PRINT MANAGEMENT is an individual segment in the printing industry. It involves companies which provide their clients with a wide range of printed products without owning any printing technologies. Their main aim is to find custom-made solutions to clients’ requirements relating to printing industry. We talked to Ing. Radko Bovan, a founder of Polygrafické centrum about the new segment in the printing industry.
You have been active in the field of the printing industry since 2007. How did it all start?
I have been in the printing industry since 2007, but I have more than 25 years of experience in running a business in advertising and publishing, which are related branches to printing industry. The beginning goes back to my university studies. I set up a company together with my older brother which was active in the whole former Czechoslovakia and focused on printing various promotional materials and magazines as well as on individual divisions in the field of printing, promotional products and media purchase. To be honest, it was at the very beginning of my career when I started to be aware of the prior aim of entrepreneurship. Addressing thousands of unknown people and companies, offering them our products was valuable experience. Recruiting and managing people at a early age was also not easy. I got through a lot of failures. My failures as well as failures of other people. But exactly that was the way which taught me needs of individuals, their aims and purpose why someone becomes a client or a partner of the company. Gradually I learnt more about the purpose of printing industry and clients’ needs which brought me to the idea of founding a company based on the principle of a complex print management.
Your company became a pioneer in developing the segment. Why did you choose PRINT MANAGEMENT? What appealed to you about it?
At the beginning, I did not pay much attention to the term. The main headline of the company was innovative access to printing. I used terms business polygraphy or complex printing production. Later when my personal and business goals focused on international business, I found out that there are a lot of companies abroad, especially in the USA and the UK, whose business activities were similar to mine and the companies had been carrying out the activities for some years under the name PRINT MANAGEMENT. I started to be more and more interested in it and I realized that the principle of segment is attractive not only for the customers themselves, but for the whole society from the point of view of eliminating overproduction. In Central Europe, if the segment sticks to its basic principle, it can help improve relationships between partners in the whole branch. It can also help make the division of printing industry clearer and more well-arranged as it is being quite unclear at present.
How do you see its incorporation into the printing industry? Where is its position?
This is definitely very important. Printing industry is extensive and at the same time extremely specific. Like other industries, it cannot work without other branches as it is either directly or indirectly related to them. The industry includes producers with various technologies (printing plants, book binding), suppliers of devices and materials for printing as well as other companies which are important parts of the entire process of carrying out a printing order.
They include suppliers of logistic and distributing services connected with printed products as well as companies which conduct data preparation for the production. For example, graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, editors or translators. Important subjects in this chain are also advertising agencies or publishing houses which are responsible for a direct contact with the client. The companies create the product in line with their core business.
Implementing print management in this industry is obvious. It is supposed to be the part which connects prior needs and goals of clients with current possibilities in printing production and additional services. The task of this segment is to be able to give advice, to design and carry out the production by means of a wide range of various suppliers.
What do you think is the most important contribution of print management company to the market and what are its products?
A print management company perceives printing industry in a wider context. It stands in the middle of the printing market. Its suppliers are direct producers, direct providers of logistic services and other additional services. Know-how of such a company consists in knowledge of the market and in being familiar with other possibilities of the production or material usage. Relationships with other specialists show the clients how to choose the best production for their printing products.
Put simply, print management tends to be client orientated without a need to give priority to a particular printing technology. A real print management company must not own a printing technology (a press) which would take priority.
As far as the product of the print management company is concerned, it is always custom-made, adapted to the needs and purposes of the product. The quality-cost-delivery ratio is adapted to the client’s priorities. Flexibility and extra services are the added value. Extra services may include areas like financing or sales marketing of selected printed products.
At present, there are a lot of companies on the market which provide printing services for their clients, although they are not direct producers. How can we distinguish a print management company from a common commercial agent or advertising production company?
Yes, that is true. There are a lot of companies which provide printing services for their clients and the clients do not differentiate between them. It is because the segment of print management has not been clearly defined and the client do not get the chance to compare. In fact, the difference is considerably bigger, especially in the initial analyses of the needs, consulting, production optimalisation as well as in numerous inspirations which the print management company can provide. Within the complex print management, the extra services are even wider.
What about printing companies which manage the printed material production for their clients, but do not carry out the production themselves.
This is a bit hidden method of the production of printed materials. A common client does not differentiate production technologies, so when a company presents itself as a printing company, it is perceived as a producer of printed products. But in many cases, it does not work like this. It is a consequence of two things. On one hand, the printing company is afraid that if the client finds out that the product is not made in the printing company, they will leave. On the other hand, clients still know little about print management and its possibilities. If the printing company provides extra services of print management, it is OK, but the printing company must make it clear that the services are facilitated through other partners. The printing company will use their own technologies to produce other products. It cannot be a complex print management company, as owning technologies would cause a collision of interests between two different segments.
What are the criteria for a print management company?
The company should be anchored in the printing industry with a complex scale of offered products by a wide range of direct producers. The team should consist of print managers with experience in printing who first discuss the purpose of the product and the overall needs. Then they prepare tailor made solutions. The managers should cooperate with a team of production managers or professional production counsellors. A particularity of the print management company should also be an emphasis on inspirations in printing industry specialities as well as the above-mentioned education of clients about production possibilities and selected materials. The print management company is not a facilitator. It manages the client’s requirements and orders and is fully responsible for finishing all the clients’ orders using their own partners.
What is most important for the development of the segment?
The most important thing is to stick to fair-play business in communication with all partners and to fulfil the obligations. This is the only way how all involved companies can benefit from the segment.
What about flexibility of the print business company?
Flexibility is one of the key features of a print management. It can be especially beneficial in high seasons when capacities in production are busier. Of course, each company comprises of people, intern culture and of a system of set processes. These aspects tell us about the quality of the company and also about its flexibility.
Can a print management company compete in prices with a printing company?
Definitely. If price is the priority for the client, much emphasis is put on it. Of course, it always depends on the quality of the company, on its delivery network, on the quality of the team the company cooperates with. Finally, it very much depends on number of orders the company needs to manage. But it is not only the question of money. There are other factors which play a decisive role. To meet the client’s needs is for a good print manager much more important than the lowest price.
What do you think, for what kind of clients is a print management company a suitable supplier?
There is a wide range of clients. It is definitely beneficial for clients with a start-up project and printed products related to it. In my opinion, these companies need it most. But also publishing houses need printed material of high quality, as it is essential for the overall client’s success. Recently, the growth of self-publishers has increased the need of consulting and additional services, which is exactly what a print management company can provide.
A special group of clients of a print management company comprises of advertising agencies and graphic studios which are open to creative inspirations and various specialities which can be flexibly produced. It is also common for a printing company to be a client of a print management company, as the printing company can flexibly manage the client’s requirements, which the company itself is not able to cover using their own technologies.
In general, each company which needs a special made-to-measure solution related to printed products can find in a reliable, high quality supplier in a print management company.
What are the challenges of print management for the future?
As I have already said, print management connects various partners on the printing market. The main challenge is to create the most transparent relationships within printing industry, which are based on mutual trust and correct relationships. Print management could shift the whole printing industry towards clients and purposes of individual printed products. It could also help increase the importance of printed industry especially in connection with increasing online environment. It all must be based on the above-mentioned fair relationships throughout the branch, including suppliers, competition or a client.
Thank you for the interview.
PrinTTalk editorial office
