Case Report Forms Printing Services Category Procurement Intelligence Report

A changing ecosystem within the Printing Services market also affects the procurement process, cost dynamics and supplier attractiveness for the buyers of Case Report Forms Printing Services. Digital printing has made significant in-roads at the expense of offset printing owing to its benefits such as order flexibility, optimized stock handling, and minimization of time-to-market for printed content.

Suppliers expect an increase in OPEX from rising prices of paper and ink which has resulted from rising input costs and to some extent, from shortening supply. Still, declining use of paper and intense competition will offset this incremental cost.

The category is expected to experience a moderate price rise resulting from increasing investment in technologies and automation by commercial printing companies, but long-term price outlook remains positive for buyers as suppliers are expected to recover the technological investments soon.

Sometimes, procurement functions are unable to timely alter their practices while responding to market conditions. Industry experts acknowledge that periodically reviewing procurement best practices and adopting learnings from across procurement categories can help procurement teams respond to market needs in a more agile way. This report combines our experience of other categories with Case Report Forms Printing Services procurement insights and hand picks best practices that can work for category managers delving in this market.

For example, Buyers should engage with regional service providers of digital print as this will reduce the procurement lead time. Shipment of goods from regional service providers takes lesser shipment time compared with shipment from global print service providers.

Buyers should assess factors such as their overall printing requirements, quality of prints required, and need to repeat orders. Such information can be used to take a decision on choosing between a domestic service provider or an offshore service provider based in a low-cost country. Buyers can also choose to attain a balance between offshoring and domestic engagement to optimize their cost-saving opportunities.

Buyers can use standard scorecards to evaluate service providers and offer necessary comments to rationalize the given scores. This will help document the decision-making process.

Case Report Forms Printing Services procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Case Report Forms Printing Services procurement. Some examples include: