What Is the Impact of Administrative Costs on Your Print Business?

13 February 2024

What Is the Impact of Administrative Costs on Your Print Business?

Within the printing industry, there's a lot going on. Often, high administrative costs are the villain for many sign and print businesses. Thus, they soon find themselves facing a financial challenge, which only makes the battle with competitors more difficult. Multiple orders are lost, leaving good margins out of the question. So the question is: as a business owner, what can you do about it?

 

40% of Each Print Order = Administrative Costs! 

The administrative cost of a sign or print order in a European print production company averages 40% of the total order cost. This insight is based on benchmark data collected from over 1,200 print businesses throughout Dataline's 25-year history.

However, this financial impact is merely the tip of the iceberg:

  • Beyond the direct costs, valuable time is also squandered managing administrative tasks across various applications and databases.
  • The quest for information becomes a time-consuming challenge, undermining your company's potential for success.
  • Let's not overlook how these administrative burdens can impact customer satisfaction. Delays in order processing and potential errors resulting from cumbersome administrative management may lead to customer dissatisfaction. This not only affects the ongoing project but can also harm the company's reputation and hinder new business opportunities. Every print company aims for customer loyalty, making it crucial to address these challenges.

The pivotal question stays the same: How can you remain competitive under these circumstances?

Facing a 40% administrative cost challenge, maintaining competitive rates while ensuring a reasonable profit becomes hard. High administrative costs negatively affect operational efficiency and potentially customer satisfaction with delays or errors. This difficulty threatens your competitive standing.

 

Reducing Administrative Costs: How Can It Be Done?

Changes in the printing industry, like digitization and automation, have shaken things up. Implementing administrative automation not only provides a competitive edge for printing companies but also enhances the service for print job buyers. It's crucial to embrace this trend to avoid struggling with slim profit margins, as there's a risk of losing the battle and, consequently, money.

Dataline, a company with over 25 years of experience in implementing business software for print companies, has introduced the MAS analysis tool for this purpose. This tool offers insights into potential savings and improvements. Most print businesses without specialized software often discover that administrative costs can be reduced by at least half. Furthermore, Dataline ensures the predefined savings.

 

The Solution: One Centralized Software Package

Today, efficient administrative processes begin with one centralized software package and a unified database. This integrated approach provides several crucial advantages for smooth operations:

  • Firstly, it ensures a smooth exchange of information between different tasks, reducing manual data entry and the need to switch between various systems.
  • Moreover, the centralized system minimizes the risk of errors and associated costs by eliminating duplicate data entry.
  • It also ensures consistent management of customer information, enhances communication with customers and helps you build a reliable customer database.
  • The integrated order and production management facilitates seamless order processing and follow-up.
  • Additionally, the centralized system enables accurate order calculation, invoicing, and simplifies payment management.

 

Go for Higher Margins Through Administrative Automation

With a centralized software package like MultiPress, the entire workflow accelerates, requiring a smaller workforce. In summary, choosing one centralized software package is the key to successfully optimizing various processes in any sign and print business. However, when performed using different applications and databases, it comes at the expense of efficiency.  It is crucial to minimize the administrative costs of a product order. Only then can margins increase, possibly even doubling your gains!

Cut down on administrative expenses with MultiPress, just like Die Keure, Logiegrafix, and SC Packaging!