Print buyers also want printers to train their staff on the job to enable better quality, lower costs and faster turnaround, the survey of North American companies by CAP Ventures and WhatTheyThink.com said.

Buyers also rated remote proofing, web-based job submission, and e-procurement as important offerings, while less important services included implementing digital asset management systems and variable data printing for personalised marketing.

Print buyers with larger budgets rated all the services higher than smaller customers. The survey said that larger customers had more to benefit from services like e-commerce and had the resources to take advantage of digital asset management.

The survey was conducted last month with print buyers primarily from the healthcare, advertising, retail, government, and manufacturing sectors.

It asked respondents to rate how valuable they found a variety of services that might be offered by their primary print supplier.

Services demanded by print buyers

Initiative Value rating for services (5 = extremely valuable)
Providing better prices and delivery times based on commitment to minimum annual volume3.7
Training on job for better quality and lower costs 3.6
Implementing on-demand print and/or fulfilment 3.2
Setting up remote proofing to generate digital proofs3.1
Enabling web-based job submission and e-procurement 3.1
Implementing a digital asset management system 2.9
Working to implement variable data printing 2.9

Story by Gordon Carson