10 tips for better print management

10 tips for better print management Print for any size of business is still in the top five of any overhead for any business in the country. As a growing print management company we see lots of the same mistakes being made regardless of industry or size.  So this top 10 has been written with those in mind and hopefully to demystify some of the print terminologies that some printers use to maximise their profits and empty your pockets. 1. Cost controls. Do you know of your prices are set for your print items? If your business is producing  multiple versions of the same items always get your prices set for a certain period on all quantities.  This will help you budget better and maintain consistency on your cost centres for a set period of time. 2. Volume controls. Do you actually know what your business is ordering in both frequency and volume? You’re not alone if you don’t. By pulling this information together will not only help you plan for campaigns, site costs and marketing expenses but it will give you the full picture to see where your costs are and where you can negotiate your buying power. 3. Control your artwork.  Is your artwork all in one place? do you have and brand controls formally written? This will help you and all others with the usage of your colours, fonts and logos keeping your business image in tact and recognisable to all that see your print materials. 4. What to allow your staff to personalise.  Just because our print management tools allow you and your users to create artwork from scratch doesn’t mean they will do a good job at putting it together.  Always restrict the item for the lowest common denominator that way it should be easiest  to get your print items looking their best. 5. Approve artwork customisations where needed.  This will simply maintain brand consistency and ensure your users are doing your controls justice.  It may even help with your training with the tools and planning the future print management item roll-outs. 6. Time your artwork roll-outs.  Planning your marketing or print item roll-outs to a network is critical. Make sure they are all aware on how the item should be customised or could be to get the best impact especially with marketing materials. 7. Uniform paper stocks. Part of your brand controls should contain at least the basics of print specs and preferred paper stocks for items that need consistency. 8. Control what people can see online. To aid all users why not restrict what each user can see when they sign in.  This will eliminate all confusion with any items they can order. 9. Always communicate timelines of print production. We see so many orders through our systems that are followed up with a phone call or email slightly panicked at the turnaround on some products.  Sadly the laws of physics still apply to the manufacturing process of all items so to ensure a launch is not missed or an exhibition is without the right marketing materials. 10. External supply chain management. More often than not we can buy third party materials cheaper and more efficiently through our own supply channels. So don’t be bashful or proud We are here to manage your print together so work with us to put the bigger picture together and let’s keep your print ordering moving forward without headaches. Now obviously we can’t speak for other print management companies but with CBF we know that we can deliver consistency to your brand on all print materials and deliver them when you need them.  Our machinery and processing power is hard to be matched so isn’t it time we talked.  ]]>