Print Marketplace – ordering small prints jobs is now as easy as online shopping for schools and colleges

 

• Access to compliant printed goods at the click of a button
• On-line templates for ease of use
• Over 80% of printing companies are SMEs supporting local economies
• Collaboration between two of the largest public sector buying organisations offering savings to a wider reach of public sector customers. 

 

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and YPO have joined forces once again to launch the first ever public sector Print Marketplace.

The marketplace  works just like those commonly used across the private sector, enabling you to order a range of printed materials, including business forms, brochures, prospectuses, flyers and posters online. 

Over 80% of the companies on the marketplace are SMEs in line with the government’s aims to level the playing field for suppliers of all sizes. Print Marketplace aligns  with the Government’s aspiration that 33% of central government spending will go to SMEs by 2022

Designed for, and in consultation with, the public sector Print Marketplace offers a compliant, flexible and simple way to purchase print, whilst saving time and money. 

You will be able to define your requirements – such as selecting paper size and quality – and upload artwork or request artwork services, before receiving quotes from suppliers across the country or choose from preloaded templates. You can then filter these quotes by your priorities such as price or locality.  Crucially, you will be able to complete your order online too. 

With access to a large selection of pre-qualified printers, 87% of them are SMEs,  the marketplace will make sourcing printed materials feel less like procurement and more like online shopping.

Dave Duncan, Crown Commercial Service’s Head of Document Management and Logistics said:  “Capable of providing  instant quotes from multiple suppliers, Print Marketplace will be a genuinely market-leading solution. Boosted by our partnership with YPO, it will allow customers from the entire public sector to purchase quality print products and, in doing so, save time and money while meeting their social value obligations.” 

Gavin Rimmington, YPO Head of Public Sector said: “YPO have been looking at a print production offering for many years for our wider public sector customers who had small requirements,  current offerings that were accessed via further competitions were not suitable. 

“After much research we realised that these small offerings aggregated together were quite substantial and were excited at the opportunity to collaborate with CCS and were delighted with the outcome from APS. 

“To move away from the traditional way of purchasing print to this futuristic digital market place, where instant production price market quotes are available, saving the WPS not only cost savings buy efficiencies and offering up opportunities for SME printers.

“Current processes would mean 3 suppliers would be contacted for a quote and now this process is instant. SMEs are encouraged to sign up and can be onboarded and customers have alternative payment methods and can even include carbon offset as part of their quotes!”

 

CCS and YPO have appointed Allied Publicity Services (Manchester) Ltd  to manage the platform. To find out more please use the link to CCS website