Outsourcing Threat: On Its Way Out?

"The threat of outsourcing is evolving."

That's how Consultant Howie Fenton put it on Tuesday when he addressed the In-plant Innovators Conference in Washington, D.C. Fenton, VP of Integrated Methods Group, spoke before a crowd of in-plant managers, consultants and vendors inside the Government Publishing Office, at an event organized by IPG.

In the past, Fenton observed, facilities management companies were quick to approach management with pitches to take over their in-plants. These days, however, there's not enough money for them in doing this, he said. Instead, these outsourcers now focus on the copier fleets at companies and organizations, looking for opportunities to take over both the fleets and the production print operations.

Howie Fenton, VP of Integrated Methods Group, addresses in-plants at the In-plant Innovators Conference in Washington, D.C.

This makes controlling the fleet an imperative for in-plants. It is, after all, a logical extension of what in-plant managers do best, he said.

Still, he pointed out, the document outsourcing market continues to grow in annual revenue. And in-plants continue to view justifying their operations and their technology investments as their top challenges.

Fenton also charted the decline of commercial and in-plant printing operations since 2005 and showed that in-plants have decreased at a slower rate than commercial printing operations.