InformationWeek

July 5, 1999

Outsourcing Gains Steam

By Karen D. Schwartz

nless your IT staff is unusually knowledgeable about printing issues, experts recommend considering outsourcing at least part of your printing needs. There are a number of major players that provide printing outsourcing services, including Hewlett-Packard, which just rolled out a program last month; IBM Global Services; Lexmark; Xerox Business Services; and consulting companies such as DSI, IKON, and Vestcom.

"A lot of IT departments need help understanding what's out there and how to support it," says Charlie Corr, director of the on-demand suppliers group at Cap Ventures Inc. He says that outsourcing all or part of a company's printing needs can save significant money when an internal team doesn't understand the intricacies and costs involved in distributed printing and workgroup print-support issues. In many cases, those savings can help pay for the outsourcing services, and companies can actually end up with a better program at a lower cost.

Some companies choose to hire an outside firm merely to assess the current infrastructure and propose a more efficient architecture. Others prefer to outsource the entire process, including implementation and ongoing maintenance of the new architecture. Most companies choose to address each stage separately, noting that it helps keep internal control over the process. Reynolds Metals Co. has chosen to take the process one step at a time. In addition to helping it choose an electronics forms package, Lexmark Solutions Services is now undertaking a printing architecture study at the company in order to help it develop an end-to-end printing solution. After Lexmark devises a plan, company executives will decide which recommendations to adopt and who will perform the implementation.

"We just didn't have time to tackle these issues ourselves," says Stuart Burnett, senior technical consultant at Reynolds Metals Co. "We are bringing up our first plant on our new ERP system less than a year from the decision to move forward with the project. We have our own set of challenges to deal with."

Owens Corning took a hybrid approach. The company's IT staff developed and implemented its printing architecture in conjunction with consultants from Xerox, but outsources the day-to-day operations of its document center, which handles most document management and printing. "Running the document center wasn't a core competency of Owens Corning, and it wasn't something we wanted to spend our resources on," says VP and CIO David Johns. "And after some initial bumps in the road, we find it more efficient to handle it this way."

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