The Network of In-house Print Professionals Australasia (NIPPA) is focused on providing its members with professional development opportunities that will make them more effective in their roles. NIPPA encourages its members to share knowledge, information and experiences for the benefit of all, and is keen to continue forging closer ties with other industry associations and interest groups with the view of promoting the value of print in its various forms.
Over the years NIPPA has positioned itself as a leading proponent of professional development opportunities for the inhouse printing sector. Members come from small singleperson operations right through to operations employing in excess of 20 staff. The need for peer support and professional advice has seen the association grow throughout Australasia with members coming from a wide variety of organisations such as tertiary education, all tiers of government, government statutory bodies, corporate and professional services and the health sector. The NIPPA aim for the next growth phase will be the secondary school and local government sectors.
NIPPA’s primary goal for 2010 is to help its members to move forward and out of the current recession. While members report that business is improving, many of us are still concerned that the real economic recovery will be a long, drawnout process. How this will affect budgets and new technology investments in the near future still remains an unknown factor. And yet as a group, we have identified a number of opportunities and strategies in-house managers can investigate and employ that will help them to continue with their successes as we move into 2010.
In these uncertain economic times the printing industry faces many challenges, with a large number of customers now choosing to promote their product online due to the belief that advertising online is more effective, and there has undoubtedly been a decline in the volume of paper based items printed.
There has been a considerable amount of research undertaken, which has produced a plethora of information proving, for example, that dollar for dollar print generates 72% more awareness of products and services by consumers than TV.
Our industry must look for ways to enlighten our customers, increase our own efficiencies and broaden the services we offer. Without a doubt, digital printing is emerging as one of the top opportunities for achieving this.
Although some do have an offset capability, the majority of in-house operations have production capabilities built on a digital platform, which makes them ideally positioned to take advantage of the technological assets available and develop services specifically tailored to their host organisations, such as low-cost, full-colour printing, print-on-demand and fast-turnaround printing services, the ability to handle both short and long runs cost effectively, and the flexibility to explore new activities like transactional promotional materials, web-toprint, variable data and personalised promotional materials.
Going digital can bring savings. In-house operations that learn to leverage automation can streamline their operations and reduce staffing levels while maintaining or even increasing the volumes they handle. In-house operations should stop thinking of themselves as just a print shop and look seriously at the “value added” they can provide to their organisations. As communications and marketing services departments continue to expand their communications beyond print, they will need marketing service providers to support these efforts.
An in-house operation that is a “flexible resource” will find that it has become a valuable asset. In-house managers are in a good position to work closely with their marketing departments to predict and react to peaks and troughs. In return the incremental profit potential of offering high value, well priced services within the organisation should be very appealing.
The current economy has opened the door to some new and exciting opportunities for in-houses. As marketing and production departments search for new avenues to save money and cut costs, they’re realising the cost savings that in-house printing and mailing operations can deliver. Thanks to digital equipment and refined workflows, print production has been streamlined, translating into an even greater savings of time and money. Rather than channelling potential profits to a commercial printer, the savings remain in-house, contributing significantly to an organisation’s bottom line. There’s never been a better time than now for in-house operations to prove their value to their parent organisation.
Just as colour will not immediately supplant monochrome, digital will not replace offset anytime soon. But in an industry facing a host of uncertainties, digital is looking like the number one opportunity for sustained growth in 2010 and beyond.
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