In-House or Outsourced Printing Services?

01 Jul In-House or Outsourced Printing Services?

In the age of modern technology, we seldom have a need for external service providers when it comes to the concern of quality, since most digital printers, cameras and other accessories offer us high resolution images and the tools to do everything we need to in our own homes and offices.

However, those service providers who do print on the behalf of others seem to be doing well despite the apparent lack of need for their services. Could it be that their businesses are thriving because people cannot actually do everything themselves?

If you think about the purpose of your core business, you probably don’t immediately think about printing, unless you own and manage a digital printing business. For financial institutions, design agencies and the many other businesses that need printing but don’t offer it as a service to their clients, using digital printing companies is the best way to get things done at a cost that makes sense, and without impacting on employee productivity.

But sending a single document to a printer doesn’t make sense either. So when is the time to keep it in house and when is it time to outsource?

Generally, you need to consider the cost and time it will take to print. Digital printing services providers are dedicated to printing all day long. You, more than likely, have many other things to do that won’t take you anywhere near the copy machine or printer.

Printing a single page is quick and easy, but when you need to print 17 documents of 145 pages each, you may need to send the document to the printers, especially if you have a variety of other, unrelated tasks to complete too. Similarly, if a document needs to be printed on thick card, you may not have a machine that can do it, and thus outsourcing is your only option.

Finally, if you have prints that need to be produced in unusual shapes, that is, die-cut, you will need to outsource. These can be set up by a printer on his large, special machine and printed quickly and efficiently, but when you do it yourself at the office, you will need to cut out each individual shape, and this is probably not the best use of your time.

If you ever find yourself faced with the question of whether to outsource digital printing to one of the many digital printing companies out there or do it yourself, remember to consider the time, cost and actual printing requirements.

Advice on each of these is plentiful and many service providers, such DocX, can help you determine how to proceed with printing, based on each individual project you have.