In-plants Gather in New Zealand

About 55 attendees travelled to Auckland for the recent New Zealand Print Managers conference and exhibition.

By Jean-Luc Devis and Martin Booth

Sitting on the rim of an extinct, 12,000-year-old volcano overlooking a natural saltwater lagoon, the Waipuna Hotel & Conference Center was the dramatic setting for the recent New Zealand Print Managers conference and exhibition.

About 55 attendees travelled to Auckland for the in-plant conference, which featured U.S. presenters Jean-Luc Devis, director of Printing and Mailing Services at Oregon State University, and Ken Macro, assistant professor of graphic communication at California Polytechnic State University.

Wayne Riggall, of the University of Waikato, who has organized this conference for three years now, was pleased with the turnout and the spontaneous audience discussions during presentations.

"There has clearly been a need for a wholly New Zealand conference as many print managers and supervisors cannot get approval to travel to Australia," he said.

Among the differences observed between U.S. and Australasian in-plants are that the latter seem much more connected with their IT counterparts, which positions them favorably for enhanced technological improvements and support. Shops Down Under also seem, more so than U.S. in-plants, to favor digital printing over offset.

One of the key presenters was Richard Vines, the author of two White Papers on the in-plant industry. He championed the need for in-house operations to become part of the wider organization's value chain. Vines believes in-house printing will become a crucial cog in the transformation of the entire communications industry. The focus of print is shifting from a commercial activity to an office management/marketing/communications function, he said.

Variable data printing was a big theme of the conference. Macro shared examples of successful VDP campaigns in the U.S. and noted that commercial printers now provide value-added services like database consulting, mail piece design, one-to-one marketing strategies and fulfillment. He encouraged in-plants to branch out in these areas.

Devis presented a keynote address on launching a VDP marketing campaign. He stressed that the in-plant should position itself as the expert in this technology, while not forgetting to build strong customer relationships and to educate customers. Devis also noted that marketing his in-plant to customers helped eliminate its deficit and build it a surplus.

Consolidating Copier Contracts

Alec Doran of the University of Western Sydney discussed how his school adopted an enterprise-wide copier program, reducing its 12 copier contracts to just one. The school went from a lowest price bidder to a best value bidder and ended up with much more updated equipment, increased customers satisfaction and decreased overall university cost. It was a sobering lesson for those who believe such a major change to infrastructure can happen overnight.

Dean Ellery, of Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, spoke passionately of the environmental impact of in-plants. He insisted in-plants challenge vendors to reduce their impact upon the environment and manufacture equipment in a sustainable manner utilizing recycled materials and supplies. He encouraged in-plants to utilize the ream paper wrapping instead of throwing it out, put an environmental policy on their Web sites and embed elements of sustainability in copier RFPs.

Sharon Clews, manager of operations and IT at the University of Queensland Bookshop, gave a lively and entertaining keynote address outlining how careful planning can improve employee performance. Planning not only provides direction, but will reduce the impact of change, minimize waste and redundancy and let you set goals and standards by which to measure performance.

David Harrison, president of the Network of In-house Print Professionals Australasia (NIPPA), praised the enthusiasm and professionalism of Wayne Riggall and Justine Wilson in organizing such a successful conference.

"This is the third one I have been to and they just keep getting better," Harrison said.

Next year's New Zealand conference will coincide with Printech in Auckland, to be held in June 2006.