Web-to-print Moves In-plant to Head of Class

When the mornings turn cool and the once-joyous smiles upon the faces of America's youth turn to frowns and scowls, there is one inescapable conclusion to be reached: school is back in session.

Yet, for the nation's hundreds of in-plant printers serving the educational sector, there is no summer respite to enjoy. June through August is often a heavy period of work, wrapping up the previously completed school year and preparing the multitude of jobs in anticipation of the next educational campaign.

Don't tell the Blue Valley School District of Overland Park, Kan., that the digital age is cutting into the need for hard copy documents. Its Printing Services operation has been humming away all summer, delivering on as many as 40,000 job orders to satisfy about 3,100 teachers at 35 schools. This district in the state's second-largest city (trailing only Wichita) serves more than 21,000 students.

Though "flat" may be one of the first words that come to mind when people think of Kansas (not true; it doesn't even rank among the 10 flattest in the United States), order volume has been anything but for Printing Services in recent years. It has billowed from 51,000 jobs in 2009-2010 to more than 92,000 for the 2011-2012 school year.

Truth be known, Printing Services only has itself to blame for the uptick in orders. The addition of a Xerox iGen3 digital press and a critical suite of software from Rochester Software Associates—including the WebCRD Web-to-print ordering tool and QDirect.SCAN scan-to-print software—have opened the floodgates with more efficient tools for its staff clientele to get the ball rolling on required classroom materials.

Still, you won't hear Jason Gillam, assistant director of business operations for Blue Valley, or Printing Services Coordinator Paul Ackerman complaining. While the in-plant averaged 640 orders a day in the first week of classes for the 2012-2013 term (with a ­one-day record of 798 orders), the eight-­employee shop has witnessed the elimination of peaks and valleys in its own homework assignments.

Relying on Overachievers

Teachers, by their nature, have come to expect more and more from their overachieving "students" at Printing Services. RSA's Autoflow automation is the crib sheet, enabling the shop to reach a staggering 68 percent for next-day delivery during the 2011-2012 school year, a massive 26 percent spike in just two years.

"WebCRD has helped push our volume growth," notes Gillam. "But we've become so proficient in turning around jobs in a day or two. We've become victims of our own success."

"Teachers started expecting everything they threw at us to be turned around that quickly," Ackerman adds. "That's been our biggest challenge. We have to let them know that jobs which touch multiple hands could take longer."

The WebCRD system replaced an inefficient, varied process of job submissions via e-mail and carbonless forms sent through interoffice mail. These jobs would, in turn, require manual inputting by Ackerman's staff. Teachers can now submit jobs through WebCRD or use the scan-to-print software embedded on walkup copiers throughout the district's schools.

While the QDirect.SCAN scan-to-print software doesn't contain all of the features of the online ordering system, it includes the most frequently-used elements. Now, instead of teachers submitting tattered forms that have been copied repeatedly over the years, a fresh scan is made and a PDF sent to Printing Services for processing. The PDF is then stored in an online library file for future use.

The upshot is that teachers now spend less time at the copier and more time working on lesson plans. Early adopters pounced on the initial roll-out, and word of mouth has virtually eliminated the old submission process. Printing Services rolled out the system by holding training sessions one school at a time. Teachers were provided hard copy training materials and links to online tutorials.

"We didn't force any of our customers to give up the old way of submitting orders," Gillam states. "The early adopters were raving about what they were getting back. Peer to peer, they started inquiring more about it. The fact that the system delivered really set it on fire for us. We're around 90 percent penetration."

A Crackerjack Crew

The town that produced actors/comedians Jason Sudeikis and Paul Rudd certainly boasts a school district blessed with a crackerjack in-plant crew, cross-trained and eager to provide a high level of efficiency. In addition, a dedicated mail clerk tends to the sorting and distribution of interoffice and USPS mail, and also prepares outgoing non-profit bulk mailings. Printing Services uses a local vendor that provides a presorted discount.

A lion's share of the work at Printing Services, roughly 85 to 90 percent, is comprised of jobs for use in the classroom—handouts, lesson plans, assignments, reviews and tests. The balance of the workload serves student clubs and parent organizations. Many of these jobs call for high-end color work, such as programs for plays, musicals, concerts and related events.

"Last year we put in the Duplo perfect binder to do some of the higher-end books we've been producing," Ackerman notes. "We do some thicker black-and-white projects, such as literary magazines."

The next piece of new equipment, a Duplo DC-645 slitter/cutter/creaser, is on tap for installation next month.

"We never had an automated way of doing creasing on our digital printing," Ackerman says. "The 645 will help with cutting out business cards and doing four-side trimming on full-bleed pieces. We've seen a lot of growth with that in the last few years, especially with the iGen3."

That digital color press was installed in the fall of 2008 and has allowed Printing Services to venture into uncharted waters, particularly with variable data printing. In addition to the business cards, the shop performs sequential numbering on forms, numbering on tickets and event notices, complicated mail pieces and garden variety form letters.

Student Planners Popular

In addition to offering yearbooks to the district elementary schools (see sidebar, page 19), Printing Services reaped a huge coupe via the iGen3 in offering student planners. These were previously acquired outside of the district, but thanks to customized and personalized templates that allow each school to "plug in" calendar events and activities, students now receive individualized planners at a lower cost than generic ones.

"It provides cost savings and creative flexibility. Plus, the schools don't have to place their orders as early as before," Gillam notes. "The print shop is a good steward of offering back value, which is critical in a tough economy."

Confidentiality of information, while extremely important to maintain, does not pose a great challenge to Printing Services. Those items that are sensitive in nature are processed via secure servers with multiple levels of security. Gillam notes that of the "handful" of projects with sensitive data that are produced throughout the year, many are produced on a one-off basis.

Though proud of its track record of service and performance, particularly in light of the advances made in the past three to four years, Printing Services does come off as a modest organization. It has entered only a few pieces in printing competitions. This year it won an In-Print 2012 bronze award for a full-color annual report summary it printed on the iGen3. In 2007 the shop also took home an award from its local PIA affiliate in the four-color offset printed annual reports category.

That track record has also augmented its relationship with the Blue Valley School District, to which it provides clear cost justification on any capital expenditure projects that present themselves. Given its resounding success with WebCRD and the iGen3, the shop's credibility is flush with capital.

The curiosity with Printing Services' success isn't limited to the confines of the Blue Valley School District, either.

"In-plants from across the country have called and asked about our workflow," Gillam relates. "The workflow is a living, breathing thing. Implementation is just where it starts. You can leverage it in more and more ways. It just keeps evolving into something new."