A Wide Variety of Services at ISU

Established 90 years ago to fill the educational mission of faculty, staff and students, Iowa State University Printing & Copy Services is constantly breathing new life into its products and services.

In recent years, the operation has enhanced its mix of offset and digital printing with services like wide-format printing, variable data and even T-shirt production. These capabilities, while giving the shop a modern, dynamic bent, were the result of careful, measured analysis, according to Director Steve Weigel. Printing & Copy Services has walked that fine line between leading-edge and bleeding-edge technology, he notes, in an effort to maintain competitiveness while ensuring the long-term viability of the operation.

"We don't like to jump into new technology too early; we prefer to allow new products to be thoroughly tested in the marketplace first," Weigel reports. "However, we do not want to fall behind because it can be too hard to catch up once you're lagging behind."

With an operating budget of approximately $4 million annually, Printing & Copy Services is housed in a 25,000-square-foot facility situated at the north end of the Cyclones' campus in Ames, Iowa. The in-plant boasts a staff of 31 full-time employees, whose ranks include many craftsmen with 20 to 30 years under their belts. About 12 to 15 student workers staff the four copy centers located on campus and assist with deliveries.

The shop has right of first refusal on university work, with roughly $1 million dollars' worth of printing bid out last year for jobs where the sheet size was too large or the quantity too high. (A member of his management team handles all off-campus print purchasing.) But that still leaves plenty of jobs for the shop's offset and digital presses.

Printing & Copy Services churns out marketing and recruiting brochures, letterhead, envelopes, business cards and posters, not to mention flyers, campus maps, buttons, mailing labels and business reply cards. A lion's share of the printing is provided to the various educational departments, with students primarily accessing the four copy centers for their scholastic applications. Weigel estimates the breakdown of offset versus digital jobs at 50-50, although the trend is pulling more toward the digital side.

The Power of Variable Data

The workhorse of the department is its Kodak NexPress 2100, which has led the shop's variable data revolution for the past six years. Weigel's operation produces personalized products for admissions, athletics, the alumni association and other departments around campus.

The admissions department is a frequent customer. During heavy recruiting periods two or three times each year, Weigel says, admissions will send out up to 50,000 personalized postcards at a time, using a dozen different photos matched to a given student's area of study. This is in addition to its regular, monthly VDP print orders of 5,000 to 10,000 pieces. Many more VDP jobs come in from athletics, alumni and other departments.

The in-plant is exploring the addition of Kodak Dimensional Printing, which creates a clear "raised" layer on top of a page after fusing for a tactile effect similar to thermography. The admissions department is intrigued by the possibilities it provides from a marketing standpoint.

"The NexPress is our busiest machine," Weigel observes. "We'd really like to offer Dimensional, as it could be a popular option for a number of departments. New finishing options for our digital work are being shown and we'll continue to research and evaluate our needs in that area."

The shop has provided black-and-white construction plans for a number of years. Though state budget cuts slowed construction from 2010 to 2012, Weigel notes the work has been steady.

The newest business to arrive at Printing & Copy Services is T-shirt printing. This value-added service, which is about a year old, came about after a copy center supervisor convinced Weigel that there was sufficient demand on campus. After an exhaustive study on the feasibility, the shop broke in with fairly low-cost equipment—an inkjet garment printer, pre-treater and dryer.

One of the challenges Weigel has faced is that many of the orders that have come in are too large for the machine. To help address the demand, the shop has relied on a Des Moines-based vendor. Weigel would like to add a higher throughput device to keep the larger-quantity orders in-house.

MIS and Web-to-print Upgrades

Speaking of recent additions, Printing & Copy Services is transitioning to Enterprise 32 MIS and job ordering software from Enterprise Print Management Solutions. The shop currently uses Programmed Solutions (PSI) in the main plant, with the copy centers working on a simple point-of-sale program. The plan is to run the systems concurrently for a month or so before switching to Enterprise by this summer.

"Implementation has been a long process, but it is giving us a chance to correct lots of problems that were hidden previously," Weigel explains. "Enterprise will allow us to tie together the main plant and copy centers. The copy centers are isolated on the bookkeeping end right now, but in bringing them together, it will give us a better picture of how things are going."

The shop has been using NowPRINT Web-to-print software from NowDocs for online ordering for a decade. But because NowDocs has just switched to an SaaS model, the in-plant is currently exploring other Web-to-print options.

Weigel has a strong track record for being able to procure the new equipment sought by the shop, with all requests funneled through the university's assistant vice president of business services. It doesn't hurt that Printing & Copy Services consistently scores high grades in customer surveys and remains fiscally viable as an operation.

Weigel is also proud to note his shop, which has captured several In-Print awards over the years, has never faced serious outsourcing threats. The State Board of Regents assigned an outside consultant to complete a comprehensive evaluation of the three state university printing operations a few years ago. The report was highly complimentary of the Iowa State in-plant's ability to provide competitively priced, high-quality work to its customer base.

While digital may be the darling of the future, there are still plenty of orders for envelopes, letterhead and other products that will keep the smaller offset machines in business for the foreseeable future. Weigel loves that his employees, while longtime members of the printing trade, have fully embraced the significant changes that technology has introduced.

"We see wide-format and color digital printing continuing to expand, but we see the need to keep our offset options available for longer runs, so we can hold those jobs in-house and keep costs low for our customers," he says. "We have a nice atmosphere here; we keep it light and casual. But the work keeps us running tight. Our employees are true craftsmen who really enjoy the process. It's a great place to work, and I love it."