At Home On The Range

NSPA members were warmly welcomed to the prairies of North Dakota for an enlightening and unforgettable gathering.

Though Bismarck, N.D., may have seemed like an unlikely site for a national conference, members of the National State Publishing Association left their recent 23rd annual conference full of praise for the state capital. Forty-two government attendees from 39 states gathered in Bismarck to discuss common in-plant issues and attend educational sessions.

The conference got underway after an emotional welcome from Linda Kapp, wife of the late Jim Kapp, director of North Dakota's Central Services Division until he passed away last year. Mr. Kapp, a long-time NSPA member, had been excited about hosting the conference in Bismarck, and had already made many plans for the event. NSPA elected to follow through with his plans as a tribute to Mr. Kapp and his family.

Final planning of this year's conference was taken over by Linda Engmann, director of the Central Services Division, and Carol Weisz, Central Services administrative assistant. In addition to the many helpful educational sessions, attendees enjoyed a riverboat ride on the Missouri River, a tour of historic Fort Lincoln and a drive past buffalo herds, through the open prairie of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, home of the Prairie Knights Casino.

Print, Mail Merger

One of the best sessions came early on, when Mike Freese, Oregon State Printer, described how, five years ago, the Oregon Department of Administrative Services pulled together its in-plant printing division, several scattered mailing operations and three mainframe printing departments into one central operation. As a result, he said, on-time delivery improved from 70 percent to more than 98 percent. In addition, this merger cut postal expenses by about a third.

When it decided to start merging services, Administrative Services first created a print and mail coordinator position and then co-located the different operations. The department began to focus more on customers and on coming up with new ways to add value. The customer service staff was trained on mailing requirements.

As a result, Freese said, the department is now able to take better advantage of postal discounts—especially smaller agencies that didn't have enough volume to get the discounts.

Even now, though, Freese isn't satisfied. He wants to provide enterprise document services: taking input from anywhere and outputting to any device, be it a printer, a CD burner or a Web server. His department already designs and maintains the state's central Web site, as well as sites for other agencies.

Freese also wants to give remote offices access to the central print/mail facility for printing forms and correspondence with variable data. In the future, he says, these offices will submit their data online for volume production instead of printing their forms on their own laser printers.

In-plant Workshops

Another exciting session focused on thriving in a digital world. It featured the founders of the IPMA/Unisource (now Georgia-Pacific) in-plant workshops, Don Kendall, of Prime Digital Imaging, and Gary Smith, of Prime Printing. Smith and Kendall shared the 1997 In-Plant Graphics Industry Leader of the Year award for developing and leading their popular workshops, which have helped many in-plants justify their operations.

Smith and Kendall presented an abbreviated version of their two-day workshops, stressing the importance of creating a three-year business plan. Having a clear strategic vision is crucial, they said. With each decision you face, you should ask yourself if it will bring you closer to your vision. If not, then you shouldn't waste time with it.

They stressed that a well-run in-plant should save 25 to 35 percent over outside costs. In-plants need to know their level of financial contribution and have a plan to make it larger. Smith and Kendall reminded attendees that if their in-plants were their own businesses, they would be very concerned with generating enough profits and having enough profitable customers.

Members Only

Celeste Maia Cron, California State Printer and new NSPA president, moderated a member session where attendees talked about common problems and compared policies. One topic that came up was buying versus leasing of equipment. Cron said that if you're planning to use equipment long term, don't lease it. Most leases require you to buy the equipment in the end anyway, she said.

"Read your lease carefully," she stressed. "If you terminate the lease early...you [may] still have to buy it."

"People don't lease [out] equipment because they want to give you a break," added Andrew Sherman, of the U.S. Government Printing Office. "They want to make money."

This discussion segued into one on equipment purchases by other agencies. In many states, departments buy copying and printing equipment without consulting the in-plant, incurring greater expenses and getting equipment that doesn't fit their needs.

Cron mentioned one California agency that bought an envelope press when it only printed 2,000 envelopes per week. Joe Tucker, of the Ohio Office of State Printing, noted that agencies there are using desktop printers as copiers and burning them out. He felt that agencies should be required to consult his office before purchasing.

"The only way is to sell [the idea] to senior leadership and have them mandate it," he said.

But even this doesn't always work. Sherman noted that at the GPO, where it is mandated, "this goes on all the time. There's no way to stop it."

In Delaware, though, Patrick Coates, director of the Division of Support Operations, makes a good effort.

"We try to get agencies to see that we want to be the independent consultant between them and the vendor," he said. Many people do come to him for advice on copier purchases, he added.

Other states have also found success in this area. Jerry Wilson, director of Alabama's Department of Finance, Division of Printing and Publications, noted that he recently got authority over all color copier purchases, plus all copiers running 70 cpm and higher.

Sell Your Services

Cron urged attendees to work harder to sell their services to customers. Ever since the California Office of State Publishing (OSP) went non-mandated, she has gotten much more involved in marketing. She said that leading tours of the print operation is "one of the best things we ever do in our plant." Customers can see what the in-plant goes through and understand why their job takes several days.

Instead of selling itself based on price, she said, OSP now sells its knowledge and statewide perspective. The office tries to help customers with difficulties. For example, if they submit files with problems, OSP will buy them new software.

One new service OSP plans to offer next year is to let customers check the status of their jobs on the Web. Some NSPA members, however, debated the wisdom of this. Richard Gonzales, Kansas State Printer and outgoing NSPA president, thought it might be dangerous to let customers see job status without understanding what's going on in the shop. He felt they would just get upset that their job wasn't farther along, and they would deluge the office with calls, looking for explanations.

Coates, of Delaware, felt otherwise, saying that he plans to offer this service as a way to cut down on the number of calls to his office from customers wanting to know their job's status.

Cron also updated attendees on OSP's effort to solicit advertising in state publications to diffuse printing costs. Last year, she said, state agencies saved $1.2 million due to ads sold. After using this money to pay printing costs, OSP splits it with the agencies in the form of credit toward future jobs.

Among the big news from members:

• Oklahoma's Department of Central Services purchased a number of new presses and bindery equipment in the past year.

• The Louisiana Property Assistance Agency is building a 70,000-square-foot facility and planning to merge mailing and printing.

• Alabama's Department of Finance, Division of Printing and Publications added new trimming and collating equipment, plus a waste-disposal system.

• The Nevada Division of Printing is adding a satellite printing office in Las Vegas. IPG

Bob Neubauer