AccessPlus business development director Clive Gotch said: “The outsourced solution replaces an in-house operation that had served the organisation well for over 20 years.”

Five firms tendered for the contract. According to Gotch, the key factors in winning the deal were AccessPlus’s ability to “seamlessly transfer” RICS’s in-house print facilities to an outsourced set-up, as well as the PM firm’s e-procurement technologies, Collaborative Workflow System (CWS) and Edit2Print.

“It was important to us that RICS could see the benefits of working with a supplier that has a strong, integrated e-commerce solution to underpin its core print management and business communication offering,” he said.

RICS financial controller Mark Draisey added: “Outsourcing our print operation follows a decision early last year to outsource our design and creative operations.

“As we look to concentrate on our core activities, such as membership development and knowledge management, finding reliable business partners for our key support services will be crucial to our success.”

RICS has more than 130,000 members across 121 countries.

For more on this story, see Thursday's PrintWeek.