Tag: trade printing

Jamie discusses the benefits gained from maintaining relationships with suppliers in the print industry. Read on to learn more.

As a trade printer that specialises in working closely with print resellers and print brokers, we understand the importance a solid customer-supplier relationship. This is why we make it a priority to maintain strong partnerships with several leading equipment manufacturers. One of our longest, and most beneficial, relationships is with Durst. We recently visited their HQ in Europe to learn more about new equipment, print industry trends. It was also another opportunity to experience firsthand the benefits that a solid relationship provides ourselves and our customers alike.

Maintaining Relationships with Suppliers Leads to Savings for All

One of the biggest benefits of having a close relationship with equipment suppliers is the ability to pass on savings. The biggest of these are reduced turnaround time on new equipment, minimised equipment costs, and priority access to efficient equipment.

Thanks to having a good working relationship with our suppliers, we can often negotiate better prices and priority ordering. This allows us to offer our trade printing clients in Australia more competitive pricing per square metre. It also enables them to offer new product SKUs, higher volumes, and better pricing to their own customers ahead of the competition. This is of significant advantage in the fast-paced, competitive print industry.

Print Equipment Suppliers Prefer to Work With Us

It’s not just Australian print resellers and print brokers who prefer to work with us. Another advantage of maintaining relationships with equipment suppliers is that we can leverage our reputation, experience, and size. By partnering with us they benefit from having their equipment showcased in a best practice facility. Plus, they can see how the equipment works in a high-volume environment and get solid feedback. Just as we want be utilising the best equipment, large format equipment suppliers want to work with the best trade printers.

As a reputable trade printer, operating for over 18 years, we’ve become known for our reliability and professionalism. This reputation helps us to secure better deals from suppliers that others can’t match, leading to more savings for our clients.

Our size also allows us to make larger purchases and access equipment that isn’t viable for in-house production. Smaller print shops can then access the products they need through us without the capital outlay for new equipment.

Mutually Beneficial Knowledge Sharing

Another key benefit is the sharing of trade printing best practices and trends. We can work closely with our suppliers to stay informed about the latest trends in the industry. This knowledge allows us to provide our clients with the most current and effective solutions. Plus, since we’re maintaining relationships with suppliers in other markets we often see trends well in advance of Australia.

Our suppliers also benefit from our knowledge and experience in the industry,. This enables collaboration on new product development, and sharing of best practices for improved efficiency and quality.

Both parties are able to stay ahead of the curve and offer innovative products / solutions. This is particularly important in a still evolving industry like printing. New technologies and techniques are constantly being developed – early adopters have a distinct advantage.

Maintaining relationships with suppliers is crucial for our business, and it also offers many benefits to our clients. Through the combination of our experience and their knowledge we can secure better equipment and better deals. This all leads to customer value for you and the retail client.

To see just how competitive these relationships make our prices – sign up for a PrintIQ account today.

Our trade printing process is fast – we can guarantee that. What we can’t guarantee, however, are shipping times. This comes down to a few factors but it boils down to the fact that we don’t control the courier process.

Everything up to the point of dispatch has been designed by us for efficiency. Automation, print modes, human inputs (where necessary), printing equipment placement – it’s all honed and continually reviewed. We’ve previously discussed how printing cut off times underpin our efficiencies – unfortunately couriers don’t operate the same way.

So whilst we can estimate when a pickup run may occur (particularly for couriers who do daily runs) it’s not an exact science.

When ordering with Mediapoint, and any trade printer really, be aware that there may be variance in delivery time. We can guarantee the printing will be done within our allotted timeframe – but not anything past the point of dispatch.

So let’s outline a few things print resellers can do to mitigate delays:

1) Provide all Label Information for Dependable Shipping Times

Shipping information is an often overlooked point of criticality in the production process. How fast an order can be completed and dispatched hinges on having correctly labelled items.

By providing all shipping information and labels when placing an order means no downtime when a print job hits production. Once a job is placed into our printing production line it cannot be changed – neither can dispatch information. For the sake of efficiency and accuracy printers will require this info upfront. It’s up to the customer to confirm all the courier details / requirements – but it’s really not that much of a burden. 

Whilst we cannot guarantee shipping times at Mediapoint, we can promise that your print job will be on the production floor within a short time when ordering by the cutoff. It’ll be ready for dispatch the next business day at the latest.

2) Leverage Your Courier Options for Print Jobs

Mediapoint customers have the choice of multiple couriers for delivery of print jobs. We maintain strong relationships with many couriers to limit the impact that delays or unavailability of one courier can have on delivery times.

We have TNT, StarTrack and CouriersPlease completing daily pick ups to maximise distribution and mitigate delays for delivery across the country.

If customers prefer (or require) a bespoke/ or alternative shipping method that’s fine too. They just need to provide the label at ordering and time the pickup for when the job is complete. We encourage print resellers and print brokers to investigate the various delivery options available to them.

3) Use a Dependable Trade Printer

When you utilise a dependable, efficient trade printer you can be sure that the actual print process delay orders. Plus, a reputable printer will general have several options for delivery to give customers the best chance of receiving print jobs ASAP. Our Lean, efficient  processes and minimal manual handling or service not only enables us to pass savings onto our customers. It also means we can guarantee printing turnaround times to the point of dispatch.

Our customers love that they can on-sell print with better margins, and peace-of-mind that whilst delivery times can’t be guaranteed they are still likely to receive them within an adequate window

Mediapoint has made the print process easier for all parties by being clear about our requirements and guarantees. If you’d like a dependable, reputable trade printer – set up an account and give us a try.

Today we’re delving into what our automated trade printing quotes mean for customers and why we’ve invested in such a system.

Automation underpins the effectiveness (and efficiency) of our printing processes. It enables Mediapoint to deliver on turnaround guarantees for over 150 orders a day. This ability for a trade printer to deliver is critical. Without a slick process in place it would be very hard for teams to achieve targets. That’s not to mention that some trade printing businesses use a manual quoting process as throttle / delay.

Whilst we dictate our own internal processes we always ensure these are centred on delivering value for our trade clients.

At Mediapoint we identified that speed of service and the benefits of automation don’t just start when an order is confirmed. A majority of our customers require a system that allows them to get their print jobs done (including quoting) seamlessly and at speed.

Not only is much of our proofing and production driven by technology – so is our best-in-class self serve print portal.

Everyone Saves Time with Automated Print Quotes

The pricing process can really drag on (and be seriously delayed) without an automated quoting system in place. Think of the emails or phone calls back and forth, the different databases to connect to, and the possibility of human error switching between different systems. These elements are present on both the printer and customer’s side.

With an automated system there is minimal friction, less requirement for human input (meaning we can have our team focus on delivering quality print jobs), and the ability to shift from quoting to printing instantly.

Time is a valuable resource; wasting it costs you and your Trade Printer money. Not to mention lost opportunities to be focusing on more important work.

At Mediapoint any savings made in time and labour are passed on to our customers – through the automated system delivering the quotes!

Automated Trade Printing Quotes Minimise Errors

Through the use of automation we can leverage computing power and integration to ensure that prices are correct in real-time. In combination with our self serve print portal and embedded print pricing model ordering is easy, accurate and fast.

 It eliminates the need for our staff members to check over multiple pricing tables, inventory databases, and equipment availability before providing a quote. Plus, any ‘ghosts in the system’ will be flagged for review. This provides us with peace-of-mind that there is a system in place to highlight any issues that do arise.

As a fail-safe we do routine checks to confirm our system for automated trade printing quotes works as intended. Our priority however is for our staff to be on the production floor delivering on print jobs. That is where the real value of a trade printer is delivered and where having our skilled staff is necessary.

Resellers Love Our Self Serve Print Portal

The ability for clients to access live-pricing and get accurate quotes quickly is a significant factor itself. By expediting the ordering process our print resellers and print brokers can confidently estimate turnaround to their own clients. Plus, it eases the burden on their teams when it comes to pricing and project managing jobs.

Speed of communication is important for resellers and print shop managers wanting to establish (and sustain) good relationships with their clients.

Automated trade printing quotes support this from the very outset. After all – wouldn’t you as a customer of any business prefer to deal with those that have prompt and clear responses?  Any way we can help our clients in this area is something we take very seriously.

Mediapoint has grown to be one of Australia’s biggest and most experienced trade-only printers over 16+ years. If you’re looking for a printing partner who makes it easier to quote, produce and deliver on print jobs for your clients – sign up today.

Learn more about the Mediapoint ordering process and why we require all shipping information / labels for print orders upfront.

Simply put: our print process is too fast to wait around for shipping information.

We need all info and necessary labels at the start of an order because once it’s confirmed every step of production and dispatch is locked in. We’ve invested time and money into creating a streamlined print process underpinned by leading edge technology. Once a job is placed into the production schedule it cannot be changed.

If you’re ordering any of our products with next-day turnaround guarantees (and order by the 12pm cutoff) it’s highly likely that your order will be on the production floor within a few hours and ready for dispatch the next business day.

Shipping information and labelling is an often overlooked point of criticality in the production process. How fast an order can be completed and dispatched hinges on having correctly labelled items.

Lack of Shipping Information Causes Delays

We run a double shift at Mediapoint and teams work until 10pm to ensure all jobs for the next day’s dispatched are finished, packaged and ready for collection by the various couriers. To have this completed on-time, everyday, we require all shipping information to be ready ahead of job completion. 

For other trade printing businesses, who leave this information until last, delays in dispatch are quite common. They need to chase down the required labels, destination and delivery partner while jobs are already in QA or waiting for dispatch. We think this is a particularly wasteful practice and want to ensure the most efficient turnaround for our clients. Any time a job is sitting idle in the facility is wasted time and potentially damaging to the reputation of our resellers.

Courier / Shipping Options from Mediapoint

Mediapoint customers have the option of selecting from a few different options at the point of ordering. There are a couple nuances for each option which we highlight below:

Direct Courier

If a point-to-point courier is requested (and therefore organised by the customer) the shipping information required a diamond label with the address. Simply select this option on our portal when ordering and note the address for shipping.

Road Freight

To ensure that our jobs can be dispatched across the entire country with ease and speed we have multiple carriers doing daily runs from our facility. As of September, 2022 we have TNT, StarTrack and CouriersPlease completing daily pick ups. To be included in these runs you’ll just need to create the label and provide at time of ordering.

Ad-Hoc Carrier / Shipping Method

If you require a bespoke/ or alternative method of shipping you’ll need to provide the label at ordering and time the pickup for when the job is complete. To accurately determine the required shipping information you can ask our team for an estimate of time for a job to be complete, or review our product guides. Most items will be ready for pickup next-day when ordered by the 12pm cutoff.

Clarity for Customers

Our Lean process and minimal manual service on the front end saves time and money. It enables us to price as well as we do and pass savings onto our customers. Being able to on-sell print with better margins, and peace-of-mind around turnaround times, is an appealing tradeoff for having to prepare shipping information at the time of ordering. It just requires a small process change from some customers to access the fastest trade printing turnaround times.

By being clear about our requirements we’ve made the ordering process much simpler for everyone leading to fewer mistakes, faster turnaround, and less time spent on administration.

Read on (and watch) to learn why we have strict, print job cut off times for certain products. We break down how that enables service levels above and beyond the competition.

Mediapoint averages 150+ orders a day. To deliver on these with next-day turnaround, we have established Lean processes that other trade printers can’t compete with.

A strict printing cut-off time of 12pm underpins these procedures. At this time, every day, our system automatically locks out any new next-day orders. From there, automations begin to run; preparing all inventory, equipment, artwork files and staff required for a batched print run.

Print Job Cut Off Times Create Predictability

Keeping strict printing cut off times (and making it clear to customers) means a predictable service level for customers. With no variance in lead times they have peace-of-mind that jobs will be completed and dispatched as expected.

It means that our printing teams have a clear set of tasks to complete. That means we can adequately prepare our lines for maximum efficiency. Set print job cut off times are key to batching jobs, minimising change to stock and print modes during operation.

We’ve previously discussed locking into one print mode only which helps maintain quality and speed.

Printing Once A Day Reduces Costs

We pride ourselves on offering the best prices. To do so we need to find savings wherever possible – all of which are passed onto our clients. Inventory represents a significant portion of any print cost. A batching process helps us keep an optimal amount of inventory on hand. Plus, we end up using less resources per print run. Trade printers need definitive print job cut off times to effectively schedule completion of these job batches.

Another overlooked cost of printing is labour. This rises significantly when print runs are not batched. The time it takes to set up equipment for each differing print run, to cut print jobs, to complete finishing work and to package items are all areas where great savings can be made. In combination with our automated PrintIQ system – which reduces the need for manual servicing of quotes and design – we significantly reduce costs.

These savings then provide margin for our print reseller customers to play with when on-selling work.

Mediapoint’s Print Process Benefits Our People

The batching process and printing cut off times mentioned above mean our staff just need to complete each task once before moving onto the next stage of the print run. They become more efficient and we can do more, with less people. Unlike other trade printers, our teams are not burdened by wastes of rework or overproduction. In fact, our staff gain valuable time back and are involved in every stage of the work, allowing them to build and maintain their skillset.

Our Process Keeps Us Honest

Our established, automated system for overnight printing means there is minimal variance in our output and a predictable low-touch level of service. This reduces friction in the ordering process, and allows us to be transparent about how jobs are handled.

This visibility is useful for resellers looking for the right trade print partner for high volume output. It removes the guesswork involved in the print process for them and ensures they can deliver on service levels to their own customers. 

We’ve established our print job cut off times based on experience and optimisation over the last 16 years of servicing high volume resellers. In that time we’ve identified that the 12pm cutoff provided an ideal lead-time for a majority of our clients and our internal processes. Furthermore when rush print jobs are required (which we don’t cater to) our customers’ in-house capabilities can handle them.

As we say, “the proof is in the print” so if you’re looking for a trade print partner that can deliver on high volume jobs day-in, day-out, give our 24-hour turnaround process a try on your next high volume print run. Simply sign up to PrintIQ here and order by 12pm for dispatch by next business day.