Even the largest companies in the country don’t do everything in-house. Specialization is such a powerful force that a service provider who does one thing very well becomes a very important partner for organizations that appear to the average customer to be large, wealthy, and expansive enough to do everything themselves. In the best examples, those customers are never actually aware that a third party is involved; rather, it looks as though the organization is doing everything themselves.

Print Services as a Third-Party Service

Print services are perhaps the most commonly outsourced service for large organizations. Printing is an incredibly detailed, specialized, and complex process, and the investment in a well equipped, expertly staffed print department is beyond what most organizations are willing to spend. It’s far less expensive in the long run to work with a great print services partner.

There are a few caveats there, of course! That print services partner needs to be capable of handling all the projects entrusted to them by their client, with a high degree of accuracy, quality, and of course data security. Because the third party print provider is “invisible” to the customer, any mistakes that result in poor quality print materials or incorrect distribution to recipients will reflect directly on the client organization. 

Comprehensive Print Services

Another important quality of a print provider, particularly for a large organization, is the ability to handle many different types of print jobs. After setting up a relationship with a print provider to produce standard print collateral, such as mailers and catalogs, an organization doesn’t want to have to find another provider to create large format signage, conference materials, window clings, and other types of more specialized items. 

Spectra is a great example of a one-stop resource for printed materials. Our extensive experience in the print industry, going back over two decades, positions us to handle all different types of print projects for even the largest clients. Here are a few examples of the kinds of projects we handle every day in our shop:

• Official correspondence for financial service providers, healthcare organizations, and insurance companies
• Direct mail advertisements, postcards, and flyers
• Catalogs, brochures, and other marketing products

Specialized Projects

When it comes to specialized projects that not all print providers can handle, Spectra is ready to take them from start to finish with speed, quality, and accuracy. We regularly manage these and other specialty projects for our print clients:

• Large format banners and vinyl printing for trade show/conference booth materials
• Window clings and adhesives for seasonal and special event marketing
• Promotional products
• Apparel printing

Spectra’s clients know that they can come to us with all of their printing needs, no matter how specialized, and get a quick turnaround with great quality. 

Variable Data Printing

Variable data printing is a highly specialized category of print services. With a variable data print project, each individual piece must be customized to its recipient. Spectra’s print facility is equipped with two HP Indigo 7000 digital presses, which are capable of fast, accurate variable data printing. These offerings are ideal for insurance companies and other organizations that need to send fully personalized statements, updates, and other types of communications to their members.

Other Print Capabilities

We are proud to feature a number of case studies in our blog archives outlining some of our favorite “out of the box” print projects. These clients are sometimes apprehensive about bringing their complex needs to a print services provider, but they inevitably discover that working with Spectra is not only easier and simpler, but also more affordable and more powerful than they had anticipated.

• Large church with multiple campuses. Printing of large format materials with unified branding across campuses, as well as weekly print collateral customized for the services conducted at each campus.
• Planners and calendars for a supplier of academic organization products. Client offered customized covers and other elements for schools that ordered items from them; Spectra was able to quickly print and distribute the customized products to meet school year deadlines.

Integration With Fulfillment

One of the most important features of Spectra’s print department, which frequently comes into play with large clients, is the ability to fully integrate with Spectra’s fulfillment department. The fulfillment arm of Spectra offers the same levels of expertise and experience as the print division, and by combining print and fulfillment services within a single expert team, organizations reduce the time and energy that must be spent coordinating those services.

One great example of our print and fulfillment integration is an ongoing contract with a supplier of educational materials. This client has Spectra print the materials themselves in our state-of-the-art print facility, then kitting and shipping of the products are handled by our fulfillment department. The integrated process is very efficient, allowing the client to offer its customers quick order turnaround times.

Many of our fulfillment clients at Spectra need to send print collateral of various types along with their B2B or B2C orders. Rather than getting those materials printed by another vendor and sent to Spectra, these clients simply have Spectra print the collateral and add it to their orders, all in-house. By streamlining the print and fulfillment processes in this way, Spectra reduces the time between order placement and fulfillment, which not only saves the client money, but also makes them look great to their customers.

In the end, that’s always the goal of a great third-party service provider: to act as the invisible power behind the client, making it possible for them to meet and exceed their customers’ expectations every time. Spectra is a print and distribution partner that excels in that area, even as the client grows and needs to scale up their services dramatically. Learn about even more advantages to working with Spectra by reading the success stories in our blog archives, and when you’re ready to have a consultation about how Spectra can help your organization, send us an email. We’re always ready to chat!