More and more businesses are recognising the importance of working with a print management company to streamline their print processes. After five years of cost cutting, many companies have been left without print specialists and the print tasks instead fall on the shoulders of other employees, without in-depth print knowledge. This leads to inefficient and costly print decisions. Print management companies solve this problem for businesses, providing expert print services and fulfilment in order to secure significant print savings. Many companies are unaware of the sheer scale of the savings they can achieve. This is why we offer a free print inspection, where we visit your business and examine every area of print and how you manage it. We’ll ask you plenty of questions, but it’s also the perfect opportunity to ask us a few questions, too…
#1: How will we communicate?
One of the main reasons businesses turn to outside help for print is because their current print infrastructure is a mess of different devices, systems and suppliers. Communication with different print suppliers is a hassle, and as there is rarely a print specialist on the company’s payroll, other employees lack the time (or knowledge) to secure the best deals on print. A good print management company should provide you with a single contact to manage your company’s print. They should be able to fully explain the procedures that take place every time your company requires a new print job or needs urgent changes to planned jobs. If the print management company is unable to offer you details of how these processes work, it’s a definite cause for concern.
#2: How will this relationship work in the long-term?
If you’re a business with ambitious expansion plans, your print needs will be changing rapidly. Your local print management company may be able to cater for your present needs, but what about in several years time? You need to be sure that your print management company will be able to adapt to meet your growing print needs, without having to switch to another company. It’s important to discuss how you envisage your print requirements changing in both the short term and the long term. The company should be able to explain how their processes scale with your growth, and how the print companies they work with are able to fulfil large print jobs.
#3: How quickly can you fulfil and deliver jobs?
On some occasions, the company will face print emergencies and require printed material with only days notice. A print management company should be able to fulfil these jobs in a similar way to any other. If you don’t have confidence in the ability of your print management company to manage these last-minute print jobs, you’ll end up resorting to printing them yourselves or bypassing the print management company to speak to suppliers. Either situation will be costly for your company. Use the print inspection to ask the print management company how they handle these urgent print runs.
#4: What else can you help with?
Today’s print management companies take on varying roles. As well as securing you savings on print, some companies will act in a consultancy role, making suggestions on how to cut print costs – even as far back as the design stage. Decide on the amount of assistance you’d like from your print management company, remembering that they’ll be able to secure you even greater savings if you allow them to provide suggestions from the design stage onwards.
#5: How much can you save me?
This is perhaps the most important question of them all. At the end of our print inspection, we’ll be open about the savings we can secure for your company – both in the short-term and further down the line. If you’d like to find this figure out, book a free print inspection with PMG Print Management. We’re a print management company in Leeds who’ve been in the game for over a decade. Give us a call.
