Key Takeaways
- Transparency plays a critical role in successful marketing execution (also known as managed services) relationships.
- Understanding how a provider generates revenue helps organizations make more informed sourcing and procurement decisions.
- Limited visibility into supplier relationships, pricing structures, and fee models can make it difficult to evaluate true costs.
- True open-book sourcing models help create accountability, improve decision-making, and strengthen long-term partnerships.
Most organizations evaluate marketing execution (managed services) providers based on service, capabilities, and cost savings. These factors matter, but they only tell part of the story.
The structure behind a managed services program can influence pricing, supplier relationships, sourcing decisions, and long-term value. Understanding how a provider operates and generates revenue helps organizations make more informed decisions about marketing procurement, strategic sourcing, and marketing execution.
As procurement teams place greater emphasis on accountability and visibility, transparency has become an increasingly important part of the conversation.
Why Transparency Matters
Businesses need to understand where their dollars are going, how suppliers are selected, and what factors influence sourcing decisions. The more visibility teams have into those processes, the easier it becomes to evaluate performance, identify opportunities, and make informed decisions.
Greater transparency can help organizations:
- Understand how sourcing decisions are made
- Evaluate supplier relationships more effectively
- Identify opportunities for cost optimization
- Improve accountability across stakeholders
- Validate pricing against broader market conditions
Transparency also strengthens collaboration between clients, suppliers, and managed services providers. When expectations, costs, and decision-making processes are clearly understood, teams spend less time questioning the process and more time focusing on outcomes.
For procurement leaders, visibility often becomes just as important as savings.
Understanding the Economics Behind Print Management (aka Marketing Execution Print Managed Services)
Print Management (also more broadly called Marketing Execution Management and Managed Services) providers use a variety of business models to support their operations.
Some programs rely primarily on management fees and service agreements. Others incorporate additional revenue streams that may include supplier participation fees, technology fees, portal fees, financing structures, rebates, or shared savings programs.
These approaches exist across many industries and can provide value when organizations understand how they work.
Common Revenue Structures in Print Managed Services
Organizations may encounter revenue models that include:
- Management or service fees
- Supplier participation or network fees
- Technology and platform fees
- Shared savings arrangements
- Rebates or incentive programs
- Financing and payment-related fees
The challenge is understanding how they influence sourcing decisions, supplier relationships, and overall program economics.
Procurement teams often focus on final pricing, which is understandable. However, pricing represents only one part of a larger picture. Understanding how suppliers participate in a network, how sourcing decisions are made, and how revenue flows through the system provides valuable context when evaluating program performance.
Once organizations understand what each cost represents, they can better determine whether final pricing reflects the true market or has been inflated along the way.
The Visibility Challenge
Many organizations have not recently reviewed how their managed services program operates behind the scenes.
They may receive competitive pricing, strong service, and successful project outcomes while having limited visibility into the path a project takes from supplier quote to final invoice.
This lack of visibility does not necessarily indicate a problem. However, it can make it difficult to answer important questions.
Questions Worth Asking
- How are suppliers selected?
- What factors influence sourcing decisions?
- How does the provider generate revenue and are there secondary revenue streams?
- Are supplier incentives aligned with client objectives?
- When was pricing last validated against the broader market?
For procurement and marketing leaders, these questions become increasingly important as programs grow in size and complexity over time.
Visibility creates the foundation for informed decision-making.
What Open-Book Sourcing Looks Like
Open-book sourcing is a transparent procurement approach that allows organizations to see how suppliers are selected, what costs are included, and why sourcing decisions are made.
For many organizations, that visibility extends to:
- Visibility into actual supplier pricing and sourcing decisions
- Understanding of your managed service provider’s supplier terms
- Competitive bidding processes that encourage market-based pricing
- Clear reporting on program performance and spending
- Defined accountability across suppliers and stakeholders
- Ongoing opportunities to identify efficiencies and cost improvements
This level of transparency helps organizations understand not only what they are paying, but also how procurement decisions support broader business goals.
For many organizations, visibility becomes more important as programs mature. It provides a way to verify that costs remain aligned with market conditions and that long-standing supplier relationships continue to deliver value.
Before You Renew
Trust plays a central role in every managed services relationship.
Organizations depend on procurement partners, suppliers, and execution teams to make decisions that affect budgets, timelines, and business outcomes. The more visibility they have into those decisions, the easier it becomes to build confidence and maintain alignment across stakeholders.
Transparency does not require organizations to analyze every transaction or question every process. It simply provides the information needed to make informed decisions and evaluate opportunities with clarity.
As organizations assess their managed services programs, one question remains worth asking:
How confident are you that your current pricing is truly market-competitive, and when was the last time you validated it?
