Europe, Latin America, and other countries have gone the way of commercial print. Remaining relevant within your organization is a key driver to help in-plants continue to thrive in the U.S. Here are five tips to help ensure that your shop stays relevant and continues to grow.

As the face to the world for your organization, you are in a pivotal position to protect its brand and safeguard its confidentiality. You have a vested interest in the success of the organization and can support its mission by driving efficiencies and shedding redundancies. A key way to enhance your operation is through workflow automation that can reduce cost, increase quality and decrease turnaround time.

Color printing is predicted to grow to nearly 800 billion pages over the next few years according to Caslon & Co. research. Examine your color capabilities. Will your hardware and software meet the color demand next year, the year after? Keep abreast of color technology and be ready to propose hardware and/or software upgrades that will benefit your organization.

Recognize your competition and beat them at their own game. Who are your customers today? Who do you wish were your customers? More services will increase your value. Check out what outside competitors are providing to your customers. For example, if the marketing department at your organization uses an outside source to print recruitment brochures, find out why. When you identify the shortfall, whether its color quality, variable data, web-to-print submissions, managed document services or something else, you can address the issues and propose ways of bringing the work back in-house.

Staying relevant requires constant visibility. Create a web and social media presence to make it easy for customers to remember your services. Offer giveaways, such as calendars and capabilities brochures that customers can keep on their desks. Join customer councils, conduct seminars, host open houses and tours. Instill instant recognition so that your customers think of you first when it comes to printing. It’s a tough world out there. And with the outside competition encroaching on your turf, it’s time to step up your game. You don’t have to go it alone. Leverage your peers, partners and industry associations, like IPMA¹ and In-Plant Graphics² to stay informed, stay on the offensive and stay relevant.