Data Centers Merge and Move Ahead

By merging or working closely with their data centers, in-plants are expanding their operations, saving money and ensuring their survival.

by SCOTT BURY

Across America, businesses and institutions are merging their in-plants into their Information Technology departments' print output organizations. It makes sense. After all, both operations use much of the same equipment: copiers, high-speed laser printers, powerful computer workstations and robust networks.

We've taken a look at how three organizations have made such mergers work using different approaches.

Georgia Tech: Rethinking Leads To Reorganizing

"Contrary to what we in the printing business want to believe, printing is going away," contends Paul Thomas, director of Printing and Copying Services at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta.

Forms are being replaced by online data-gathering and transactions, he says, and course packs, long one of the staples for college and university in-plants, are being replaced by Web delivery of course material. Together, these trends have significantly reduced the volume for Georgia Tech's in-plant.

"Electronic communication is the wave of the future in academia," Thomas says. "Now we're struggling to pay for the equipment."

Nearly three years ago, Georgia Tech merged its in-plant printing department with its data center's printing department.

"We had four pieces of high-speed printing equipment for 'sys-out' (computer output printing) in the data center, producing 2 million copies per month. That's far too much equipment for that requirement," says Thomas. So when the graphics department decided to go digital, adding two Danka 9110 printers with scanners to its offset printing complement, the university took a long look at all the printing and copying on campus.

The physical merger three years ago was only the consummation of a longer-term organizational shift at the university. More than five years ago, Printing and Copying Services was moved under the Office of Information Technology. With the reporting lines re-drawn, the institution started to take a careful look at all printing. Management realized that the in-plant's walk-up copying services for students were competing with the same services offered by the library.

"Nobody was doing well in that scenario," says Thomas. "With a student population around 14,000, there wasn't a big enough walk-up market for two centers." So the copying department moved off campus.

The physical merger of the data center's computer output printing, or "sys-out," was a further rationalization of the printing capacity.

"The sys-out equipment was ancient. The choice was to replace it, move production off-campus to the printing and copying center, or outsource the printing totally," Thomas explains. "We did a careful study, which determined that outsourcing was not in Georgia Tech's best interests."

The best choice was to move that sys-out printing to the printing and copying center, retire four Kodak 2110 printers, two Xerox printers and a Kodak 3092, and add the two Danka printer-copiers.

The in-plant's offset department was already handling a steady volume of 600,000 to 700,000 impressions per month with its one- and two-color presses; the merger with data services added a new load of about 1 million impressions per year in the form of new financial statements. The center took it all in stride as course pack printing declined and the university moved more forms to the Web.

"We've had to start entertaining offering other services to meet our budget," Thomas admits. Some of the services under consideration include CD-ROM duplication, mailing services and large-format poster production.

The merger has been a success all around, Thomas says.

"People in the data center are now enjoying a lot more space because the printers are no longer there, and now they don't have to deal with printing any more," Thomas says. The university is saving money, and Printing and Copying Services, with its total chargeback system, has a complete responsibility for all printing at the institution.

However, this doesn't mean more status for the in-plant manager. "In this business, you just get more work," Thomas laughs.

The Principal Financial Group: The Vanishing Line

"At one time, there was a clear line between jobs that were printed in the in-plant and those that were done in the data center," explains Jo Helms, assistant director of Information Technology for the Principal Financial Group, in Des Moines, Iowa.

The data center, she says, produced variable, black-and-white and color, single- and multiple-page statements and reports. The in-plant, known as Graphic Production Services, produced long-run, black-and-white and color documents. But over the last few years, Helms adds, that line has blurred.

A good example of just how faint the line has become is the company's 401(K) statements, which it sends regularly to all its customers. In the past, these forms were produced in black and white, as multi-page, 81⁄2x11˝ statements on single-color laser printers. As of August of 2000, these personalized statements are printed in full color on 11x17˝ sheets in Information Services (IS), then folded in the in-plant, sent back to IS to be inserted into personalized envelopes, and mailed out. Production crosses that vanishing line several times.

The Principal Financial Group, one of the largest financial services companies in the U.S., physically merged the printing resources of its in-plant and data centers almost four years ago. The IS department employed 97 people in two separate print centers, a mailing department and output sorting rooms in two buildings. Graphic Production Services, with its prepress, printing and bindery, was located in another area.

In 1998, the company gathered all these resources into one off-site location, a warehouse-like setting that provided a very comfortable, climate-controlled 90,000 square feet for all the equipment. Not only did this reduce overhead for these services, but it also reduced staffing requirements from 122 to 85 full-time people, while increasing production capacity.

"Co-locating the resources enabled us to make better use of our equipment and people," Helms explains.

Putting these services together improved communication and coordination between the various types of printing services, which allowed the two departments to offer customers better, more responsive services and to take advantage of technological advances. One example of that is moving to full-color, variable printing of 401(K) statements and other customer communication.

Even after the physical merger, however, the operation was still divided "on paper" between the IS division of the corporation and the administrative services division, to which the in-plant reported. So as of January 1, the Principal Financial Group completed the merger on the organization chart: now the manager of graphic production services, Mel Zischler, reports to Jo Helms, assistant director, IS.

"We are now able to offer more cost-effective, flexible solutions for internal customers," says Helms.

University of Oregon: Partnering To Add Value

While the trend seems to be merging the data center with in-plant, the University of Oregon has taken almost the opposite direction.

"We haven't merged with the data center," says J.R. Gaddis, manager of Printing & Mailing Services. "They've just given us the work that isn't in their bailiwick anymore." In other words, the Information Services (IS) department gave up on printing, turning that responsibility over to the University's experts.

About five years ago, the university moved Printing & Mailing Services off campus as a self-sustaining printing operation with an annual budget around $7 million and some 50 employees, including designers, press operators, and mailing and delivery personnel. Its equipment includes two Xerox DocuTechs, a two-color Heidelberg SORZ perfecting press and other offset equipment, plus saddle stitching, folding and collating gear. Prepress equipment includes a selection of Macintosh workstations, 11 NT file servers and an Agfa Avantra imagesetter.

Back when the in-plant moved off campus, it handled all the university's long-run printing needs: recruitment brochures, course packs, calendars and more.

All variable printing, on the other hand, was done in the data center: items like student phone bills, accounts and records, employee payroll statements, and any other hard copy, personalized output. IS used a Xerox 6135 printer, which was "overkill," says Gaddis. "They probably didn't use it more than four to five days a month."

The data center began to get requests for more sophisticated variable printing for targeted mailings for recruitment or fund-raising. The rational solution was to turn to Printing & Mailing Services.

"The goal was to add value to the print jobs for our clients, the schools, faculties and foundations of the university," Gaddis says.

The printing center added a Xerox DocuPrint 65, for output of text files transmitted from the data center's computers. Each school has its own list, and the fund-raising foundations also maintain their own mailing lists. For all of them, file security and confidentiality is important.

After some experimenting with software and systems, the printing department worked out a solution: the IS department would do the formatting, and send only a pre-merged, ASCII text file to the DocuPrint 65.

"We're printing variable, personalized data onto preprinted forms," explains Rhonda Morgan, Copy Service/Mail Service manager. "The only difficulty is in lining up the form with the printer. We can modify the files a little, but if there are any larger changes needed, we send it back to IS."

The University of Oregon has made increasing use of variable printing. Instead of a huge, all-inclusive calendar, students and potential students each receive a smaller, full-color booklet tailored to their own interests.

"It doesn't necessarily save money over the older approach, but it allows us to better target our communications, which is much more effective," says Gaddis. Donors and alumni also receive personalized mailings now.

For the printing department, taking on the data center's work has made a huge difference. "After 10 years of budget crunch, the survival of the in-plant is no longer a question," Gaddis says. "Once the IS center gave these jobs to us, they sure didn't want 'em back."