Overcome Print Industry Changes, Save Money and Improve Efficiencies

Aug. 4, 2010 - PRLog -- The printing industry is undergoing transformation changes as printers close and consolidate.  In some ways, this is happening quietly because when a small or a medium-size printer closes, it does not make national or even regional headlines.  Also, sadly to say, according to William Gindlesperger, chief executive officer of e-LYNXX Corporation, it has become commonplace.

Almost 3,000 printers have either closed their doors or merged so far during the prolonged economic downturn.  At year-end 2009, there were 33,565 printers in the United States compared to 36,508 just a year earlier. These are numbers from the Printing Industries of America (PIA)

So what does this change in the printing industry landscape mean to print buyers?  "A lot," Gindlesperger said, "especially if your trusted, favorite printer has been bought by another printer or even worse closed its doors."  He explained:

"You may have others to turn to, but they have never been your top choices.

"You could begin visiting, meeting with and evaluating printers again.  You do not want to do that because it is time consuming and there is no assurance that those printers also will not become victims of the economy. Also, the associated cost performance for relationship-driven buying is usually poor.

"You could try negotiated methods based on most of your work going to one or two printers, but that is sort of like putting "all of your eggs in one basket" and not knowing when the chosen printer will have technical, labor or other problems.  You could be left without a printer.  

"You could resort to a reverse auction, spot bidding and other competitive e-procurement techniques that have their roots in the 1960s. Most are cumbersome to start and stop and procurement professionals often are uneasy about using them. Savings are not predictable, and there is no guarantee that you will be getting the lowest price.  You more than likely will not be familiar with the printer that ends up with your job. Some even say reverse auctions may encourage imprudent bidding practices."

The good news is significant advances have been made in how printing can be procured. They expand the buyer's options, increase the buyer's control, provide full transparency and, maybe best of all, make it possible for the buyer to reduce costs for procured print by 25% to 50% while supplying printers with work to fill their downtime. Procured print means direct mail, marketing materials, commercial printing, labels, customized packaging, promotional items, CD ROMs and anything else that requires producing an image on a substrate (paper, plastic, metal, magnetic media, etc.)

New procurement methodology and technology, developed during the 1990s and introduced to print buyers over the past three years, combine the best features of relationship-driven buying, negotiated methods and traditional e-procurement techniques.

Here is how it works, Gindlesperger said.  "You select the printers, thoroughly vet them and if you need more you have access to a national database of printers who are prequalified and fully capable of delivering for you what you want. There will be no printers in your database that you have not researched and approved. This is important because when a bid comes in at a deep-discount price, you know the printer and know a quality job will be produced on time.  Low pricing does not mean corners are being cut.  It means the printer has downtime to fill."

This strategy is further enhanced by suppliers now being able to eliminate price precedent.  Suppliers normally price work based on how much the buyer is willing to pay.  If suppliers price too high, buyers shy away from dealing with them.  If suppliers price too low, then buyers want to hold suppliers to the prior price.  By eliminating price precedent, suppliers can be allowed to bid high, low, or not at all with no repercussions on their receiving other work to price for which they are qualified.  Suppliers can now base their pricing less on what they perceive the buyer is willing to pay and more on the instant need to fill their production gaps or downtime.  That is how the 25% to 50% in cost reductions are achieved.

Driving this advancement in procurement is a unique communications and workflow system that requires full interaction and documentation between the buyer's team and the supplier's team. Hands-on involvement is not minimized and control by the buyer is strengthened rather than weakened.  

Every task is benchmarked and whoever is responsible for that task must verify changes, its completion and make notations as needed.  Because of that sophisticated level of information sharing, accountability is fully assigned and documented. Because all actions are available for everyone who is given access to see, the total process is 100% transparent. Because every action and notation is documented and archived, the system becomes a powerful resource for reference and planning.

This process is repeated for every print project that you have.  With the click of a mouse, you will have bid results in seconds rather than hours or days.  You also will have built a trusted pool of suppliers.  No more searching for qualified printers.

While there is no question that the print industry is changing and that there are fewer printers today, the print buyer actually has better options for getting the job done.  The predictability of new methodology and technology improve and strengthen the print buying process.  Gindlesperger said this new approach is being embraced by printers because it allows them to be matched automatically with their print buying customers and to increase their work and cash flow by filling production gaps that otherwise would have produced no revenue at all.



About e-LYNXX Corporation

e-LYNXX Corporation, the North American procurement authority, is exclusively endorsed by Printing Industries of America (PIA) and Educational and Institutional Cooperative Purchasing (E&I).  Founded in 1975, e-LYNXX has three divisions.  ● Patented Procurement Method licenses its automated vendor selection process for use in procurement systems.  ● American Print Management provides systems, services and a patented method to reduce substantially the procured costs of direct mail, marketing materials, labels, packaging and other procured print.  ● Government Print Management offers U.S. GPO bid services and effective strategies.  www.e-LYNXX.com – 888-876-5432

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e-LYNXX Corporation, the North American procurement authority, is exclusively endorsed by Printing Industries of America (PIA) and Educational and Institutional Cooperative Purchasing (E&I). Founded in 1975, e-LYNXX has three divisions. ● Patented Procurement Method licenses its automated vendor selection process for use in procurement systems. ● American Print Management provides systems, services and a patented method to reduce substantially the procured costs of direct mail, marketing materials, labels, packaging and other procured print. ● Government Print Management offers U.S. GPO bid services and effective strategies. www.e-LYNXX.com – 888-876-5432