A business should bring printing in-house when it regularly outsources color documents, booklets, or marketing collateral that a modern office or light-production device can now produce, typically proposals, sell sheets, postcards, bound reports, and event materials. For most GTA businesses, in-house printing on a right-sized Xerox device delivers same-day turnaround, consistent brand color, and a cost per page well below outside print-shop rates, while keeping confidential documents in the building.
For years, “real” print work had to be sent out. Office copiers couldn’t handle the stocks, the color, or the finishing. That constraint is gone, and most businesses haven’t updated the habit.
WHAT BUSINESSES STILL OUTSOURCE (AND NO LONGER NEED TO)
The usual suspects: proposals on heavy cover stock, folded and stapled booklets, postcards and mailers, event signage, presentation decks, and bound reports. Each one used to require a print shop. Today’s office and light-production devices handle all of them, with automatic finishing and color that holds from the first page to the last. Managed Print Services can also help businesses evaluate which print work should remain in-house and which should continue to be outsourced.
THE REAL COST OF OUTSOURCING PRINT
The print shop invoice is only the visible part. Add the courier and the wait, the revisions your team skips because a reprint means another order, and the occasional version that goes out slightly wrong because there was no time to fix it. Outsourced color routinely runs several times the in-house cost per page before you count the days lost to someone else’s queue.
SPEED AND CONTROL
In-house print collapses a three-day turnaround into an afternoon. Need a last-minute change before a client meeting? You make it and reprint; you don’t reorder and wait.
CONFIDENTIALITY
For legal, healthcare, and financial work, in-house printing means sensitive documents never leave the building. That’s a compliance and trust advantage outsourcing can’t match.
HOW TO RIGHT-SIZE THE DEVICE
The goal isn’t the biggest machine; it’s the right one for the work you actually produce. Smaller and distributed teams are well served by A4 office color devices like the Xerox C-Series. Busy shared offices step up to an A3 workgroup MFP like the Xerox 9-Series, a tabloid color with copy/print/scan/fax, single-pass duplex scanning, and strong finishing in one device. Businesses producing booklets, heavy stocks, and higher volumes move to a light-production device like the Xerox PrimeLink C9200 Series, which runs 65-81 pages per minute with professional finishing built in. Production print solutions are designed for businesses with these higher-volume and more demanding print requirements.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How much can a business save by printing in-house?
It varies by volume, but outsourced color commonly costs several times the in-house cost per page. Businesses that print regularly often cover the device within the print-shop spend they’re already making. A print assessment quantifies it for your specific volume.
Is an office printer really good enough for marketing materials?
Today’s light-production devices are built for exactly this: true, consistent color on coated and heavy stocks with finishing like booklet-making and stapling. The gap between “office copier” and “print shop” has largely closed.
What should stay outsourced?
Very high volumes, large-format signage, and specialty finishing can still make sense to outsource. The point isn’t to bring everything in; it’s to stop outsourcing the everyday color work a right-sized device handles better and cheaper.
NEXT STEPS
hubTGI helps businesses across Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, Vaughan, and the GTA bring the right print work in-house. Start with a print assessment; we’ll measure what you send out, what it costs, and what you could own.
Book your print assessment at hubtgi.com/contact.
