V outsourcing/print management.

Here! Two similar sounding models yet distinctly different!

In the article, I refer to the management of print in-house often referred to as MPS (Managed Print Services)

The lines become easily blurred when talking about print management and MPS?

Many businesses don’t really understand or know the true cost of printing and often there is no method employed to manage and control print spend.

How can you take control of this seemingly mundane yet essential everyday business function?

Take Control of your print NOW!!

Why implement an in-house print management  system?

Simple!

1. To manage and recover costs
2. Be able to print anywhere but with the right control mechanisms in place
3. Reduce paper waste
4. Increase productivity
5. Reduce adminstrative costs
6. Improve profitability by removing the hidden cost of printing and making it visible

How does it work?

Take control of your printed output!

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Most companies have the option to insource or outsource their document printing and manage document flow thereby managing print costs.

Print management software helps companies gain control and management of their printing to reduce costs, increase document security by automatically enforcing printing rules, authenticating users and identifying and allocating document costs.

I’ve exemplified the benefits that can be had by outsourcing documents and demonstrated effective ways where organisations can save money.

But, what if an organisation can’t or simply wont outsource these business processes due to system limitations or compliance to a specific process and or system?

Like every story there are always two sides.

What can a company do to ensure its paper flow is…

kept flowing?

Implementing a strategic print management software application can ensure you automatically control and manage how print flows through your organisation satisfying three primary objectives:

• improve productivity
• maximise time
• reduce paper

Using a print management application with effective print controls automates and optimises the way print moves around a building. Setting specific print controls and denying users printing from certain open applications such as email and automatically re-routing that task to the most cost effective printer such as a mono printer rather than an ink guzzling colour cartridge printer can help drive down the print costs for a company.

Industry analysts estimate that over 44% of printing is unncessary. We print things more than once, instead of selecting the pages we print which might only be one page we end up hitting the “print all” button.

Wasted paper, consumables, escalating electricity bills are the hidden costs behind unnecessary printing therefore opting for print management software helps companies regain control and management of their printing to reduce costs and increase productivity. 

By measuring, monitoring and managing print activity, print management software provides a way for companies to gain a clearer picture of a company’s printing needs and then enables the effective deployment of equipment to meet those needs without spending capital on printing technologies that are either inappropriate for the tasks required or are so costly that the ROI will take years.

The deployment of print management software tools within an organisation helps employees become more aware of their printing habits, provides tools to enforce print policies by re-routing print jobs to cheaper printers, reduce print/copy costs, improve document security on the network and eliminate waste and inefficiencies within an enterprise.

What exactly does a managed print service do for a company?

• An MPS (Managed Print service) tracks print, copy and scan activity company wide
• Allocate document costs to a department or office
• Set and enforce print/copy quotas to prevent paper waste
• Makes printing easy and convenient and more secure
• Re-direct print jobs to more cost effective devices
• Reporting functionality which enables a company to keep print costs down

Deploying a cost effective print managed service can save a company money if implemented in the right way.

What do you do to keep print costs down?

What strategies have you employed to reduce the amount of paper that flows through your company?

Let me know what has worked and what hasn’t?

If your company is slowly going under paper then call us to discuss your requirements.

In the first instance we will do a print audit  free of charge.

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A managed outsource printing service = savings for your business

Easy really, the majority of businesses don’t have a clue how much they actually spend on corporate print such as letter-headings, invoices, paper, consumables in fact, anything print related. This is because there is no methodology to managing the process from purchasing, stocking and re-ordering.

A print management company can provide a fully automated and customised print management service which will help measure and control your printing costs.

The first step in the process is understanding how much your current spend is on print this is achieved by carrying out a print audit of the various documents used by the business.

A print management company seeks to understand why and how documents are used, what the order cycle is and whom the suppliers are? From the information gleaned determines the total print spend!

A project manager oversees the whole process from start to finish culminating in a proposal detailing current print costs V cost savings on the various print items ordered.

Emphasis will be to demonstrate cost savings through efficiency driven processes.

Each quarter, a review of the usage of the various items is undertaken to see where further cost savings can be made. Managing your company print, usage and spend should be an on-going process of analysis and review.

Managed Print Services is at the other end of the spectrum to print management and enables companies to manage the flow of print in an organisation.

Equitrac print management allows you to automatically control and manage how print flows through your organisation – improving productivity and maximising time.

Using print management software organisations are able to set up automated print controls and rules to optimise the way print moves around the company.  Employees can be denied printing certain applications such as email by automatically routing jobs to the most cost-effective printer for that task.

For example a solid ink colour device is more cost effective to print obligatory emails and letters rather than a colour-cartridge-guzzling desktop printer for colour runs, colour print can be prevented altogether unless user authorised.

Industry analysts estimate that 44% of printing is unnecessary

• People are printing things more than once which is wasting huge amounts of money
• They may send a document to print, then notice an error on screen
• A document is not at the printer when they go to retrieve it
• The toner is low or there is a paper jam

This results in wasted paper, consumables and larger electricity bills. Print management software enable a more efficient, leaner and greener print environment.

What do you think? Have you implemented one or both solutions? How have they worked for you? Please do share your success or disaster stories.

To learn more about how you can regain control of your office printing costs, contact us today.

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Managed print services allows user authentication,reduces print/copy costs and reduces paper waste.

Installing a managed print service solution offers substantial cost savings by re-routing and managing the amount of paper and printing processed in your office.

One of the frustrating challenges for organisations is reducing the volume of print and paper processing.

The management of paper, print and print devices cost money but often overlooked because they are seen as essential for modern-day offices and not perceived as a true cost reflected on the bottom line.

Recycling paper, implementing a duplex print strategy (printing both sides) or using recycled paper as part of a company’s drive to go green won’t save a company money in the long term.

Dispensing with mountains of paper often secure or confidential information requires the services of a secure disposal company but that all adds to the costs of managing your paper flow.

Many companies believe that office print is necessary and stockpile paper, re-print if there is an error on the printer or PC without any consideration for the environment or the cost implications to the company.

When an organisation analyses when, where and how often paper is used and what the re-ordering frequency is, do the printing costs then become visible?

Implementing a managed print service strategy does help reduce print costs, removes unwanted printing and enforces print rules such as using black rather than colour or simplex/duplex printing.

Companies are overburdened with many print devices – desktop printers, scanners, photocopiers with employees territorial and protective of their printers.

Cost reductions are achievable with a reduction of 3:1 by implementing modern MPS (managed print services) and MFPD’s (multi-functional print devices).

Include sizeable reductions in consumables used across an organisation and the cost savings are evident.

With a mobile workforce, employees want to be able to print anytime and anywhere.

One critical issue that halts the adoption of MPS is security.

Securely printed information runs the risk of being visible to prying eyes without MPS implementation and the management of how and when printed documents are managed in the paper flow is critical.

Secure print tracking software eliminates confidential information being left on the printer.

• How do you prevent wasting paper prints?
• How do you keep printer consumable costs down?
• What happens to unclaimed documents?
• How do you print off secure documents without a desktop printer?

By removing the need to rely on a single printer, users are able to divert their print jobs to the most cost-efficient printer and not have to worry about a device being out of service or having to wait for I.T. to resolve the problem.

Using secure print technology with user authentication ensures that the right device is selected, when it is printed and by whom as the print job can only be released when the user authenticates the print job at the device.

A secure document release application and secure print tracking software encourages user mobility, minimises paper waste and protects personal information and customer confidentiality.

Intelligent print rules and routing software removes the burden of the user to decide which printer is best for each job because when the user hits “print” a window pops into view advising the user which printer and what the cost is for the printing of the job.

Implementing an MPS solution will save you time and money in the long term and there are some easy to implement solutions that can be put in to practice without delay in addition to utilising a managed print services solution:

Managed print services reduce print costs, removes unwanted printing and enforces print rules

1. Duplex (double-sided) printing get more out of each of the pages you print, print the odd pages first by setting your printer and then print the even pages thus reducing the number of sheets you use; particularly useful for when you want to print notes.
2. Print using a smaller font/typeface – as long as you can read you will find more content will fit onto an A4 sheet.
3. Check before you print – the print preview button ensures you see what you are printing. Changing the margins or scaling the document ensures you optimise the whole sheet for printing.
4. Print only the pages you need – using the print preview button you only print the pages you want. In the print dialog box enter the page ranges required.
5. You can adjust your page settings by reducing the header and footer and left/right margins enabling you to fit more content onto the page reducing the number of pages printed.
6. Print multiple pages onto a single sheet of paper using font size 12 which tends to be the default setting, the document is still legible.

Finally, you can significantly reduce your print costs by working with a print management specialist who will evaluate your print requirements and understand your MPS requirements.

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