Tough economic times exacerbate once seemingly insignificant problems. As printers struggle to balance the books, the decision makers often focus on absolute cost cutting measures with reckless abandon while ignoring the bigger picture. You have to mind the cash flow of the business, but companies who can still able plan ahead for post recessionary times will have a competitive advantage over those who do not. Two areas quickly cut from budgets that can have a profound negative impact are preventative maintenance and service/software contracts.
Preventative Maintenance
Machines are expensive. A car that has its oil changed every 3,000 miles is a lot more likely to get you were you want to go reliably than a car that does not have its oil changed at all. The $20 spent at the auto shop protects thousands of dollars in car value. Such is the case with presses, cutters, folders, stitchers, die cutters, booklet makers, and the various other pieces of equipment used during print production. Keeping up with the manufacturer’s preventative maintenance schedule will pay larger dividends in productivity and repair costs, than simply hoping the equipment will take care of itself.
Service and Software Contracts
Whether you purchased a new diecutter or the latest prepress production software, the vendor probably offers a service or software contract. In either case the contract is little more than an insurance policy against failure or technological obsolescence. If you have enough working capital to cover the replacement costs of the equipment or the continual software updates, the contracts may still provide some value. Service contracts sometimes include value added services like unlimited telephone or remote support that go beyond the standard repair work.
Software contracts can provide even more value since print technology (like any other technology) is constantly changing. The price of an annual contract can even be less than a single one time update. A perfect example of the changing technology is the Adobe PDF Print Engine. Announced in 2006, the PDF Print Engine allowed prepress workflows to natively render PDF content for output without having to convert the file back to Postscript. The hair pulling, swearing sessions in prepress caused from files that did not RIP correctly because of complex transparencies become a thing of the past. Even three years after release, I still talk to print shops that haven’t heard of or haven’t upgraded to this technology. The bottom line is that a simple upgrade could save much more time in labor hours than the initial cost of the software.
The bottom line is that a simple upgrade could save much more time in labor hours than the initial cost of the software.
A software contract solves this problem by always having the latest technology while putting it on auto pilot.
Evaluate the options available and note any value added services that are included in the contracts. Remember to also consider more than just the price tag when evaluating the cost to benefit gained by stepping back to look at the big picture.
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