"We are now firmly of the opinion that brand and printed material for a corporation is best managed globally by one provider," said Eric Belcher, chief executive of the Chicago-based BPO, in an exclusive interview with PrintWeek.
With a supplier base of more than 8,000 vendors, InnerWorkings provides a host of services, including print procurement, fulfillment and logistics, on-site support, warehousing and workflow solutions for clients that include Samsung, Scotts and US-retailer Lord & Taylor.
But in building up its global presence, Belcher said the company will not look to implement a one-size-fits-all strategy for diverse markets. "Every region is so unique and while direct marketing might be the prevalent method across one region, it might not be applicable in another region," he added.
"So it's less to do with rolling out marketing best practices around the globe and more to do with single accountability for the brand and the materials behind it around the globe - as well as providing visibility into the print management and print supply chain that doesn't exist today."
Even in an era where digital is slowly making inroads into areas once dominated by print, such as brochures and promotional materials, InnerWorkings generated $482.2m in revenues last year and Belcher said print will continue to be the driver for the company going forward.
"Some print categories will continue to grow and the primary categories we support continue to see print as an integral part of the marketing mix going forward," he added. "We see print as complimentary to new media rather than something replaced by new media, in part because the ROI of marketing campaigns using printed material hasn't decreased."
InnerWorkings, which is publicly traded on NASDAQ, does offer some digital services including asset management libraries and data management. However, Belcher insisted: "Print will continue to be one of the largest manufacturing categories in the world for decades to come."
But Belcher also noted that commercial printing does need to change, pointing out that it remains one of the most inefficient global industries. "We estimate that well over half of all print jobs are being run on something other than the optimal equipment or within the optimal plant configuration - or they're being run in the wrong geographic location to optimize the landed costs of a job and minimize freight expenses," he said. "Those are the inefficiencies I don't see corporations paying for in the future."
"The way this industry has existed for centuries is broken and inefficient - it doesn't work. We feel we can provide a better way to manage this supply chain. In some markets, there really isn't a lot of transparencies as to how the print purchases are being executed, so having professional services firm like InnerWorkings, with all its knowledge and data, take over back office function is a huge benefit."
InnerWorkings grew 20% in 2010 over 2009, and Belcher said he expects similar growth in 2011, pointing out, "we estimate that we're supporting less than 1% of the US-only print spend and far less than that globally."
He also stressed the February purchase of Santiago, Chile-based CPRO, which generated more than US$22m in print related revenues in 2009, was not part of a strategy to grow only through acquisition.
"We have a strong presence in Europe and we're aggressively and organically expanding there," Belcher added. "The Asia Pacific market, of course, is booming and many of our global clients are looking for a better solutions, so you can see a lot more of our business coming from there as well."
InnerWorkings European operations are centred on Etrinsic, the Birmingham-based print management company it acquired in May 2008.
