“The federal government has endorsed the independent print management model by excluding printer print managers from the new print management panel,” Stream general manager, Andrew Price, told ProPrint.
He added that what has been announced so far was an interim measure, and that more details should come to light next week.
Centrelink media advisor Simon Ferguson told ProPrint: “It was a tender condition that a supplier could not be on the Print Production and Print Management panels at the same time.”
He explained that this condition was put in place to avoid conflicts of interest and allow small and medium enterprises to more fairly compete against larger players.
Price expected that under the new plan, Stream would have access to more government agencies as one of four approved PM companies, along with Ergo Asia, Foxprint Solutions and Rothfield Print & Image.
Stream is currently the PM supplier to Centrelink, which Price believed had the largest print requirement off any federal agency.
He said it was “a bit premature” for specifics on how the tender strategy would work but added that it seemed the only major difference was that the government had picked its pool of printers, rather than Stream.
The government revealed its list of approved suppliers this week, across the four categories of Print Management Services; Creative and Design Services; Warehousing and Distribution Services; and Printing and Production Services.
Some 78 printers were named in the Print & Production category. Price added that 57% of these were already accredited Stream printers.
“Under the Stream model that operated with Centrelink up to 30 November 2009, we sourced print from a panel of over 230 active printers,” said Price.
He added that Stream would continue to manage Centrelink’s print under an interim arrangement set to run until May.
According to Human Services minister Chris Bowen, the strategy would initially cover 12 government agencies, though Price believed that list would grow.
“Now they’ve brought all the federal government together, they believe they’ll be buying better,” said Price.
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