Excellus BlueCross BlueShield: Diversify and Thrive

In this digital age, not everyone views the subject of printing in an optimistic light. But Catherine Ciardi feels she has the perfect surfboard underneath her to navigate and tame the wave of the future.

Don’t bother checking Ciardi’s prescription; she has ample reason to look ahead to tomorrow with what some may consider rose-colored glasses. The director of Document Services for Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) in Rochester, N.Y., Ciardi has the people, processes and technology in place to meet the needs of one of the nation’s largest medical insurers (6,000 employees, 1.7 million subscribers) while ensuring the future of the 55-employee in-plant.

“As we compete as in-plants, we have to broaden our horizons,” Ciardi says. “The Web is here, smart phones, QR (quick response) codes and more applications are going mobile. Our drive here is to be smart enough and efficient enough that we can provide those services, and not have the parent company use outside agencies or vendors. We want to make ourselves relevant wherever possible.”

Document Services took its relevance to another level when it installed a Kodak NexPress S2500 in early 2007. Prior to firing up the color production press, Excellus BCBS farmed out much of its color needs to commercial printers in the Rochester area. The shop’s volume of marketing collateral jobs has billowed in the past two years, from 4.4 million impressions in 2009 to 6.2 million in 2010. The latter figure, recorded at press time, was expected to reach 6.4 million once the final results are tallied.

The NexPress is generally used for short-run, print-on-demand (POD) jobs of frequently updated forms. Custom variable printing and the ability to send out queries using sort parameters such as age, sex and demographic played a pivotal role in bringing the NexPress to Document Services.

New Types of Products

Ciardi adds that the introduction of Kodak Dimensional Printing, which provides a textured feel to raised images, allows Document Services to produce magnets, clings and folders without the need to sensitize the back of material substrates. It has provided a boon for medical center-specific collateral materials—e.g. hours of operation and urgent care magnets.

Kodak presented a proposal that spoke to Document Services’ need for a versatile workflow solution, quality training and competitive pricing, according to Ciardi. Kodak devised a workflow plan that combined the NexPress with Rochester Software Associates’ WebCRD tools, which allows users to submit, manage, reorder and output digital printing jobs to Document Services via an intranet.

But what helped seal the deal was the creation of a customer review board consisting of Document Services’ top five customers and designers from across the company, who examined the print quality during the review process. Ciardi’s team worked side by side with BCBS customers during the training process, and the solution was an instant hit.

“The customers and the employees felt like they were a part of the process; they had a vested interest to make it successful,” says Ciardi, who is celebrating her 20th year with Document Services. “We were running impressions immediately, and it’s never stopped.”

Others are taking note of what the NexPress has done for Document Services. The in-plant’s use of full-color Dimensional Printing helped it capture first place in the calendar category of the In-Print 2010 competition, co-sponsored by the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) and IPG.

Part of a Printing Community

Nestled in the same community that serves as the home base to printing and graphics industry heavyweights Eastman Kodak and Xerox, Document Services maintains most of its staff of 55 in Rochester. Three people operate a mailroom facility in Utica, N.Y., while eight work out of Syracuse, N.Y., doing quick copy and overflow work. The organization also boasts an 8,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Rochester.

Black-and-white transactional printing (252 million impressions) represents a lion’s share of the work produced at Document Services, namely checks, billing statements, explanation of benefits (EOBs), remits, correspondence and subscriber contracts. The black-and-white work is subsidized by Document Service’s budget, while color work is charged back at cost, with no administrative fees.

Document Services’ print arsenal includes a host of Océ gear—two Vario-Print 5160 (MICR check printers), a 6250 black-and-white PostScript printer and three 7650cx continuous-feed engines.

On the ancillary side, Document Services produces wide-format banners (with an HP Designjet Z6100) along with marketing display boxes, water bottle labels and books.

“We didn’t know that wide format would take off like it has, but everyone went banner crazy,” Ciardi notes. “It’s really been a home run for us.”

Document Services has knocked a couple of other balls out of the park over the years, including its decision, in 1994, to merge its printing, data center printing and mailroom into one shop.

Five years later, the in-plant merged and consolidated most of its equipment into Rochester from its satellite offices in Syracuse and Utica. The staff wasn’t consolidated, and the only downsizing took place through attrition. A Xerox DocuTech 6180 is maintained in Syracuse to handle overflow work.

“I felt we were ahead of the curve with our data center merger,” Ciardi remarks. “I was approached by the IT folks, who did not want to do transactional printing. And the consolidation enabled us to save money. It did a really great job of saving administrative dollars by not having equipment all over the state.”

Due to the nature of the work processed by Document Services and HIPAA privacy edicts, mail integrity is of the utmost concern. The in-plant relies on the power of its Pitney Bowes APS inserter, in tandem with Printable Technologies’ FusionPro variable data software and Exstream’s Dialogue personalization tools, to create 2-5 bar codes on each preassigned printed packet.

With an EOB mailing, for an example, the electronic files are sent to the APS inserter, and the operator can access the file and see the number of pages assigned to the packet because it has a “human readable” element. The Dialogue and FusionPro composition tools read the mail run data file (MRDF), provide mail integrity and help prevent double stuffing in envelopes—a major no-no in Document Services country.

Less Outsourcing Than Ever

The growth at Document Services, particularly in full-color digital work, has greatly reduced the need to outsource, and that is fine with a parent company that is justifiably sensitive about its clients’ data. Ciardi says that flexibility and the ability to adapt and “change on a dime” keeps the BCBS family happy.

But Ciardi, whose in-plant has the right of first refusal on all work, will be the first one to step forward and let her customers know if the shop can get a job done more economically from an outside source. A 100,000-count full-color run, for example, is not as cost effective on a NexPress as it would be on an offset press (Document Services doesn’t have any offset gear).

While Document Services doesn’t solicit outside work, it does insource jobs from nonprofits in the Rochester area. Most of those opportunities are derived from word-of-mouth promotion. Internally, however, the in-plant maintains a strong focus on marketing.

Document Services holds occasional demonstrations in which it provides product samples to customers. Last year, the shop celebrated IPMA’s In-plant Awareness Week with tables set up in BCBS’s atrium. The shop used its HP Z6100 to create promotional banners, and the festivities included free giveaways, raffles, and of course samples of the shop’s handiwork.

“We’re doing a lot more promotion of ourselves, trying to be more market-centric,” Ciardi says. “Instead of being just a printing and mailing department, we try to present a holistic solution for your marketing needs with direct mail, campaign mailing, QR codes and banners. It’s really changed the focus of this department.”

The past five years have provided many changes for Document Services. Six black-and-white machines gave way to the Océ solution. The shop made the switch from cut sheets to continuous sheets. That provided a savings of both administrative and operational dollars. Ciardi is particularly proud of what she says is a unique booklet making workflow consisting of an Ibis smart binder, C.P. Bourg bookletmaker and a Challenge cutter.

As Document Services continues to evolve as a market services provider that frequently steps outside the boundaries of traditional print, Ciardi is confident her loyal staff—some of whom have as many as 36 years on the job—can roll with the changes and continue to make themselves relevant in the eyes of Excellus BCBS. They’re already well respected in Ciardi’s eyes.

“These people have a can-do attitude; it’s all about them, not me,” she praises. “Being in Rochester is such a gift on the technology side. But if you don’t have a staff that’s focused and dedicated, you aren’t going to be successful.”