Inserter Lets Penn State 
In-plant Capture More Work

Until a year and a half ago, match mailings were either done by hand at Penn State University's Multimedia & Print Center (MPC) or they were outsourced. The 60-employee in-plant had two older inserters from the '70s and '80s with limited capabilities.

"Both of them were pretty much doing number 10 envelopes, and that's all they could do," remarks Abbas Badani, director of the University Park, Pa.-based in-plant.

With the growing demand for variable data printing, though, the number of match mailing jobs was also skyrocketing. Badani knew something had to be done.

So to satisfy this growing need, the in-plant installed a Pitney Bowes Flowmaster RS inserter. This not only opened up some new revenue opportunities for the in-plant, but has saved the university lots of money by automating match mail jobs previously outsourced or done by hand.

For example, one of the first projects the in-plant did with the Flowmaster was to insert about 100,000 personalized election ballots for the board of trustees and the alumni board elections.

"Both these projects were historically done at an outside vendor," Badani notes. The in-plant did the jobs for 30 percent less than that vendor charged.

Another job, for the College of Agriculture, required the insertion of 9,000 personalized surveys, personalized letters and reply envelopes. The materials were printed on the in-plant's Xerox iGen3 with a 2D barcode. The Flowmaster's two cameras read the barcodes on each insert to make sure that matching ballots and letters were inserted. By hand, such a match mailing would have taken days. On the Flowmaster it took just hours, Badani says.

With the increase in match mailings has come an increase in related print, Badani points out. He feels that having mail as one of his in-plant's offerings helps bring more print work into the shop from customers who send their mailings to the in-plant but not necessarily their printing. Once Badani makes them aware that the shop can save them money and time on their printing, they start using the in-plant regularly.

"It helps drive print back," he says.

—By Bob Neubauer

Ty Emel programs the in-plant's Flowmaster RS inserter.

Photo by Terra Brindel

Until a year and a half ago, match mailings were either done by hand at Penn State University's Multimedia & Print Center (MPC) or they were outsourced. The 60-employee in-plant had two older inserters from the '70s and '80s with limited capabilities.

"Both of them were pretty much doing number 10 envelopes, and that's all they could do," remarks Abbas Badani, director of the University Park, Pa.-based in-plant.

With the growing demand for variable data printing, though, the number of match mailing jobs was also skyrocketing. Badani knew something had to be done.

So to satisfy this growing need, the in-plant installed a Pitney Bowes Flowmaster inserter. This not only opened up some new revenue opportunities for the in-plant but has saved the university lots of money.

For example, one of the first projects the in-plant did with the Flowmaster was to insert about 100,000 personalized election ballots for the board of trustees and the alumni board elections.

"Both these projects were historically done at an outside vendor," Badani notes. The in-plant did the job for $60,000 less than that vendor charged.

Another job, for the College of Agriculture, required the insertion of 9,000 personalized surveys, personalized letters and reply envelopes. The materials were printed on the in-plant's Xerox iGen3 with a 2D barcode. The Flowmaster's two cameras read the barcodes on each insert to make sure that matching ballots and letters were inserted. By hand, such a match mailing would have taken days. On the Flowmaster it took just hours, Badani says. The machine, he adds, has paid for itself in labor savings alone.

With the increase in match mailings has come an increase in print, Badani points out. He feels that having mail as one of his in-plant's offerings helps bring more print work into the shop from customers who send their mailings to the in-plant but not necessarily their printing. Once Badani makes them aware that the shop can save them money on their printing, they start using the in-plant regularly.

"It helps drive print back," he says.