Here are some of the questions that are being served up to us.
What do you mean by independent?
Why do you believe the print industry is at a tipping point right now?
What do you think Production Partners key difference is?
Are Production Partners able to Benchmark or audit our current costs,
processes and practises
What are the possible outcomes of benchmarking or an audit?
What if we’re happy with our current solution or provider?
How does Production Partners make money?
Will quality be compromised?
Can Production Partners assist us to go to the market?
What about sustainability?
What do you mean by independent?
By independent we mean we have no vested interest in manufacturing and no financial commitment to any one solution provider. Our cost recovery methodology is transparent and agreed up front with you. We do not accept rebates or finders fees from suppliers. Our independence is paramount to our success without this independence we would not be able to provide the services we do. We need to be trusted by clients and welcomed by suppliers.
Why do you believe the print industry is at a tipping point right now?
- New printing technologies are established
- New communication channels have been accepted
- The technology exists and software is proven
- Early adopters have worked the bugs out
- Costs have come down
- Dominance of Adobe software (Acrobat, Indesign) have streamlined processes
- Document and digital asset databases have become cost effective
- Document re-purposing software has been introduced
- Online procurement tools are available.
- Print on demand and just in time fulfilment are possible
- Current cost out environment has broken down the resistance to change. All stakeholders understand the need to reduce costs
- Technology has levelled the playing field. Size is no longer a barrier to entry. SME sized organisations can implement these advances independent of where they sit in the supply chain
- There are suppliers who are ready to engage with you and the participants may surprise you.
The only barrier to change now is the reengineering of workflows to take advantage of the new technology and new thinking.
What do you think Production Partners key difference is?
“Semper Aliquid Novi” or always something new. Businesses are being faced with challenges on a daily basis, we manage change. Some of the challenges that businesses will be facing in the print and communication sector are not even known to them yet. We‘re a catalyst for change. We challenge the norm by delivering new ideas, new suppliers, and unique products.
Are Production Partners able to Benchmark or audit our current costs, processes and practises?
Absolutely. Benchmarking is one of our core offerings. Only by benchmarking current costs and behaviour are we able to measure our success. If you want to know where you are at in regards to cost and service provission we can do an audit and produce a benchmark report for you. What you do with this information is yours to decide.
What are the possible outcomes of benchmarking or an audit?
- An end-to-end review of current supply chain processes
- A summary of current costs and behaviour
- A review of current document creation and pre print workflow processes
- Shared learnings on how to reduce your cost of:
- Stock on hand
- Obsolesence.
- Review of current database structures and how they could relate to document creation and customer communication now and in a Print-Less environment
- Introduction to new and evolving technologies that support your business objectives.
What if we’re happy with our current solution or provider?
We hope our clients are happy with us too but we also know our key contacts are required to ‘prove it’ to their bosses or shareholders every once in a while. We have benchmark processes to do this. If you can’t ‘prove it’ perhaps we can help to provide this certainty for you.
How does Production Partners make money?
We know print management can be a complex spend to evaluate. We conduct print audits and print procurement reviews on behalf of clients for agreed fees.
We want people to value us for our early involvement and experience. We build ongoing Production Partnerships with an agreed margin or fee.
Businesses and people get slammed. We manage individual projects or campaigns (the uglier the better). We provide one off solutions for an agreed fee.
Organisations are down sizing. We provide an outsource solution on a mark up or fee basis.
We’ll serve up unique print solutions to our partners. For example paper engineering, unique packaging and clever point of sale on a project by project basis.
Will quality be compromised?
No. We’re not here to cheapen print or put your brand at risk. The savings we are delivering are through process improvement in many cases the quality of the output is improved. We’ll work with stakeholders to ensure the appropriate level of quality is applied to each and every project. By appropriate quality we mean we won’t over enginneer a form and we won’t underspec a promotional item.
Can Production Partners assist us to go to the market?
Our experience in print management has seen us respond to more Requests for Information (RFI) and Requests for Proposal (RFP) than we care to count. This experience on top of our print experience ideally places us to asist you to go to the market with your own RFI or RFP. We can help you write in the right questions, review the responces and even manage the implementation if required. We can do as little or as much as you require.
What about sustainability?
It means we nominate papers that are sourced from sustainable sources: recycled and plantation forest papers. FSC, PEFC and ISO quality certification is supported. Where possible inks are vegetable based. It also means where at all possible we want to work with companies that are investing in New Zealand. The most sustainable thing we can do is to ensure we keep New Zealanders working and investing in the new technologies that will drive efficiency. Print and paper if used appropriately has a strong sustainable message to be promoted. We’re working to ensure the print we produce is fit for purpose and we’re asking people to recycle what they don’t use.