Many businesses outsource their printing requirements to a print shop, especially if they need a professional-looking document. However, outsourcing your printing requirements isn’t always the best option, especially if you need your document in a hurry, your budget is limited, or the content you’re printing is highly confidential and/or sensitive.
For many small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) this presents an issue. They struggle to outsource their printing efficiently and affordably, but they can’t afford to bring that printing in-house due to the high cost of printers and consumables.
But is that really the case?
It may have been true a long time ago but today’s A3 and A4 colour printers are affordable and can produce printouts of such a high quality that they rival the professionals. They are also capable of producing professionally folded and stapled booklets, presentations, and folded leaflets, which fit easily into envelopes and even banner-sized prints for use as point-of-sale or in-office signage.
Here are seven reasons SMBs should consider bringing printing in-house:
1. Control
Printing in-house puts the control back in your hands. That means your documents are printed when you need them; no need to wait for your job to be processed at the print shop.
2. Security
When you don’t have to send sensitive documents to a print shop for printing, you can maintain better security and governance over the information you’re working with. Print shop employees won’t see your confidential documents and there is no risk of the information being stolen while it’s in transit.
You can even configure your in-house printers to require a code or swipe card before they release sensitive documents. This means people can’t print documents then leave them on the printer. Instead, they have to be at the printer physically to pick up their print-outs, further reducing the risk of unauthorised access.
3. Time
When you don’t have to build in long lead times for professional printing, you have more time to spend perfecting the document and ensuring there are no errors. This means you can work on the document right up until the last minute, ensuring all the information is up to date and accurate. Whether this makes a difference of a couple of hours or a few days, the time you claw back can be put to good use.
4. Quantity
Often, to make a print run worthwhile for a professional print shop, you need to order a minimum quantity, whether you need it or not. Printing in-house means you can do short runs when you need to, leading to fewer wasted copies. There’s nothing more frustrating than having to pulp boxes of leaflets because one piece of information has changed.
5. Quality
In-house printing can deliver outputs that are all but indistinguishable from professional printouts in terms of quality, especially if you set your printer up correctly. Given the consistent quality you can achieve from in-house printing, you can save outsourced printing for specialised jobs that require professional equipment.
6. Cost
The cost of in-house printing is invariably far lower than the cost of outsourcing to a professional. And, with print management software that lets you assign printing expenses to cost centres, clients, or specific projects, it can be easy to recoup those costs.
7. Flexibility
With the right equipment in-house, your team can have the flexibility to print when they need to, make changes to documents as required, and even print from a mobile device.
With the right equipment in place, businesses can benefit significantly from in-house printing capabilities. Working with a print management partner can help SMBs choose the right equipment and configure it correctly, leading to significant cost savings and productivity improvements.
Talk to Konica Minolta today about how we can help you move the bulk of your printing in-house.
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