While some of our schools and colleges, particularly private schools, are becoming digitised, with digital black boards and tablets in class, there are still many day to day school essentials that simply have to be printed, for security and prosperity.
For example, exam and test papers; yearbooks; report cards, application forms; indemnity forms, event posters; prospectuses; class certificates, colouring in pages, exercises in handwriting and more are simply best in print form.
While some schools outsource printing in a bid to save time and money, the obvious choice is to bring the printing in-house as much as possible to save money.
Konica Minolta South Africa believes these are six core reasons why schools of all sizes should print in-house:
- Control and cost savings. To receive discounts or bulk volume prices from outsourced printers, schools often have to order a minimum amount, which may end up being surplus to requirements. Managing the process internally in the school office and with your own admin staff, means schools can produce these materials as required, reducing waste and delivering more control over the entire process.
- Flexibility. Being able to respond efficiently to things like amended test paper with inaccuracies fixed is important. Plus, providing last minute requests for prospectuses and info guides gives schools a potential competitive edge. This flexibility to print materials on demand reduces the chance of existing materials going out of date and becoming unusable and thus wasted.
- Quality. New technology means high-quality digital printing is as good as offset or off-site printing. Schools can also maintain control by monitoring jobs as they are printing, which means they can make adjustments where and when required.
- Consistency. Using the same equipment and processes for every print job can help schools ensure their materials are presented correctly and consistently, every time. This helps with the integrity of the brand and can also ensure cheaper, more efficient settings are applied to reduce cost with every print run.
- Bulk printing. By automatically sending larger smaller print jobs to the print room instead of printing on office multifunctional devices, schools can save time and money, freeing up time on office multifunctional devices for the smaller print work. Be sure you are using the correct device for the task at hand.
- Customisation. Printing professional-quality materials in-house provides opportunities to customise materials on the go to create personalised print collateral with localised benefits, e.g. if you are part of a school group, you can maintain both the look and feel of the schooling group but can also add your particular school’s details and extra elements to fully customise without breaking away from your corporate ID.