Regardless of the industry, most companies have a wide variety of printing needs. For many, there is room for improvement in the creative and production processes. By examining your past efforts and approaching each stage of the process with an eye towards increased efficiency, you will be able to achieve better results and deliver print consistency. The examination and updating of print operations will help you to determine your total cost of ownership (TCO) which is the financial estimate that determines both the direct and indirect costs involved in your print operations.
In this article, we examine some of the challenges you’re likely facing when it comes to printing costs. We also share solutions that can solve those challenges and look at the results you can expect after your TCO analysis.
Challenges You’re Likely Facing in Your Print Operations
Let’s take a look at a scenario many companies face. A company decides it needs to outsource their print, fulfillment, and distribution operations due to a large increase in growth for their company. This growth is creating stress on their traditional print and mail processes which might impact customers looking for a more personalized experience.
Their current print operations include a number of one-off processes, multiple technical requirements, rising equipment upgrade costs, and high levels of manual implementation that are causing backups in the production process.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, keep reading to learn some common and successful solutions to these issues.
Common Solutions to Print Ops Challenges
By analyzing and reviewing your client communications process, you can easily identify improvements at every stage of the supply chain. Here is an approach that should deliver solutions that work for you:
● Evaluate both creative and design processes to identify gaps & inefficiencies
● Examine your internal and external production and delivery mechanisms
● Conduct an in-depth analysis of each business unit to identify areas of opportunity in their business communication needs
● Document a complete list of your operational workflows and stakeholder touchpoints
● Capture historical activity data, along with cost information and performance metrics, to support your internal operation analysis
● Capture billing, reporting, cost allocation, and invoicing requirements
● Devise and implement a technology roadmap that shows all applicable systems, data feeds, and user interfaces
● Evaluate and review direct and indirect labor costs to determine full activity costs
● Finally, calculate benchmarks for both total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI)
If you use historical activity data, and supplement it with extensive stakeholder interviews and opportunities across the operation, you will have the necessary support for a business case that demonstrates the overall benefits of updating your operations.
Common solutions include creating new templates and processes for recurring needs, eliminating unnecessary middlemen or approval stages, and even utilizing a portal to make the design and ordering process consistent, easy and more cost-effective.
What Can You Expect as a Result of Making These Improvements in Your Design/Print Process?
Here are the most common results you can expect to see after improving your print operations:
● Reduction in your print production cost
● Increased consistency across all printed collateral
● Print projects delivered on-time & within your budget every time
● Decrease in the staff training time on print processes
If your company is growing or feeling stress due to the complexity of your current print operations, you need to find a partner to help you evaluate, identify and implement new solutions for the rest of this year (and beyond). At ColorDynamics we can help you achieve those results.
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