From the Editor Spotlight On...You

The in-plant market has been getting a lot of scrutiny lately.

First InfoTrends/CAP Ventures did a research study on in-plants, followed by a white paper entitled "Defining and Sizing the In-Plant Market in the United States."

Then the trade magazine Electronic Publishing focused on in-plants in its October issue, profiling some of the leaders. Last month that magazine sponsored a Webcast called "Workflow Solutions for the Corporate/In-Plant Printer," presented by Frank Romano, professor emeritus at RIT and senior strategist at InfoTrends/CAP Ventures.

Why all the recent interest in in-plants? The InfoTrends/CAP Ventures white paper addresses this in part when it notes that the in-plant market helped drive the adoption of black-and-white digital printing and accounts for 40 percent of all cut-sheet black-and-white devices. Not only that, in-plants account for 30 percent of placements of 24- to 59-ppm color devices, the paper notes, and 20 percent of all convenience color copier/printers and production color devices in excess of 60 ppm.

"The in-plant market moved into digital color faster than the commercial market did," noted Romano in the Webcast.

Another reason for the recent in-plant interest might lie in the news IPG splashed across the October cover: exactly half of all in-plants are now insourcing—going head-to-head with commercial printers. Manufacturers have taken notice of this trend. One vendor that previously professed little interest in the in-plant industry sent out an e-newsletter in which it called attention to our October cover (without naming IPG) and the insourcing trend.

Of course, in-plants have long known they are a forward-thinking group. To survive they have had to stay a step ahead and seek new revenue opportunities.

The InfoTrends/CAP Ventures white paper estimated that 50,576 in-plants are operating in the U.S., generating $15.8 billion in revenue. (IPG does not offer an estimate, other than to note that we have 24,100 subscribers.) Of these, 40,151 are considered small copy/print sites and an estimated 8,600 are facilities management (FM) sites.

Romano referred to these figures in his Webcast, noting with irony that he has seen several companies switch from an in-plant to an FM and back again based on consultants' advice and current trends. The reality, he said, is that if you price an inside job outside, "the inside always wins." Even if a commercial printer offers a lower initial price, this won't include extra charges for inevitable problems, which the in-plant solves at minimal cost.

Romano also noted that in-plants are handling increasingly more variable data printing, color printing and cross media communication—but we already knew this, didn't we? Still it's nice to see in-plants getting some credit for their accomplishments beyond what we provide on the pages of IPG.