Addressing & Inserting Bring Big Benefits

About half of all in-plants provide mailing services, with ink-jet addressing and inserting equipment among their most useful pieces of equipment.

By Bob Neubauer

Much of what's printed by an in-plant ends up in the mail. So those in-plants that provide mailing services have an advantage when it comes to getting and keeping customers.

"Our experience has been that customers are pleased and relieved to have us process their mail as well as producing their printed pieces," notes Shey Lowman, director of ITS Document Services at Northern Illinois University, in DeKalb, Ill. "Prior to our purchasing modern mail addressing equipment, customers with large database mailings had to take them to outside vendors that were 45 miles away or more."

What's more, the in-plant's mailing capabilities have brought new printing customers to the shop.

"We had customers that only had us process their mail, until they developed a better understanding of the broad scope of our printing services," says Lowman. "Processing customer's mail gave us an opening to sell them printing."

About a hundred miles west in Deerfield, Ill., Walgreens' Printing & Mail Services has also used mail to bring in print business.

"Part of our strategy is to not charge back for inserting or ink-jetting," says Manager Linda Balsamo. "While Printing Services is a profit center, Mail Services charges back for postage and consumables, but not time. By not charging back, the company absorbs our costs and our customers have a lower cost base to compare with when they decide whether or not to outsource. It gives us an advantage, and in the end saves the company money by not having to pay marked-up charges to outside vendors. Our customers know we are here for them and will do whatever we can to make their project a success."

At Northern Illinois University, Lowman says the in-plant's move into variable data printing has gone smoother thanks to its mailing capabilities.

"Getting into variable data printing and having finishing and mailing operations to complete the process has been one of the most important decisions that we have made," she notes. "It is responsible for getting us through the bad times of the past few years. While other print revenue streams have dried up, the essential variable data printing still needed to be done and we were glad to help."

About half of all in-plants are providing mailing services, according to IPG survey data. The most essential pieces of equipment they own for this purpose are postage systems, inserters and ink-jet addressing systems. IPG asked a few in-plants about their inserting and ink-jet addressing equipment. Here's what they had to say:

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Walgreens

Printing & Mail Services

Deerfield, Ill.

Manager: Linda Balsamo

Ink-jet addressing equipment:

• Rena Imager III (running BCC software)

Inserting equipment:

• Neopost SI90

• Neopost SI76

• Neopost SI60

• Mail Crafter two-station inserter

Ink-jet: "Ink-jetting has always been a driver for our printing operation. As demand grew, so did our need for more capacity. We traded in our Rena DA606 for a Rena Imager III and are thrilled with the results. It's so fast, we can ink-jet large runs without breaking a sweat. The waste is minimal, and so far the equipment has never needed service. Our customers love the turnaround time. What used to take days, now takes hours."

Inserting: "For a while we struggled with bringing in new print work only to get hung up on the inserting end. We are heavily committed to regular work and have experienced more than our share of down time on our Neopost equipment. Part of this is due to the heavy use that overextends the equipment.

"We recently brought in a used two-station Mail Crafter to pick up the slack. It's much more mechanical than the other inserters, which makes it easier to run and fix. It's been great. We used to have a two- to three-day backlog on inserting. Now we can keep up on a daily basis. We have capacity to spare, so we can bring in additional projects that we might have previously outsourced."

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Northern Illinois University

ITS Document Services

DeKalb, Ill.

Director: Shey Lowman

Ink-jet addressing equipment:

• VideoJet Cheshire 7000

Inserting equipment:

• Böwe Bell + Howell Phillipsburg four-station inserter

Ink-jet: "Ink-jet addressing is far more efficient and cost effective than the paper labeling systems. Computerized ink-jet addressing opened up the ability to do real database management for mailers, to ensure that addresses were accurate and updated. Not to mention the cost savings of bar coding and sorting mail for the best discounts. The mail process has been greatly shortened. Offset printed items that previously could only be hand labeled—or worse, hand addressed—are now automated, such as brochures, catalogs and newsletters."

Inserting: "Inserters are indispensible for eliminating hand work and speeding up the process. Even our 37-year-old inserter can output 2,000 pieces an hour with two people working on it. It is wonderful what equipment maintenance and skilled operators can do with antiques.

"If the economic times were better, we would prefer to have a six-pocket inserter, for long-run jobs with more than four inserts. In the meantime we continue to nest items when there are more than four. Our inserter allows us to be extremely responsive with critical jobs such as the printing and inserting of W2 forms, employee benefit statements and student tuition invoices. Producing these critical jobs are core to the university's goals and mission—which, as an in-plant, adds to our value as well."

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ING

Document Management Center

Des Moines, Iowa

Head of Document Management: Tim Steenhoek

Inserting equipment:

• Böwe Bell+Howell MailStar inserters with AIM feed units and 2D bar code readers

Ink-jet: "We no longer consider this a core part of our workflow. Most everything is now addressed when it is printed, including full-color items. Five years ago ink-jet services were key to us and our customers. We now only ink-jet when we have no other alternative, such as addressing large books or very high-volume, full-color mailings that were less expensive to offset print and ink-jet address than to print digitally. These instances are few and far between. In fact, we don't even price or track the service any longer."

Inserting: "Inserting machines are a core tool of some our primary workflows. We don't consider inserting equipment as a value-added piece of equipment, but consider it a tool within the process of communicating a message to a customer."

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City of Mesa

Mesa, Ariz.

Mail Services Specialist:

Richard Engquist

Ink-jet addressing equipment:

• Asmarc Accufast P3

Inserting equipment:

• Pitney Bowes Series 8

• Neopost IN-2A System 7

Ink-jet: "Ink jet addressing has drastically changed how this division deals with mass mailings. We have greatly reduced postage costs, and it has allowed us to complete larger and larger mailings in a fraction of the time it used to take. Outsourcing larger mailings has virtually become a thing of the past. Keeping our bulk mailings in-house increases turnaround time, reduces cost and allows us to better service the specific needs of our customers."

Inserting: "As our inserting needs have grown, the Pitney Bowes 8 Series has allowed us to meet the demand. Several thousands of pieces of inserting material come through this office every day. It would be impossible to keep up with this workload without that specific mailing machine. The cost of outsourcing this amount of material on a daily basis would be astronomical. An inserting machine of this size has certainly allowed us to increase the size and scope of projects that we take on. We simply couldn't function without this type of inserting machinery."