ACUP 2014 An Oasis of Knowledge

The recent Association of College and University Printers conference may have taken place in sunny Phoenix, Ariz., but it was no vacation. The 82 managers who traveled there from all over the world came for answers and advice on how to keep their in-plants thriving in these trying times. The three days of intensive educational sessions did not disappoint them.

ACUP was packed with ideas and examples of how to transform and expand your in-plant, and improve customer relationships. There were numerous discussions about new services, with tips from those who have already implemented them. Even the opening session cut right to the chase. Instead of the customary keynote speaker, a panel of managers detailed their survival and expansion experiences. The content only got better from there.

This year's ACUP marked the 49th time this group of higher-ed in-plant managers has gotten together, and its second time in Phoenix. Managers came from as far away as Australia and Scotland, and from all over the U.S., including Alaska. They shared their experiences and plans, and got tips from one another. A full exhibit area featured dozens of vendors showing products specific to the in-plant market. The conference also included a tour of Arizona State University's Print & Imaging Lab, which utilizes students almost exclusively as its work force.

At a special banquet on the last day, the winners of the ACUP awards were honored. In addition, two long-time members were presented with the first ACUP Hall of Fame awards: Bob Lane and Harv Dahl, who both retired from ASU.

Success Stories

The conference started in a unique way when attendees at the opening session were greeted not by a live speaker but by the image of Mark McCarty on a video screen, speaking from his office 1,200 miles away in Springfield, Mo. The manager of Printing Services at Missouri State University told the tale of his shop's near demise and digital resurrection.

With 10 employees and a comfortable $1 million in annual revenue in 2006, the in-plant was caught off guard when the university implemented a procurement card system three years later. Customer began using it to buy up to $3,000 of printing on the outside.

"That really hurt us," McCarty said. Revenue dropped dramatically until the shop was $17,000 in the red. In 2010 his in-plant was audited and dramatically downsized.

"I had to lay off half my staff," he lamented. Then three of the remaining five retired in 2011.

New equipment, such as a platesetter, a cutter and an envelope feeder, helped the remaining staff keep up with work, and the retirees came back to work part time. This enabled the shop's revenues to return to the black, but McCarty knew that going digital was the only long-term solution. So he convened a focus group of clients and gave them a presentation on the benefits of digital printing, including variable data printing.

"They were so excited about what they saw that digital printing could do," he said. The in-plant eventually added a Kodak NexPress 2500.

"We've pulled in a lot of work because of the digital press," he remarked. "We're on track to do as much business as we did in 2010."

New In-plant Thriving

Following McCarty, Bob Donahue, of Franklin University, took the podium to update the group on the in-plant he started from scratch just two years ago. As director of purchasing at the Columbus, Ohio, school, he had investigated how much the university was spending to outsource printing and whether money could be saved by getting equipment and printing that work in-house. After hiring a consultant to do a a feasibility study, he learned there was a potential 30 percent savings.

After adding a Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C8000, a bizhub Pro 1200, a PSI LM 3655 envelope printer, a Duplo DC-645 creaser and other equipment, the new in-plant saved the university $100,000 in its first year. Donahue said in the second year, the savings will jump to about $175,000.

Another new in-plant story came from Ken Toy, of Harvard University. Though the Cambridge, Mass., school closed its offset and digital in-plant in 2005, its bulk and campus mail operation continued. In 2009, with customers cutting back on mailings, Toy began looking for other revenue opportunities. An existing wide-format printer and a new IntoPrint envelope printer allowed the operation to do some limited in-house printing. The success of this effort led him to add a Ricoh C651 to meet the growing demand for color printing. Revenue jumped to $145,000.

To find new business, Toy talks with his mailing clients to convince them to send smaller-run color jobs to the new in-plant. He's now looking into web-to-print software to make it easier for customers to send jobs.

Zen and the Art of Serving Customers

Serving the customer better was the theme of a presentation by veteran in-plant manager Jean-Luc Devis, whose most recent position was at the Universtiy of Canterbury, in New Zealand. He advocated taking a Zen-like approach to customer service, which includes being fully focused on the customer, who is the most important person in the organization. Having a positive attitude, listening proactively, displaying concern and committing to action are all crucial elements.

When dealing with problem customers, he said, stay calm, identify with their situation and get the facts. Don't infer they are careless and at fault, he advised, but ask questions to discover what happened. Tell the customer what you can do and agree upon an acceptable solution. Remember, Devis said, if a customer is willing to complain, they're more committed to your in-plant than if they were to just quietly go elsewhere.

"You can have a pretty loyal relationship afterwards if you help them resolve the issue," he noted.

Service is Everyone's Job

Other customer service advice was offered by Phil Larson, president of Shepherd Consulting and a former in-plant manager. Customer service is everyone's job, he said, not just the manager's.

"Train everybody on your team to be customer savvy," he advised. Teach staff how to handle questions from customers and to be discreet in what they say. Teach staff to accept blame and apologize rather than argue.

"Everything's your fault," he noted.

Always focus on what's best for the customer and how you can help them do what they want to do, he said. If a customer has a small budget, work with them to create an affordable solution. Take the time to understand what each customer is trying to accomplish with their printed piece and give them other options.

"The in-plant of the future is an innovative in-plant," he said, constantly engaged with the customer to understand and meet their needs. Make sure your services are comprehensive, so you can meet all those needs.

"They want to go to one place and say, 'you take care of me,' " Larson pointed out.

To help managers prepare for future growth, Steve Amitrano, of Burlington County College (N.J.), gave a presentation on how to create a strategic business plan focused on their specific background, mission, goals and objectives. He encouraged them to assess where they are today (financial trends, employee expertise, equipment condition, market trends, new client opportunities) before pondering how they plan to move forward. He noted some steps that need to be taken for the plan to work (include a call to action, stress the in-plant's value, improve your business practices, motivate and empower staff) and emphasized the importance of maintaining and periodically updating the plan throughout the year.

New In-plant Services

One of the biggest areas of discussion at ACUP was expanding into new services. Visitors to the exhibit area watched with interest as T-shirts were printed on an Anajet printer, and learned about opportunities in fleet management, social media integration, ink alternatives, laminating and more. The Web-to-print vendors talked with a steady stream of visitors.

The sessions, too, covered new services being offered. At a panel discussion on wide-format printing, moderated by IPG Editor Bob Neubauer, Paul Roberts, of the University of New Hampshire, and John Wesseling, of the University of Cincinnati, both detailed the new applications their latex wide-format printers have enabled them to produce, and fielded detailed questions from the audience. Using a substrate called wallNOODLE, from MACtac, UNH has printed all the signage for the new business school as well as other wall wraps. Wesseling's in-plant has printed signs that were mounted on the street, as well as banners that stayed outside for a full year without fading.

"It really has incredible staying power outside," Wesseling said of the projects printed on the latex device.

3D Printing a Popular Topic

A well-attended roundtable discussion focused on 3D printing. Dave Hadenfeldt, of the University of Nebraska, was the star of this meeting, and fielded numerous questions about his in-plant's 3D printing success (as detailed in IPG's April issue).

Scanning was another popular roundtable topic. Participants noted that MFDs let anyone scan documents, but the indexing and archiving of the scanned material is where the real value is. Inputting this meta data can be overwhelming. There are opportunities for higher-ed printers, though, such as offering to scan student projects so they can send them out with internship applications, or scanning materials for professors to use in their classes.

Amitrano, of Burlington County College, noted that in-plants should be prepared to be asked about supplying this service and put some thought into how to get it done, possibly through a partnership with IT.

At a roundtable discussion on the right of first refusal, participants agreed that "centralized print management" was a more appropriate (and less controversial) description of this approach to requiring all school printing to be routed to the in-plant. Participants shared their experiences with it. Some who have it said it was not enforced or that departments get around it by waiting until the last minute and then claiming the in-plant is unable to meet their quick turnaround needs. Others lamented that university purchasing cards let departments buy smaller print jobs outside without getting bids.

'Be the Change'

Arizona State University played a big part in the conference. First Mike Chiricuzio described how he was brought in 10 years ago to improve ASU's stagnant in-plant. He said he faced resistance to change from people who saw no need to cooperate.

"You've got to be the change you're trying to accomplish," he said.

Try to understand the perspective of those who resist you, he suggested. Do they feel threatened by you? Assess their skills. Would they be better suited to a different position?

"We went through a lot of training and retraining," he noted.

One key to changing hearts is to find a disciple—someone who can help you get your story out and win converts.

Chiricuzio said one of his best moves was to bring in Cathy Skoglund, whom he had worked with previously. Now manager of Operations and Business Development for the ASU Print & Imaging Lab, she transformed the in-plant into an educational operation that gives students hands-on experience. Today, she and Chris Myers are the only two full-time employees overseeing a staff of 30 student workers.

Skoglund told ACUP attendees how students run all equipment at her in-plant, including an HP Indigo 5500, a Halm envelope press, a PSI digital envelope printer and a pair of HP Designjet wide-format printers (including a new HP Latex 260). About 75 jobs come through the shop's web-to-print system every day, she said.

"We make a huge difference in these students' lives," she said. "The industry is begging for new professionals, and I'm giving them hands-on experience."

She said 45 former students are now working in the printing industry. With results like that, she said, "my university is not going to close me."

At the ACUP business meeting, members learned that the association now has 163 members, including 23 new schools since last year, two of which are school district in-plants. This last fact spurred a discussion about the merits of opening ACUP to additional K-12 operations, a change that everyone seemed to favor. The group also talked about partnering with a mailing association for a future conference.

Next year's conference—ACUP's 50th—will take place in Portsmouth, Va., on April 12-16.