Print management: managed delivery just as important

When considering print management as a solution, organisations tend to focus on the Procurement aspect of the solution: the system itself and the savings it can bring. Consequently, a Print Management supplier is often assessed on the quality, functionality, user-interface and reporting capability of the system that it is using.

However, while Procurement is an important aspect, another leg on which a great Print Management service stands is ‘managed delivery’, Trevor Bennett, Divisional Managing Director of Outsourced Communications for Integrated Communications Agency, Ince tells SmartProcurement.

“The success of both of these aspects depends on the people that are managing the process, their experience, rather than the system that underpins the solution,” says Bennett.

Procurement in terms of quality and price, which enables organisations to achieve savings through consolidating their print spend through a print management company, is only half a print managed solution. The other half is to make sure that quality levels and deadlines are met every time without compromise through managed delivery.

“Managed delivery is what will get organisational buy-in to a single managed service,” explains Bennett.

What point is there to a well executed purchase which saves money if the deadline is missed? Failing to deliver on time would undermine the print managed solution and as a result Procurement Managers may experience a resistance to the new system and departments’ refusing to participate in a so-called ‘managed solution’.

“A system does not help deliver to a print deadline, which is why Marketing Departments are skeptical of print management solutions,” says Bennett.

Print management companies must have a dedicated team of production managers that ensure that quality criteria and deadlines are met. It must be a proactive approach to managed delivery, not an after-the-event-when-no-one-can-do-anything-about-it approach.

Project plans should be created for every project, with contingencies ready and quality checks in place throughout the process. This will ensure that the single managed service is successful and becomes trusted by the various departments that will utilise the service.

“Print is usually procured out of relationship, which is one reason why extensive savings can be achieved. A print management company must earn the same relationship of trust with the client. This trust is developed out of delivery and not through system,” concludes Bennett.

For more information on managed delivery in Print managed solutions, contact Trevor Bennett on trevorb@ince.co.za.

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