Impressions - January 2017 - 41

In OR OUT?
Below are some pros and cons to help you decide whether to digitize in house or outsource it:
Pros of Outsourcing Digitizing:

Pros of In-House Digitizing:

* Frees up time

* No language barrier

* May cost less than

* Less chance of misinterpreting instructions

in-house digitizing

* Quality and cost control

Cons of Outsourcing Digitizing:

* Control of production time

* Language barrier

* Consistency in quality

* May misinterpret instructions
* Low quality
* Late delivery
* Inconsistency in quality between digitizers

Cons of In-House Digitizing:
* No time
* Costly training
* After training, employee may leave

* Requires depending on someone outside
your business
* Loss of control

are left with no choice but to continue
outsourcing digitizing.
The decision to do this should be based
on a firm understanding of those designs'
collective importance to your business,
as well as an understanding of the process.
It is your job to ensure customers' wishes
are interpreted in stitches. You are the
middleman, and you must take customers'
information and deliver it to the digitizer
intact. Learning the terminology will help
guarantee that you and your customer
are happy.
To "supervise" your digitizer, you will
need an understanding of the digitizing process, which will require a time commitment.
Outsourcing Parameters
First, understand what you need from
the digitizer.The design should run well,
look good, be an accurate copy of your
customer's art and be delivered on time.
This means you must speak the language
and be clear in your requests.
Second, price should not be part of the
criteria.A badly digitized design will end
up costing hundreds of dollars. Most inexpensive designs produced offshore are
scanned and automatically turned into
stitches. The design is sent with little to
no editing, which requires you to send it
back to be edited before it can be used.This
means you could either miss a customer's
deadline or spend late nights making up for
lost time, all of which will cost you money.

If your purchase is price-driven, trying
to explain what is wrong with the resulting design can be a problem.There's the
possibility of a language barrier and your
chances of speaking with the digitizer who
did the work is next to impossible.
So be prepared to correct any flaws in
the design yourself. Invest in the appropriate software, but also have the design
digitized in a format that will allow easy
corrections.This will control, in part, your
delivery date and production headaches.
Lastly, and most importantly, invest in
software training so you know how to fix
designs.This can potentially save a job, help
you speak the digitizer's language when
making requests, and enable you to troubleshoot the design and meet deadlines.
Digitizing is the heart of your business.
It controls costs, quality and delivery time.
Absence of time is the only reason to consider outsourcing designs.
What To Look For
When selecting a digitizer, ask to see samples of the firm's work and to speak with
the customers involved. If the work looks
good but runs badly, was delivered late or
didn't meet customer expectations, you
need to know.
But beware; if the digitizer fits all your
criteria, other embroiderers may discover
the firm and your price will increase.And
no matter how good the digitizer is, you
still must do last-minute tweaks to meet

deadlines or correct running problems.
Finding someone to train you is similar
to finding a good digitizer. Ask to see
samples of this person's work, and to speak
with people they have trained. Run the
person's designs; if they run badly, cause
numerous thread breaks or are "bullet
proof," walk away.You are looking at too
many stitches, too much running time,
numerous thread breaks and you will not
learn to produce the quality your business
deserves.
Make your digitizing-outsourcing decision with a full understanding of the
process and its importance to your business.
Being adequately trained will put you in
the driver's seat. When you learn how to
produce a quality design - one that runs
well and looks good - you then can supervise your digitizing and decide whether
to outsource it or keep it in-house. 
Lee Caroselli-Barnes, owner of Balboa Threadworks
Embroidery Design, is known for her innovation
and excellence in embroidery digitizing. She has
30 years of experience in the embroidery industry.
For more information or to comment on this article,
email Lee at balboainfo@aol.com.

The decision
to outsource
digitizing
should be
based on a firm
understanding
of designs'
collective
importance to
your business.

JANUARY 2017

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12/15/16 11:31 AM

Impressions - January 2017

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