Over 20 years of print experience tells us we will not be managing print the way we are today in 3 years time. The print industry is at the tipping point.

In 3 years time we will not be:

• Buying print the way we are today
• Printing the way we are today
• Storing and distributing printed documents the way we are today
• Communicating through print the way we are today.

You should be preparing for these changes.

Current print management models are not paying enough attention to the document creation and management processes. Print will be one of many communication channels your business needs. To meet this need you will require intelligent storage and repurposing of documents and digital assets. New technologies will deliver cost savings to the businesses that are ready to take advantage of them. The cost impacts of not having your print strategy and supply chain in alignment to take advantage of these emerging technologies will be significant. Now is the time to reengineer your work flows, document creation processes and supply chain.

This is what our experience tells us, it also tells us we’d be foolish to assume we know your industry. It will have unique drivers and potential traps. If we’re going to work with you to introduce Print-Less Strategies we’ll need to learn about your business. We do this by listening and through a combination of stakeholder meetings, site visits, workshops and data gathering exercises.

So what are the potential changes?

• Better management of the document creation process. Documents need to be built smarter and they need to be able to be published through multiple media channels. Even if your business is not ready yet consider the impact of not having your current literature, brochures or forms in a useable format when you are. What will the cost to your business be to even find these documents let alone recreating them in an appropriate format for repurposing? Now is the time to start building smarter documents.
• Change the way you think about the storage of documents. More and more this will be in a database not a warehouse. Documents need to be stored in the appropriate format and tagged with the correct metadata to ensure they can be searched and found on demand. Start building the database now it will cost little to implement but a lot to build retroactively under urgency.
• Reduce working capital. Printed documents have a real hard dollar cost and a shelf life. Obsolescence is often one of the greatest costs but as print is often expensed at time of purchase the cost of obsolescence is invisible. Organisations do not need to hold as much stock as they used to. Technology has introduced print on demand and print to order fulfilment. Stock levels can be managed much lower through smarter replenishment practises. You could Print-Less now.
• Widen the supply chain. Don’t believe them, no one supplier can provide it all. New technologies, changing processes and a shift in your actual requirements mean supplier’s capabilities are shifting and new suppliers are emerging; your supply chain should be open to change. Technology has been developed to make the management of the supply chain easier.