The Envelope 
Opportunity

LIKE ANY in-plant manager, Glenda Miley is always on the lookout for new services her in-plant can offer. Still, when the manager of Auburn University's CopyCat operation spotted an ad in IPG for Xanté's Ilumina Digital Envelope Press two years ago, she didn't recognize the opportunity right away. Her first thought was, "We don't print that many envelopes."

Then she thought about it some more and realized there was no reason her in-plant couldn't print more of them. So after showing samples of envelopes printed on the Ilumina to her university and making her case, CopyCat won the bid to become Auburn's official printer of #9 and #10 one- and two-color envelopes.

Now, a year and a half after acquiring a Xanté Ilumina Digital Envelope Press, Miley considers it one of the best moves the Auburn, Ala., in-plant ever made.

"Our campus, which is used to offset, just loves the quality of the envelopes and the speed that I can get them out," she enthuses. "They can't believe that they're getting envelopes on the same day that they put the order in."

As a result, orders have been streaming in, to the tune of roughly 50,000 envelopes a month.

"We've done more than a million envelopes on it," Miley proclaims, proudly. She couldn't be happier with her decision to start printing envelopes.

Over the past couple of years, there has been a noticeable increase in envelope printing at in-plants. The trend has been enabled by the availability of small digital envelope presses from companies like Xanté, PSI Engineering, Intoprint Technologies and OKI Data Americas. All of the devices use the same OKI print engine but offer different feeding options. These devices hit the market just as many in-plants' old offset duplicators were breaking down and their operators started retiring.

Those who installed envelope printers have spread the word to other in-plants about their ease of use, print quality and ability to print envelopes on demand.

"It's given [customers] that freedom to not have to print 1,000 of something or 2,000 of something—and they like that," says Bob Keats, director of Document and Mail Services at Colgate University, in Hamilton, N.Y. "We just do it on demand." His 10-employee shop added an Intoprint DP100GA and has gotten more envelope work than expected as a result.

Insourcing Opportunity

Many in-plants that have outsourced envelopes for years are bringing them back in-house, stunning their customers with amazing turnaround times. Some are even insourcing envelope work.

"The printers that used to print envelopes for me, I now print envelopes for them," says Mark Pritchard, manager of Allegheny College Printing Services, in Meadville, Pa., which uses a Xanté Ilumina 502.

Initial concerns over print quality compared to offset have largely been laid to rest.

"People really don't know if its offset or digital," remarks Catherine Chambers, manager of Printing Services at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg. Her 19-employee in-plant has an Intoprint Technology C9850, and she says the quality is superb.

"It is the only one that has a true 1,200x1,200 resolution, and that's due to the embedded Fiery RIP," she says. This was the main reason she chose this version of envelope printer, Chambers adds.

Over at Eastern Kentucky University, in Richmond, Ky., Richard Tussey, director of IT Auxiliary Service, says the quality of envelopes printed on his in-plant's OKI CX3641 is much better than what the shop used to get when printing envelopes on its A.B.Dick 360.

"The quality of print on the envelope is so much nicer off the OKI than the way we were doing it," he remarks—and there's far less waste too, he adds. "If we've got a 1,500-envelope run, we may spoil two envelopes on the whole run."

He lauds the OKI's ability to match EKU's maroon color (PMS 209).

"The color match-up is very good," he says. "It holds the color very well."

Others report the same thing with their envelope printers.

"Xanté hit our red (PMS 186) the first time, perfectly," praises Jimmy Robinson, director of the University of West Alabama's Department of Printing, in Livingston, Ala., where an Ilumina went into operation a year ago.

Variable Data Allows Personalization

Thanks to these new digital envelope presses, in-plants can now go beyond just printing return addresses on envelopes; they can use the envelope printers' variable data printing (VDP) capabilities to personalize them.

Steve Hagen, program coordinator at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, likes that his in-plant can now address envelopes for customers with its new PSI 3655 envelope press, saving them from having to print and affix labels.

"We're able to print right onto the envelope," he notes. "It looks so much cleaner and neater."

Customers have noticed, he says, and the shop's envelope business has increased 15 percent since the printer was installed. Hagen says his shop prints about 30,000 envelopes a month.

"I'm very happy with the PSI," he says.

Tussey, from Eastern Kentucky University, says the VDP and four-color printing capabilities of his shop's OKI CX-3641 have brought the in-plant favorable attention from as high up as university president Doug Whitlock. The 10-employee in-plant was able to address and print a photo of the school's new science building on the envelope of the president's holiday card, thus subtly promoting the university's progress. Whitlock was very impressed.

With this success as a springboard, the in-plant approached admissions with ideas to print personalized messages and images on their envelopes.

"Once they saw the ability to not just address it, but put on the front, 'Bob, your admissions information is enclosed,' they really wanted that personalization," Tussey says. "They felt like that was a stronger message to send to the applicant.

"It's given us a new marketing tool," he says.

Not Just for Envelopes

After adding an envelope printer, many in-plants have found other applications for the new equipment.

At Virginia Tech, Chambers added the Intoprint model to handle short-run, three- and four-color envelopes for two departments, but quickly discovered other uses for it as well.

"I use it more for business cards and short-run color postcards than I do for envelopes," she says. The shop has also printed graduation announcements and holiday cards on it.

"It's saved us money," Chambers says. "We don't have to do plates any more. We don't have the waste we had with setups for business cards. It's decreased turnaround time."

Out on the West Coast, Azusa Pacific University Duplicating Services added a Xanté Ilumina 502 to print envelopes, but soon started printing other items, like name tags, shipping labels and post cards for admissions. The fact that the Ilumina can print on stock up to 26 points in thickness has made it popular with graphic arts students, who use it to print their projects.

"They like to print on different media," notes Denise Cundari, duplicating key operator. The Azusa, Calif., shop has since acquired a second Xanté, a demo machine that it got for a steal. It's currently in storage until more space opens up for it in the in-plant.

At Eastern Kentucky University, Tussey uses his shop's OKI printer to overprint personalized messages onto preprinted postcards, along with the address. This, he says, has made the admissions department very happy.

Overall, in-plants report that the envelope printers are very easy to operate; many are run by student workers. As with all digital devices, they do jam at times, but no one we talked with noted any significant problems.

There are limitations, however, such as business reply envelopes, which require printing close to the edge of the envelope. Keats, of Colgate University, says Baronial envelopes have been a challenge. Steve Aicholtz, manager of Business Services at the Community College of Philadelphia, says when his in-plant first started using its PSI LM3655 to print window envelopes, the film melted. He now orders special window envelopes that can withstand the heat.

Though Aicholtz is happy with his shop's PSI printer, he cautions those looking into such devices, "It just isn't a heavy-duty piece of equipment. If I'm doing 60,000 [envelopes], I'm not going to do them here." His five-employee in-plant will use the envelope press for jobs up to 10,000 in length.

Other in-plants have different length limitations. At Northern Arizona University, runs longer than 5,000 are farmed out. Auburn University CopyCat, as the university's sole printer of #9 and #10 one- and two-color envelopes, sometimes prints longer runs. But when bidding for the contract, Miley used Xanté's iQueue software, which comes free with the Ilumina, to estimate the amount of consumables being used and determine a competitive price, even on longer runs.

One key factor that helped in-plants decide which digital envelope printer to pick was the responsiveness and proximity of the supplier. The Community College of Philadelphia chose PSI because that was the printer offered by its dealer, Northern Machine Works. Since its office is also in the city, response time has been great, Aicholtz notes.

Similarly, Colgate University, with its fairly remote location in central New York state, picked the Intoprint largely because its dealer was located nearby.

"We always look for someone who can be pretty responsive to us," notes Keats. "We wanted someone who could give us the support."

With Xante's headquarters just 220 miles away in Mobile, Ala., the choice was a no-brainer for Miley, at Auburn. She has absolutely no regrets about it, either.

"If I had to start today and buy another one, I feel certain that I would buy that one," she says.