How Leeds Beckett University Revolutionised Their Print Procurement

Client

Leeds Beckett University

Services

Sectors

Education

Image of Leeds Beckett University on a sunny day.

Overview

Managing print services for universities is no small task – from maintaining compliance to controlling costs and achieving environmental targets. Leeds Beckett University knew that traditional methods of sourcing printed marketing materials were no longer enough to meet the demands of a modern, forward-thinking institution.

By partnering with Webmart, a leading provider of print management services for education, the university transformed its print procurement processes, delivering average savings of £205.55 per project and reducing costs by an impressive 27% – all while improving compliance, supplier management, and sustainability reporting.

The Challenge

As a public sector organisation, Leeds Beckett University is bound by strict procurement rules designed to ensure value for money through fair and open competition. But manual procurement made it difficult to achieve consistent benchmarking and transparency across their printed marketing projects.

Meanwhile, their marketing team needed the ability to access creative print options quickly and cost-effectively to support key campaigns. This could be for student recruitment drives, prospectus mailings, and alumni engagement.

Sustainability was another major focus. With ISO 14001 environmental certification, the university required suppliers who could support eco-friendly print production. This included the use of recycled papers and tracking the carbon footprint of every print job.

In short, Leeds Beckett needed a smarter, more efficient way to manage its print procurement for education – one that delivered savings, strengthened compliance, simplified supplier management, and aligned with their environmental goals.

The Solution

Webmart’s print procurement platform gave Leeds Beckett University a smarter, more efficient way to manage their print sourcing. The platform allowed the university to easily build and manage an approved supplier list, instantly benchmarking prices from over 200 pre-vetted suppliers, saving time and ensuring competitive rates.

By providing real-time insights and encouraging supplier collaboration, the platform improved price/quality cycles and helped suppliers sharpen their offerings, benefiting both the university and its suppliers. There was no need for additional IT support, everything was ready to go out-of-the-box.

One of the standout features for Leeds Beckett was our instant price estimator. This tool allowed users to quickly test millions of print specifications, giving their marketing team the flexibility to experiment with creative formats and stay within budget. All this was achieved without the time-consuming process of waiting for quotes from multiple suppliers.

The Results

Thanks to Webmart’s expertise in university and education sector print services, Leeds Beckett University achieved:

£205.55

The average saving per project.

27%

The average percentage saving per project.

7

The number of suppliers benchmarked per project.

4 seconds

The average response time for quotes using our instant price estimator.

Beyond the impressive cost savings, the university achieved a more compliant, sustainable, and responsive procurement process, empowering both marketing and procurement teams to work smarter.

Looking Ahead

With enhanced control over marketing print spend, real-time supplier insights, and stronger environmental reporting, the university is future-proofing its operations, delivering maximum impact with minimum waste.

What our client said

We needed a solution to help us drive compliance throughout the organisation and to enable us to get value for money from our suppliers. Looking back, it was a very successful and painless implementation. It continues to reduce direct spend on each project placed as well as saving staff time.

The Webmart sourcing tool makes getting quotes from my suppliers very easy. Not only does it directly save money by helping us purchase print at a lower price, but it also saves me a considerable amount of time. We have found it very effective to use and the support from Webmart very good.