Print Management Explained: Why Orange Spends $11m (£7m) On It
The multinational mobile phone company Orange is one of the biggest cell providers in the UK and Europe. Exactly like any other major brand, a lot of this awareness is down to their huge advertising budget that puts their name constantly in your mind. A large proportion of this advertising involves a huge proportion of physical printing of some kind. Included in this are flyer printing, booklets and pamphlets, consumer magazines, billboard posters and direct mail marketing materials. It’s pretty understandable that the likes of Orange would spend hundreds of millions on printing costs.
Yet according to a recent news story within the print industry, Orange in the UK also spends £7m every year on ‘print management‘. Not on the actual costs of printing; this is spent on a company to actually manage all their printing activities. It might seem a little OTT to spend this much on a third party service merely to oversee printing. Yet that thought wouldn’t last long if you understood what print management is capable of. Ultimately this is what it comes down to. Businesses who invest in a robust print management solution actually make cost savings as opposed to trying to deal with all their printing inhouse.
A large part of these savings comes down to reducing wastage. Every year, millions of dollars are lost forever in the ‘collateral damage’ caused by color calibration mistakes, messed up print jobs, typographical errors and the like. When you’re talking about large and complex print operations these are the kinds of things that frequently go wrong. Print management as a concept came about because businesses who relied on printed media needed to find a solution to these inefficiencies.
Aside from reducing waste, another thing print management is able to achieve is planning the logistics of all the varied print campaigns so that resources and time are used most efficiently. Print jobs and schedules are planned in scientific detail to reduce the cost associated with electricity use, overheads and purchase of unneccesary equipment. A classic example is when poorly managed campaigns lead to a maxing out of printers and equimpent during busy periods – if you plan ahead and spread out the jobs you can reduce significant overheads. This in turn can dramatically bring down the costs of printing. Ultimately this means you can print more and generate more return out of your print investment.
I know what you’re thinking – that’s all very well for Orange, but what about our company?. In the past decade the gains in digital printing technology have meant smaller scale print management solutions are possible for small to medium enterprises, meaning that the rest of us can enjoy the same kinds of cost savings the ‘big guys’ have been enjoying for years. Is your business taking advantage?