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6 Things A Print Management Solution Must Have To Save You Time And Energy

Posted by Chris Higgins on Tue, Sep 23, 2014 @ 07:00 AM

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If you’re the marketing director for a company with multiple locations one of the biggest headaches you face is enforcing corporate identity and brand standards throughout your network of offices.

Invariably individual offices tend to do their own thing when it comes to marketing and collateral material. People in field offices often don’t know where to buy certain collateral, or the appropriate corporate identity standards for simple day to day items like business cards, envelopes, promotional products or product flyers. Everything is last minute in today’s fast paced world, when an office needs something they need it quick and end up going to the closest local source.

Over time you end up with a hodgepodge of products being used in different areas that don’t present the corporate brand in any kind of uniform fashion. In addition you end up with too many suppliers that don’t understand your corporate identity standards, and because those suppliers work only with local offices you’re often paying far more than you would if each office bought from a single source.

Many of you probably have a closet full of print and promotional items that simply don’t cut it as a symbol of your brand, in some cases the samples you pick up along the way are downright embarrassing.

As with just about everything these days technology and the right partner can solve this problem, eliminating your headaches, saving you time, energy, and most importantly money. With the right platform and partner you can eliminate costly, time consuming and often barely overseen process, and focus on your core strength to become a lean mean marketing machine.

The key is to pick the right print and promotional management company with a robust online platform that gives every office access to the same catalog of approved collateral and you complete control over the entire process. Once you’re up and running you’ll have a single source for all your marketing material from product brochures to high end document folders and everyone can focus on your core business instead of wasting time wondering where to get the latest product brochure.

Picking the right partner with the right technology platform is critical but not difficult if you know what you’re looking for. The following list of seven things you need form a print management partner will get you moving in the right direction and well on your way be being a headache free lean mean marketing machine.

Six Things You NEED From A Print Management partner and print management solution.

1 – A robust on line platform that’s always on and easily accessible.

Every office should have instant access to complete on line catalogs of all collateral material currently available. Every item should have a clear image and unique description to limit confusion about which item is which. The platform should allow for multiple catalogs so material can be organized and easy to find and easy to identify. The platform must be able to handle both inventoried items that have been purchased in bulk and are waiting for shipment to each office as needed, as well on demand items that go straight to production as soon as an office places an order.

The platform should allow for all office address and cost centers to be preloaded so that no one in the field wastes time with data entry when ordering, they need to point, click and checkout with the least amount of effort.

2 – A single source partner that can handle all your print and promotional needs.

These days print and promotional marketing material runs the full gamut from business cards and simple product brochures to high end wearable items like polo shirts and jackets, from simple envelopes and flyers, to high end document and accordion folders. Your print management partner must have access to and be able to handle all these products efficiently and cost effectively.

In addition depending on your office footprint your print management partner may need access to multiple different distribution points to reduce freight costs and speed deliveries to the field offices. All of these capabilities are seamless to the users but critical to an effective print management solution. The only thing the users need to know is that they have instant access to everything they need with a point and a click, and with that you’re well on your way to becoming the lean mean marketing machine you’ve always dreamed of.

 3 – Control over the entire process

For your print management solution to be effective you need control over the entire process, from which employees have access to which catalogs to overall approval authority for specific users.

When a user is given access to the system, you or the appropriate manager should have complete control over what they see, the tasks they can complete, and which items they can order. For example let’s say each office has an admin that’s responsible for ordering all stationery such as business cards, envelopes etc. When that user is set up on the system you should be able to restrict what they see to only the stationery items and the shipping address for that office should already be attached to the user so they never have to enter it, they simply point click and move on.

You should also be able to establish budgets for specific users and have up to three levels of approval.power banks

 

 4 – The platform must be able to handle both inventoried items purchased in bulk and print on demand items. 

On-demand item production and printing is popular because of its flexibility, but it's expensive – especially for small batches. In some cases, there may even be practical limits on how few items you can order before they become entirely cost-inefficient to produce. In these situations, keeping an inventory of items on-hand, which are then doled out over the course of months or years, can considerably lower your TCO on these investments.

For example, basic business fliers are cheap and easy to print on demand... but the custom-designed accordion folder they'll go into is not.  Your print management solution partner needs to be able to handle both bulk items and on demand items in a seamless manner as well as guiding you on the most efficient and cost effective way to produce each item based on how they plan to use it.

5 – Variable copy and on line proofing capability.

The ability to add variable copy to existing templates is key to having a valuable and efficient print management solution. Often marketing collateral must be personalized for a specific office or even a specific person so you need a system that allows to user to add and change the appropriate fields within and existing template without modifying the brand standards.

Business cards are the most obvious example, they are specific to one person and every employee has a different one. If someone gets a new cell phone number or a new title the user must be able to bring up that business card, make the edits right then and there, and see a complete proof showing all the changes they just made. Once they view and confirm the changes are correct they finish the order with a point and click.

Technology allows you to complete this process in minutes rather than the days it used to take with all the back and forth between the printer, the end user, and the person placing order. 

6 – Access to complete order history.

Finally an effective print management solution must provide complete access to all order history with a point and a click. In order to understand which products are being used and how, you need easy access to all order history by user, by office, by cost center, by city, by state, or however else you want to look at it.

When upper management wants to know how much did we spend on document folders last month or last year the answer should just be a point and click away. When you need to create a budget for the upcoming year you need to be able to download all your marketing collateral order history into a spreadsheet so you can sort it any way you choose and come up with a target for next year based on prior usage.

A print management solution can drastically simplify the management of all your print and promotional marketing material saving you time and money. It can also provide the control you need over corporate identity and brand standards that will allow you to become the lean mean marketing machine you’ve always envisioned. To schedule a demo of how this might work for you contact us today.

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Topics: promotional merchandise, promotional items, promotional products