Business Management - In-plant Justification

How do you know your print shop is not doing a good job? What we’re really talking about here are perceptions, that is, what do your customers and the managers in your organization think about you? Are you the guys they think of first—the "go-to" guys—or is your shop just someplace people have to go? There’s a big difference.

WE LIVE in a multi-channel world where print is just one component of customer communications. As an in-plant printer in difficult economic times, you should consider how you can provide additional value to your organization. This may be through mailing and fulfillment services or a greater focus on applications that go into the mail stream—like direct mail, transaction and transpromo—using a personalized (1:1) communications strategy.

All too often we—in-plant managers—put our heads in the sand and hide from management. Here are two questions we should all be concerned about: "How do you know your print shop is doing a good job?" and "How do you know it’s not?"

In his many years as an in-plant manager, industry consultant Ray Chambers gained a lot of experience defending in-plants against outsourcing proposals. Now he'll be sharing that information with you in a new blog called "Management Counts." He'll cover management strategies and tools that will give you an edge when it comes time to defend your shop.

FEW INDUSTRY discussions are as contentious as the debate about how a large company or organization should handle its printing needs. It is often impacted by prevailing management trends that swing from owning equipment and managing the staff to using a facilities management (FM) service to hiring a company to outsource the printing. After working with many companies, we have seen each of these options work or fail in different circumstances.

In-plant print providers reported their biggest challenge was being viewed as a "must-have" function within their company. Other issues facing the group ranged from establishing new services, declining print budgets and meeting demand without sacrificing quality.

How does an in-plant remain strategically relevant?

AS WE plod through this recession, I keep hearing rumors of a growing interest in document outsourcing. Consultants say that facilities management firms are tripping over each other in a frenzied effort to convince companies to outsource their printing. With equipment purchases slowing, they say, vendors are encouraging their outsourcing divisions to get busy.

I WAS proofreading this issue, just getting to the end of John Sarantakos’ article on reporting to upper management, when I saw it. It was perfect. John had hit upon what is essentially the theme of this entire issue: “The best strategy is to become indispensable.”

JOHN CAMERON’S grimace slowly turned into a resigned smile. He had only worked at Central Piedmont Community College’s (CPCC) Campus Printing Center for five months, but he was already aware of how things were done at the in-plant. If there was any reasonable way to exceed customers’ expectations of the timeline or quality of their jobs, Campus Printing would do it. He looked again at the project that had crossed his desk that morning. It was 14 different files—a mishmash of PDFs, Word documents and PowerPoint presentations. The customer wanted that unruly mess melded into one book, of which she wanted 19—and oh, by the way, could she get them this afternoon?