How Important Should Price be in Choosing A Printer?
They argue that our parent organization should send its business to commercial printers because it’s CHEAPER, although there may be some legitimate debate on that point as well. Still, that’s the claim.
What I heard in this blog was validation of what a lot of us have been saying for years. If upper management followed the advice of this print broker, it would look past the price claims and think seriously about all of the other contributions (i.e. features) in-plants are expected to provide, but can’t charge for. Things like catching mistakes that might embarrass the organization if printed and distributed or, even worse, cause an expensive re-run. Or making decisions that line up with the parent organization’s mission, vision, goals and values. Or protecting the brand. Or helping designers plan a mail piece that avoids postal penalties. Or helping customers set up a job. Or recommending a less expensive paper. Or...you get the idea. It’s what you do everyday.
Ray Chambers, CGCM, MBA, has invested over 30 years managing and directing printing plants, copy centers, mail centers and award-winning document management facilities in higher education and government.
Most recently, Chambers served as vice president and chief information officer at Juniata College. Chambers is currently a doctoral candidate studying Higher Education Administration at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU). His research interests include outsourcing in higher education and its impact on support services in higher education and managing support services. He also consults (Chambers Management Group) with leaders in both the public and private sectors to help them understand and improve in-plant printing and document services operations.
