In-plant Round Tables Draw a Crowd at PRINT 09

In-plant managers had two opportunities to mingle at the recent PRINT 09 trade show in Chicago. IPG and the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association each held a separate session for in-plants. Both attracted more than 50 attendees, many from university and insurance in-plants.

At the IPG breakfast round table, sponsored by Ricoh, Editor Bob Neubauer went over some of the issues managers have had to contend with after buying a digital press. Ricoh’s Greg Cholmondeley discussed performance considerations for selecting a digital press, and related how Toll Brothers has achieved dramatic cost savings by using a Ricoh Pro C900 digital press to bring high-quality color mailings in-house.

After these presentations, Neubauer engaged managers in a discussion about their digital printing capabilities and plans. Most in the room said they already had digital production color devices. Some said they justified the cost of their presses by calculating the cost of sending that work outside. Most agreed that after installing their color devices, they received more work than they had anticipated.

Many at the round table said they are proceeding slowly into variable data printing. They are trying to get marketing to buy into it first and understand the applications. Managers from Unum Group, though, revealed that their in-plant is producing complex variable data pieces on their Xerox iGen3. As for transpromo printing, none in the room are actually producing any yet.

Cholmondeley urged in-plants to work with customers on their VDP projects before they go to an outside provider, because once they start working with someone else, it becomes much harder to bring that work in-house later. Plus, he added, by providing VDP for the organization’s marketing efforts, the in-plant becomes crucial to the organization’s success, making it much harder to outsource the in-plant.

At the IPMA lunch session, IPMA President Debbie Pavletich urged in-plants to develop or acquire Web-to-print capabilities as soon as possible. Speakers discussed what to look for when researching a system.