Building Relationships At BYU

By recognizing new opportunities for growth, the BYU Print and Mail Production center has increased both its revenue and services.

by Mike Llewellyn

Sales grew solidly over the past year at the Brigham Young University Print and Mail Production center. Director West Barton attributes the increase to an academic trend. He explains that "independent study," or distance learning, has been a great opportunity for his operation.

"We've gone from 26,000 student packets four years ago to 75,000 this year," he says. "And we're looking to reach a goal of 500,000."

This growth pushed the in-plant up four ranks on last month's Top 50, placing it in the prestigious number 10 spot. It also ranked an impressive third among university in-plants.

With the increase in distance learning jobs, BYU Print and Mail Production has found an opportunity to get involved in another service that Barton sees as crucial to the future of his in-plant: CD duplication.

"We do a lot of CD-ROMs," he says. "If printing's going away, we want to be able to produce CDs." Barton says CD duplication jobs have doubled over the past year.

New Partnerships

The biggest source of income for the in-plant, though, has been insourcing revenue and partnerships with organizations on BYU's campus.

"Insourcing is a big area for us. For instance, we've done more for DMBA recently," reports Barton, referring to the Deseret Mutual Benefits Association. He says DMBA has its own in-plant, but BYU Print and Mail Production picks up the shop's overflow as part of what Barton calls a very amicable relationship between the two facilities.

Barton's shop is also engaged in a partnership with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' in-plant—one of the largest in-plants in the country. As with DMBA, BYU picks up overflow for this shop.

Business Cards Online

Additionally, Barton notes that his shop has implemented an online business card solution for another of its insourced clients, Beneficial Life.

"They do letterheads, envelopes and business cards for their offices worldwide," says Barton, explaining that Beneficial Life simply enters the necessary information through a Web-ordering system that Barton's team designed in-house. Barton says his shop handles the account from printing all the way to fulfillment.

Finally, Barton attributes the jump in sales to a new on-campus partnership. He says the in-plant recently signed on to handle all printing work for the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). The partnership has brought a large number of new book publishing jobs through the door, he says.

What really sets Print and Mail Production apart from the crowd, though, is the number of students it employs: 180. By contrast, the shop has 60 full-time employees.

"We're a firm believer in student help," says Barton. "They're dependable and cost-effective." Barton explains that the students already have health insurance coverage, so the shop doesn't have to spend money on benefits.

"One of our philosophies is that the work here enriches their education," he says, explaining that jobs at Print and Mail Production teach good work habits and offer what he calls a "working break" from the monotony of studying. Best of all, he says, the jobs give students resume-ready work experience.

In fact, Barton notes, of the 10 copy centers on campus, six are entirely student-run. The bindery, too, is staffed only with students.

The BYU Wish-list

In the technology arena, the in-plant is on the hunt for a new computer-to-plate system. Barton reports that the facility is currently negotiating with five different companies (Agfa, Creo, Fuji, Heidelberg and Screen USA). He says the key factors that will decide which system the shop gets are cost, supplies availability, maintenance and dependability.

Barton also says the facility is upgrading its computer infrastructure to accommodate the increase in file sizes coming into the shop.

Altogether, with a few new partnerships and a lot of student help, BYU Print and Mail Production flourished during a very tough 2002.