Options Available in Starting Up a Mailing Operation
In days of yore the printer's responsibility ended at the dock door. Sure, sure the freightline was notified to come pick up a few skids or the mailing house was told the job was ready for their processing. But no more. The client wants the printer to manage the myriad of distribution details for their job including getting advance copies out by courier, 2,500 copies to the Las Vegas convention center in two days, 5,000 copies to foreign prospects by freight forwarder or camel merchant, 25,000 copies into USPS standard mail with all available rate discounts and the remaining 10,000 into the fulfillment warehouse for subsequent kitting or custom response packaging and delivery. And this is only the hard copy. Managing the e-mail broadcasting and other cyberspace distribution adds another dimension that will save for another epistle.
With time cycles contracting to get the hard copy to its various constituents and the costs of distribution often easily exceeding that of paper and printing costs, the printer is forced to do more than simply pass the baton to a trusted subcontractor. The print buyer is saying. "Get it done and save me money. Or I'll find a printer that will."
Since nearly 50% of all printing goes into the postal stream, this is the first area of distribution management that printers consider bringing in house. This article will present a broad brush of key issues to be addressed to assure a successful transition.
