4 Reasons Your Multi-Site Business Should Use a Single Print Vendor

When managing a business with multiple locations, unexpected challenges are bound to arise. And if each site has different management logistics, supply chains, staff, and operating procedures, they can quickly become unmanageable.

Most businesses implement standard operating procedures (SOP) across every location in order to mitigate confusion. When workflows are standardized company-wide, quality becomes more consistent between locations, and organizational changes can be made with ease.

In other words, management becomes more manageable.

But despite the time and effort businesses devote to implementing SOPs, one common blind spot is print management. Even when everything else is standardized, many organizations have different regional print vendors assigned to individual locations.

But problems arise when your multiple print vendors fail to communicate with each other, leading your locations to become out of sync. This can only lead to chaotic, inefficient service and higher print-related expenses.

To reduce company spending, increase productivity, and promote transparency, start by working with a national print service provider like Green Office Partner!

We specialize in providing white-gloved managed print services (MPS) for multi-site businesses across the United States and Canada. With enhanced workflows, we consolidate your print services under one reliable service package. 

We’ve seen firsthand how messy printing can get when national companies fail to standardize their fleets.

This article will explore four primary advantages of standardizing your national print fleet under a single print vendor.

1. Streamline Your Workflow

The first and potentially most important reason to work with a national print vendor is to improve your company’s print management workflow.

When several different print providers operate in your business space, each team will have its own way of doing things. Each will have its own strengths and weaknesses, leading to inconsistent service quality across every site.

But when working with a single print vendor, you’ll have one cohesive team that can perform onsite assessments and walkthroughs of your offices. With a bird-eye point-of-view, your print vendor can coordinate with its national team to identify optimal strategies that serve your entire organization, not just individual sites.

And should you choose to make also simplifies the deployment of new equipment and solutions. You can make a single phone call to your print provider to deploy company-wide changes.

Streamlining technology management across all locations simplifies operations and frees time for strategic endeavors, fostering a more efficient and productive work environment.

2. Improve Your Financials

When running a multi-site company, it can sometimes feel like your checkbook is getting pulled in every direction. And the worst part? You may not even know how much your company is spending on print-related costs.

Managing a multi-site business requires you to juggle many expenses, making it difficult for your accounting team to focus on print-related costs. These costs include but are not limited to toner, maintenance, new hardware acquisitions, equipment insurance, and shipping.

Luckily, standardizing print is a simple and effective way to consolidate and reduce spending.

Packaging all locations under a single print vendor makes your business eligible for discounted click rates and large group device pricing. For larger companies, savings are often in the thousands or tens of thousands per year.

Additionally, having a cohesive print provider for every location lets you easily track and control costs. One national team can coordinate across every site to identify the most cost-effective way to provide you with high-quality service.

3. Increase Visibility Across Every Site

In addition to the hard savings generated by standardizing your print fleet, your business will also gain critical insights into your spending patterns. With this knowledge, you can adapt your fleet to meet the needs of both individual locations and your company-wide priorities.

For example, if one location consistently spends more on print than others with similar employee counts, a national MPS provider can identify this discrepancy and flag it for investigation.

A dependable managed print provider can analyze trends within your businesses, shedding light on why specific locations spend more or less on print with a bird’s-eye view of the organization. This also gives businesses key insights into workflow inefficiencies, market trends, and each location's specific needs.

Also, working with a single print vendor allows you to review these stats during business reviews. Setting aside time for hour-long meetings with several different vendors, each repeating every month or two, eats up a significant amount of your team’s time and resources. 

Even worse, if you work with many different print vendors, they may not even be taking the time to regularly review your accounts. If they only manage one or two of your locations, they may not deem your relationship worth their time to perform proper business reviews.

However, by working with a single print vendor, you can cover every location under one recurring meeting and implement company-wide changes when needed.

By leveraging the insights gained from a national MPS provider, your business will have the knowledge and resources to stay competitive in an ever-changing market. Suddenly, several hours of meetings shrink down to one monthly or quarterly cycle.

Much more manageable.

4. Enhance Business Scalability

Having uniform operating procedures across all locations makes scaling your business a breeze.

When you need to add an office to your fleet, your print vendor has processes in place to effortlessly deploy to your new location. Training new employees on new devices is simple when you already have tried and tested educational materials.

And, should you transfer staff between new and existing locations, no additional training will be required. With a national print vendor, every site will use the same handful of equipment, meaning that transferred employees will already be familiar with the new site’s devices.

The same is true for transferring equipment to different locations. When every site has the same vendor and models, moving copiers from sites A to B won’t require additional training at site B.

Ultimately, a standardized print service framework ensures that as your company expands, it can maintain consistency in quality and service while effectively managing costs.

Growing your team and training them becomes exponentially easier when working with a single, cohesive team.

Consolidating Print with Green Office Partner

Running a multi-site business is challenging. With endless many variables across every location, you want our services and vendors to support your success. When offices are involved, printing is an essential piece of the puzzle.

At Green Office Partner, we build meaningful business partnerships with our enterprise-level clients. We will work with you to create flexible, scalable printing solutions for every location under your management.

 And with locations across the United States and Canada, we’re well-equipped to handle your fleet, whether you run one, ten, or hundreds of offices.

To get started today, click here.