As you review last year and look forward at next year, are you looking for ideas that can help you drive more business? If the answer is yes, consider attending the webinar offered on 12/13/17 entitled “Seven Results Generating Ideas that Printers can Implement Today.” I will be one of three panelists on this webinar and each of us will be offering two ideas. One of the ideas I will be discussing is a trend in which leading in-plants are evolving from legacy in-plant strategies and acting more like commercial printers.
Arguably, the most overused management term for business basics is the “blocking and tackling” metaphor. Any time a person or business fails, it is said they didn’t perform the basics which in football is known as blocking and tackling the opponent. For years the “blocking and tackling” basics for in-plants focused on selling and satisfying the internal customers, offering traditional services such as design, printing, and mailing, cost-based pricing models, and trying to achieve a financial breakeven.
This, along with good customer service and efficient production is what I am starting to refer to a legacy in-plant strategy.
One of the greatest threats to in-plants are companies offering to outsource their products and services or to take over the management by offering a facilities management contract. To counter that threat, leading in-plants are innovative like their commercial printing cousins.
According to a survey (June 2016) published in In-Plant Graphics Magazine, 63.4% of in-plants accept work from outside their organization, a strategy known with the in-plant community insourcing. The successful use of an insourcing is also motivating some in-plants to hire sales people to help sell to both internal and external customers.
| Legacy In-Plant strategies | New & Innovative In-Plant Strategies | |
| Customers | Internal customers | Internal and external customers |
| Sales Staff | None | Sales staff |
| Services | Design, printing, and mailing | Large format, manage the fleet, scanning, printer procurement |
| Pricing | Cost based | Value or market based pricing |
| Financial model | Fully funded or charge back / financial break even | Profit center |
According to the PRIMIR 2016 study, “Digital Printing Technology’s Influence on the U.S. In-Plant Printing Market,” while design and printing remain the most important services offered today, many non-print services are growing:
- 55% offer scanning services for digital access,
- 54% provide external printer procurement, and
- 51% are managing the fleet of printers and copiers.
Two other important in-plant trends are changes from cost-based pricing to value or market-based pricing for products such as large format signage and a shift from fully-funded models to break-even and money making. If you’re interested in hearing more, please join Gina Testa, Jeanette McMurty, Joe Rickard and me for this 12/13 webinar: https://www.xerox.com/en-us/digital-printing/insights/printing-business-ideas
