The decision whether to produce ID cards in-house, on your own equipment, or outsource to a service provider, will hinge on a careful consideration of the following eight factors:
when to outsource

    1. Criticality – Is making cards mission-critical to your core business? Most companies will only outsource services which are not considered “mission-critical.”
    1. Cost – Cost is driven primarily by the number of cards you will require per year. Under 500 per year per site, it is generally more expensive to print cards in-house.
    1. Quality – A service provider should use the highest quality printers; a true specialist will have better equipment and software than that available off-the-shelf.
    1. Availability – You need to verify that any chosen service provider be available whenever you need cards, 24/7, with very high reliability guarantees.
    1. Communications – It is critical to ensure that you are able to establish and maintain excellent communications with the service provider, by phone, email, and face-to-face meetings.
    1. Staff Morale –Weigh the positive and negative impact on your employees. The satisfaction of being relieved of extra work load may be offset by the downside of someone losing a job.
    1. Flexibility – When choosing a service provider, you must ensure that you retain the option to recover your data and easily change suppliers, or to bring the work back in-house
  1. Skills – ID card production requires specific skills, which may or may not be present. If internal skills and resources are lacking, outsourcing may make more sense.

There are several options available when your organization decides to implement an ID badge program. Carefully reviewing and evaluating these eight criteria should allow you to make a well-reasoned decision.