ACUP - A Shining Performance

By Bob Neubauer

On the same night Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe were stepping past screaming fans to accept their Oscars, just a few miles down the road, the 37th annual Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) conference was being kicked off with some fanfare of its own.

At the opening reception, attendees were greeted by flashing cameras, inquiring "reporters" and swooning "fans" to demonstrate the conference's theme: "You're the star of the show."

An impressive 146 in-plant managers starred in this year's ACUP, held in University City, Calif., and hosted by Pasadena City College. Richard Jones and Douglas Haines directed the three-day show, which drew printers from all over the United States and as far off as the United Kingdom.

The laid-back pace of the conference was matched by the sunny California weather, which lured attendees outdoors in between the many educational sessions to mingle and discuss common concerns.

Opportunities for networking abounded, in fact. Conversation flowed freely at the roundtable discussions, on the 26-vendor exhibit floor and at the evening social activities, which included a tour of Universal Studios and a dinner cruise, sponsored by Ricoh Corp. In addition, Ricoh invited ACUP members to tour its manufacturing facilities and watch copiers being assembled.

In The Spotlight

Continuing the Hollywood theme, the conference's first speaker, Alan Shapiro, president of LAgraphico.com, gave an often-humorous presentation on his experiences printing for the movie studios. At one time, he said, studios cared little about cost; today accountants run the show and dictate what they will pay for jobs.

This was followed by a rather unorthodox presentation by SST Communications, a theater company. Four performers acted out scenarios illustrating how communication methods differ between different generations in the workplace. Their message: opportunities lie ahead if you leave your age-based prejudices behind and stay open to new ways of looking at situations.

More traditional sessions followed. In one, Xerox representatives discussed the growth in digital color due to a migration from black-and-white, as well as new applications like variable color data. Color, they said, improves reader comprehension and recognition, as well as decision-making time, so customers are clamoring for it.

E-commerce At UC-Berkeley

Elsewhere, Sue Sheehan described the University of California-Berkeley's move into online ordering. Initially, the shop built its own business card site, she said. Then to allow even more jobs to be ordered via the Web, the in-plant teamed up with printCafe. Now, via a link from UC-Berkeley's site to printCafe's, users can create new projects via built-in templates.

A drop menu lists the types of projects available, and once a choice is made, users see a picture of their selection. They then key in pertinent information, such as paper type, number of colors, quantity and delivery dates. For repeat jobs, certain characteristics, like ink color and paper, are already set.

"We see it as just another tool to make it easy for our customers to order from us," Sheehan said. In-plants, she added, should establish e-commerce procedures themselves before customers force them into a system they don't like—or ignore them completely in their e-commerce plans.

"We feel we need to be out there first, instead of being dictated to," she said.

Creating A PDF Workflow

Rick Wise, of the University of Missouri-Columbia, gave an informative talk on his operation's move into PDF. He traced the history of PostScript and how it led to the development of the Portable Document Format.

PDF files contain all of the resources for a document. They are easily shared, are smaller and more reliable than PostScript files and can be viewed with free viewer software.

Though, in theory, PDF files can hold all the information needed to output film, adjust ink settings on the press and even automatically set the folder dimensions, Wise said that to make this happen, customers would have to take on much more responsibility. In the real world, he noted—particularly in the in-plant world—this doesn't happen. Many customers don't set up all the design elements properly, and preflighting is usually still necessary.

Often, customers prepare layout files in a software package outside of the industry standard (i.e. Word or Publisher). Since these formats are device dependent, getting a PDF from one of the source files locks in what the customer had on his or her machine. Wise said his shop uses plug-ins like PitStop to accept PDF files from MS Office applications and edit them.

In the digital printing environment, however, Wise said PDF lets in-plants accept digital originals and keeps customers from going elsewhere. When a proper PDF is submitted, it can be sent straight to a digital device once job ticket options have been programmed. Of course, the PDF must still be created correctly, and this requires some customer training.

Wise admitted that all the options for helping customers with PDF creation are difficult. You could install and configure Adobe Acrobat for them, or install print drivers that create a PDF automatically, but this would require a lot of staff, time and cost.

Wise said his in-plant will use a Web-based submission procedure for its quick copy customers that auto-generates PDF proofs and submits them. (For more info, view Wise's presentation online at www.ps.missouri.edu.)

Roundtable Discussions

Attendees got to speak their minds during three concurrent roundtable discussions. Rosemary Chase of George Mason University led one on copyright issues, while Indiana University's Joe Goss moderated a discussion on combining print and mail operations.

A large group gathered for my roundtable talk on the state of the in-plant, in which I discussed trends like color and digital printing, direct imaging offset presses, e-commerce and insourcing—the most controversial of the topics. Several managers felt in-plants should not take in outside work since this puts them in competition with printers in their local community. They said their schools prohibit them from insourcing.

Others said their universities allow them to print jobs for local businesses, treating this revenue the same as they treat bookstore profits from non-university customers. Most who insource, though, said they only take in jobs from other universities or from government agencies.

The UK Connection

The handful of attendees from the UK lent a cosmopolitan feel to the conference. One of them, Gerard Kennedy, of the University of Sheffield, gave an entertaining presentation on total quality management during which he sang, told humorous anecdotes about his staff and showed repeated pictures of his favorite pub. In between, though, he explained how TQM helped his shop get 95 percent of the university's printing, compared to just 40 percent when he started.

He credited his success on what he called the "six C's."

• Comprehension: Know as much as possible about the job you are doing.

• Commitment: "Commit yourself to getting it right every time—and you will get it right every time," he said.

• Competence: Remind your staff that only the best people work there—otherwise you wouldn't have hired them.

• Correction: Eliminate the chance for errors to take place; if they do, correct the procedure that made them happen.

• Communication: Talk about the next job. Pass information on to the right person.

• Continuance: TQM is a process of continuous improvement. Adhere to procedures and controls and you'll produce work of the highest quality.

Pay attention to your employees' skills and interests outside of their jobs, Kennedy recommended. Your press operator may enjoy talking to people. Move him into customer service. Ask people what job they would like to have.

Internet Effectiveness

In the final general session, long-time ACUP supporter Keith Nickoloff, now CEO of PlanetPrint, told ACUP members how to use the Internet to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their print communications. In the process he reiterated some of the advice he has given in-plants over the years.

"Communications is what we're in business to do," he said, stressing that attendees should think beyond ink on paper and consider themselves communications providers. He urged managers to market their services, stress the importance of personalization to customers, and develop print communications strategies.

Nickoloff described his company's strategy of cosourcing: combining outsourcing, insourcing and the Internet. He explained how the University of Minnesota enlisted PlanetPrint to create an online ordering system.

ACUP 2002 will be hosted by Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La., April 7-11. For info, contact Mike Loyd, director, at (225) 578-2883 or mkloyd@lsu.edu.