Outsourcing of the printing kind

Whether it is human resource management or a core fina-ncial accounts
management sector–outsourcing to an Indian destination has come a long way.
And as different glo-bal companies are increasing their bet on India as a
favora-ble destination for outsour-cing, there are areas such as printing,
hustling their way up towards the phenomenon as well.

About one and a half years back, Bangalore based WeP Peripherals Ltd foresaw
the need for companies to outsou-rce their printing activity as a major area for
growth and ven-tured into the same. Now the company has got aggressive plans to
further entrench itself in this segment, as being a one-stop-shop for
outsourcing of printing needs.

"It has been a difficult road for us trying to convince our customers to
buy our solution. Now we are not worried about convincing at all. We are now
focussing more towards ado-pting different technologies and models to further
expand this concept to different levels," added Ram Agarwal, MD and CEO,
WeP.

Reason to outsource

Almost all the corporate houses still have big invest-ments in internal
document print and mail facilities, but the tide is rapidly changing. Why is
document outsourcing set to grow?

The most obvious reason why companies consider docu-ment outsourcing is to
reduce capital investment and on-going expenses for laser prin-ters, mail
machines, software and personnel–all of which are utilized on a part time
basis. Strong outsourcing partners offer production facilities allowing you to
pay only for your company’s usage. This is where is the attraction is.

Today, many organizations recognize there is no competi-tive advantage in
building and managing print and mail operations, especially when print and mail
will diminish over time with the future transition to electronic docu-ments. Few
companies can afford to hire a full time staff to research and stay abreast of
technology changes in laser printing, mail production software and equipment and
postal regulations. "That’s why we always suggest our clients not to buy
a printer, but buy printing as a service," Agarwal quipped.

Printing on the go

With over 85 corporate cus-tomers using its services–WeP is already on its
way to create more than 10,000 ‘print points’ in India covering not only the
metros, but also the upcountry market regions as well. This is being done as
part of its second phase.

Once the second phase is in place with more than 10,000 ‘print
points’, the company plans to venture into–‘Print-ing on the move’–this
will be done under the implementa-tion of its third phase wherein mobile device
documentation will come into play.

Once mobile printing is made available–a user will be able
to print a document using a mobile phone or any PDA for that matter. "We
need to work closely with telecom operators and service providers to adopt our
solution. This is going to happen soon, and this will also stretch the mobile
applications envelope to the next level," said Ranbir Singh, GM (North
Zone), WeP.

Zia Askari (CyberMedia News Service)