SIMPLIFYING PRINT BUYING
Modernising processes
With the world shifting online more organisations are starting to switch from traditional business practices to digital solutions, this is no different for the Public Sector. The University of Worcester has now closed its physical print room and opted to use the Print Marketplace for their print buying requirements.
The challenge
- Closing their on-site print room and moving online was a sizeable change to business operations, and getting to grips with new technology can be daunting to those used to a more traditional approach.
- The support team acknowledged the change of process from using an in-house function to a digital platform and provided dedicated, small group training sessions to facilitate the transition to a different service provider.
- Once live, ongoing support is available to users to help them navigate and specify their requirements, this includes arranging print samples and design support to ensure that files are print ready.
The outcome
- Over 80 registered users now using the platform to order print.
- Time savings as print quotes are available quickly through the dynamic pricing functionality, in under 1 minute you can specify and obtain over 30 quotes.
- Cost savings not only from being able to filter your print quotes by price, but also by radically reducing operating expenditure by no longer running a physical mailroom.
- Business continuity if for any reason staff can’t get into the office to physically print items.
- Helps with the Green agenda as carbon offsetting is available when obtaining quotes.
Simon Dutton, Service Development Manager, Estates and Facilities,“At the University of Worcester we appointed Print Marketplace to supply all production print requests from July 2022 because of the intuitive user friendly portal, the ability to obtain live supplier quotes to enable comparisons and the range of support channels for all users.
On starting our journey a number of training sessions were arranged for key users, these were very informative and allowed users to interact with the Print Marketplace team and ask any questions about the solution. Feedback was excellent and a number of concerns regarding moving from an on premise solution were eased. A number of help guides were provided and the support channels include email, phone and live chat - I have used all of these options and response times and information received have been excellent!
During our busiest period from July to September there has been an increase in both users from the university and the number of jobs processed. Another benefit is the capability to fulfil a wide range of requests, for example, previously we didn’t have the capability to produce roller banners and had to source from external suppliers, this can now be facilitated through the portal.
Print Marketplace also provides instant performance visuals providing information on total orders, total spend, total savings and the environmental impact plus others, a list of all orders can be downloaded to complete further analysis if required.”
University of Worcester
Print Marketplace has been developed alongside Crown Commercial Service, who are an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office, supporting the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services.