Pierce County Sole-Source Print Vendor
Background
In 2020, Pierce County released an RFP seeking a sole-source contractor for printing services that crossed many categories including business cards, envelopes, stationery, all types of forms, graphics, signage, and a variety of other projects. This was in an effort to increase the quality of printed materials available to county departments and streamline the order process.
Strategy
Online Ordering Platform
In order to meet Pierce County’s needs of a streamlined sourcing and ordering process along with a wide range of available products, we built and support an online ordering portal for county departments to utilize. In some cases the department only provides access to the portal for ordering employee business cards and stationery. In other cases, we have customized the ordering portal with department-specific outreach and print materials. This saves time by eliminating per-order administration time, and presents a competitive price structure to all departments county wide.
Streamlined online ordering platform
End users may select from a wide range of templates then customize the selected template with their information before approving a digital proof that is sent to print.
Dedicated Account Support
We also support the county with a dedicated account representative who intakes requests that aren’t able to be filled via the online ordering portal. This enables us to gather information about the request, provide a competitive quote, and when necessary, provide artwork design and build specifications so that the final product is ready to print. As always, we offer our consulting services to select the best press and facility to produce each printed piece to maximize quality and offer a competitive price.
Execution
We’ve completed a wide range of work under this contract from simple business card printing for county employees via the online ordering portal to custom vehicle decals and environmental signage.
Traffic Box Art Wrap Project
There are eight districts in the county and each district had multiple locations that required us to wrap boxes that were either a single box, a two box location or a three box location. The county hired local artists to create artwork and images that would be printed onto UV-resistant vinyl and applied to each electrical box.
We interfaced directly with the client to accept artwork from the artists who were hired for the project and to convert those images into workable art files for printing and installation on the electrical boxes.
Results
The program has exceeded Pierce County’s expectations for print quality, price, and product availability.
