From the Editor: Uninformed Outsourcing

IT’S HAPPENED far too many times. An in-plant proves it is more cost effective than outside printers, yet one or two executives are still convinced the organization can save money by outsourcing. This misfortune befell one university in-plant manager in the U.K. not long ago. Though he collected benchmarking data proving his in-plant’s cost effectiveness compared with commercial shops, his executive board simply could not believe his figures (though they had none of their own). They were intent on outsourcing. Why? They had heard that outsourcing printing was the trend in higher-ed, and that outsourcing saves money.