Cost management expert Ian Kinnaird from Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) shares his views on how to get value for money from your stationery and marketing printing requirements. "It's amazing what you can achieve in reducing printing costs when the time is taken to review all aspects of this expense category. Obviously this is where the benefit of ERA specialisation achieves cost reduction results that a client would often find difficult to achieve."
Associate Gary Wilson concurs and adds that, "Very few companies are aware of the changes that continue to take place in the printing industry. These developments can reduce not only the time and effort involved in managing printed material but can also significantly reduce the annual costs associated with these products."
After working with a variety of clients who use a single supplier to those who work with in excess of 100 cost centres dealing with 800 sites, ERA recommend the following.
First you need to rationalise your forms to see if you can combine several items to achieve a common result. Then you need to look at more economical print production in terms of stock, number of colours used and the actual production method chosen.
Then it's over to the printing stage. And here, you need to remember that the price is volume sensitive so ideally you need to look at ways to either increase batch size or print same stock items together.
Finally, in an ideal situation if you are able to do the entire job with one supplier then it simplifies the ordering methods as well as the invoicing.
In order to achieve any of this you need to work with your staff to engender a sense of ownership. Often with the technology now available to facilitate orders staff need to be educated and others even deployed.
The review method is conducted with the stakeholders and covers everything from looking at new suppliers and the impact of this decision on artwork and film transfer to stock issues, account set up and contract negotiation. As well as ordering systems and methodology, ongoing stock levels, staff training and supplier liaison should not be overlooked.
