Print managers: value-adding middlemen or parasites on margins? Discuss. In fact, clear your diary, because this debate could run into overtime. Every printer is guaranteed to have an opinion on print management. But like them or lump them, printers are stuck with them; print managers are here to stay.
Over the past decade or so, the print management concept has evolved dramatically. In its early days, “brokers” conducted ad-hoc purchasing directly from printers, while these days, a print management relationship is liable to be an end-to-end service promising full procurement and fulfilment.
In its genesis, print brokers used their procurement smarts and industry contacts to find print at the lowest price, and take a slice off the top. Print broking still exists, much to the chagrin of some printers, but PM companies have evolved their model to become a serious service offering. Cynics would say that’s partly because it’s hard to add a margin to print prices that are already disastrously low.
Print managers now lay claim to a business model that addresses clients’ wide-ranging requirements. They promise a quality-assured production service, with the assurance of competitive prices, and ongoing improvement in print technology and processes to better drive the clients’ print project messages.
Print managers themselves say it’s more about process enhancement, not just aggressive buying. So is print management in the 21st century really all about adding value, or is it still just adding a margin?
Matt Aitken, executive general manager of Blue Star’s print management arm, IQ, says: “The days of print managers just taking orders and broking print are long gone. Our focus is a much more ‘transformational’ approach. We have worked with many national and multi-national clients to dramatically transform their print supply chain and the related products and services.”
Stream Solutions general manager Andrew Price says: “There is no doubt that if I look at our spend over the past 10 years, the amount spent on traditional ‘ink on paper’ has dropped as an overall percentage of what we do. There is a variety of methods that our customers now use to communicate their messages. Print is still an important part of the mix, but not as dominant as it was in the past.”
Geon’s Tony Onsley agrees. The general manager for the print group’s Northern Region says customers are looking for multi-platform communications, and that PM is the best vehicle to source this. “They’re no longer looking for just print, they’re looking for a print and communications ‘solution’. As with PM, we’re responding quickly and successfully to this new trend and the companies that do respond well in this space will be able to diversify their revenue streams while satisfying their customer needs better.”
Outsourcing as a process is changing. This is the view from both sides of the PM fence, both independent print managers such as Stream and print conglomerates that run PM divisions, such as Blue Star and Geon.
But there are many in the industry who disagree entirely with the whole PM premise. It’s a testament to the power print managers wield that none of the printers ProPrint spoke to would go on the record to air their views. The managing director of one prominent, independent commercial printer, blamed today’s fiercely price-competitive climate firmly on print managers. “It’s a price war, from the manipulation of the brokers. The industry is in an absolute mess because of these people. Everyone I know in the industry agrees with me. All they do is play one printer off against another and the most desperate gets the business.”
“The printers who do the work are usually companies with no representation and all they have is price, and that does nothing for our industry. The print managers are determining the market price of print, and it is below a sustainable level. Eventually, if it keeps going the way it is, it will be the demise of our industry. Companies have been going under for years. The price is ridiculous. And the number of brokers is growing.”
Customer driven
Onsley believes PM offerings such as Geon’s have simply evolved alongside the shifting environment. He says today’s print buyers don’t want the hassle and complexity of sourcing different types of print from many organisations. PM was just a response to this customer-led trend.
“It is now an essential concept in the print industry and Geon and other large players have adapted quickly and successfully to this new reality over the past three to four years,” he says.
Onsley believes PM has four key selling points: “A ‘one-stop shop’, which reduces complexity and time; use of an ‘expert’ or ‘trusted advisor’ to help navigate the complicated field of printed materials; cost savings through bundling volume together; and providing supply chain expertise and experience to take costs out of the entire value chain.”
Which is all very well for large corporates, but what about the smaller client, and for that matter, the smaller printer? There’s a PM model for all shapes and sizes of print customer.
The smaller print brokerage sector generally has a singular focus – making print cheaper and easier to order, often via an online portal.
ProPrint spoke to one such brokerage company, which would only speak off the record for fear of a backlash. It said the primary reason clients used its online ordering service was that the “pain of chasing [print jobs] was gone and it was cheaper than going straight to a printer”. Things such as quality and supplier relationships were irrelevant – cheap prices were the focus.
But the power players don’t ignore the small end of town. Aitken points out that Blue Star’s PM models and service delivery solutions “do not discriminate between large and small clients. Each print management solution is unique, differentiated by the breadth of services that are configured for each model based on the client’s own requirements,” he says.
Quality and environment
Even the most ardently anti-PM pundits have been known to give a begrudging nod to the print managers’ role in driving the industry toward standards. Environmental and quality standards now play a pivotal role in most corporate activities. Clients are increasingly pressing for better eco and quality control performance from all their suppliers. When print managers talk about adding value, quality and sustainability are two areas their arguments stand up.
“Our major sites are ISO 12647-compliant with sophisticated technology to ensure this. We have plants that are both ISO 140001 and 9001, and looking to certify further sites. Our larger corporate customers are certainly looking for this when they go to market,” says Onsley.
Blue Star’s Aitken says: “Our clients seek greater transparency, consistency and certainty in the sustainability of their print supply chains. This extends from the source of paper stocks to the ‘carbon footprint’ generated by the manufacture of client-specific products. We are also increasingly being called on to provide detailed and robust reporting that integrates with our clients’ overall environmental performance reporting to the market.”
Price points out: “Part of the value-add we bring to customers is brand integrity. Many customers have outsourced to us to increase the quality of the print work they are getting. We see ISO colour management as key to delivering high-quality product to our customers.”
But not all printers agree. The unnamed printer ProPrint spoke to says PM’s green marketing push is a con. “This whole thing with government purchasing being ‘green’, and companies who are accredited, is the biggest load of rubbish. It’s all done purely on price. The prices we would have to match to get the jobs is below the cost of materials,” he says.
“The big print management companies are the ones that have done most of the damage, in the main. They’re sending print overseas. What good is that going to do our industry? It’s not going to help anyone. It is so disheartening to see what is happening. It’s a disaster for the industry,” he adds.
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