Color Printer Creates Opportunities in Chico

Only a couple of days after installing a Konica Minolta bizhub C6500 (with an external Fiery controller), Printing Services at California State University, Chico, put its latest addition to the test.

“We had an emergency situation on the campus and the campus police called to find out how long it would take to get 100 copies of a missing persons’ poster done,” recalls Manager Dale Wymore. “I asked them to send the file directly to the Fiery, and we had them printed by the time they walked over to our building in less than five minutes. We had only had the printer for a couple of days at that point, and it really demonstrated to us how quickly the machine could run.”

Using the new C6500 to print business cards, posters, newsletters, brochures, postcards, booklets and many other items has been a refreshing change of pace, as the in-plant’s previous color printer was having trouble keeping pace with demands.

“We were turning away the color copy jobs because we couldn’t get jobs completed in a timely manner. We were seeing a steady upward trend in color copy jobs, but we just couldn’t keep up,” Wymore says. “We can now offer a faster turnaround time, which has allowed us to bring on more work.”

In the past, a busy month for the in-plant involved printing 16,000 copies, she says. After installing the C6500, University Printing Services was able to run 27,000 copies in March alone, without adding additional help to the two-person (one full-time and one part-time) staff.

“The brochure jobs can quickly be run on the C6500 and the solids look great. We’ve seen a big increase in short-run brochure jobs, which we would have had to turn away in the past,” she says. The in-plant has seen an increase in other small jobs like short-run postcards and surveys for the institutional research department.

“Running small four-color jobs was not cost effective using the in-plant’s offset press,” continues Wymore, “so we had no option but to take small jobs off campus.” Plus, the in-plant’s old color printer was not able to run heavier stock for business cards. The C6500 has solved both of those problems.

“We got a really great deal from our local vendor, and the Konica Minolta costs are actually lower than what we were paying for the service contract on the [old color copier] and the per copy costs. Due to the cost savings, we were able to introduce a lower price point of $0.39 per copy for 1,000 copies or more.” To keep the costs down, the in-plant opted for collator and staple finishing only.

“As each job comes in, we’re re-evaluating whether it’s a good job prospect for the color printer or if it should be run offset,” Wymore said. “I’m sure we’ll find more ways to use the C6500 in time.”