IPMA 2004 Education with a Dose of History

In-plant managers from all over the country met in downtown Philadelphia for the 40th annual IPMA conference.

By Bob Neubauer

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the International Publishing Management Association went back to its roots: Philadelphia. That was where the group got its start back in 1964. And that was where about 150 IPMA members gathered recently for the 40th annual conference.

Since Philadelphia is also In-Plant Graphics' home turf, more IPG staff than usual were on hand to mingle with managers during the four-day event, which included educational sessions, an exhibition hall and several evening outings.

One of those outings took place in the National Liberty Museum, started by Irvin J. Borowsky, the founder of IPG's parent company. Other events included a trip to Atlantic City, a reception at the Hard Rock Cafe and plenty of time to wander Philadelphia's historic streets. Managers also toured two local print operations: Mellon Corporate Publishing and Strata Graphics, a commercial printing running a Xerox iGen3 digital color press.

Attendees had the opportunity to visit with a number of industry suppliers at the two-day vendor fair, which featured more than 20 companies. Some of the largest supporters of the conference were Heidelberg, Xerox and NexPress, each of which also shared their expertise by leading educational sessions. (Other sponsors included Presstek, Rochester Software Associates and Riso.)

Those sessions, many also led by in-plant managers, covered topics such as chargeback strategies, insourcing, customer service, marketing the in-plant, online job submission, computer integrated manufacturing, disaster recovery and promotional products.

Success Secrets Revealed

IPG Editor Bob Neubauer moderated one panel of in-plant managers who shared some of the secrets to their success. Jim Sabulski, of the College of Misericordia, in Dallas, Pa., urged attendees to act like leaders, not just bosses. Make employees feel they're part of a team, and get them involved in decisions, he said. Take a genuine interest in them as people and they will be interested in what you have to say, he said.

Sabulski also stressed the importance of maintaining equipment. He creates a maintenance schedule for operators, schedules preventative maintenance on copiers and keeps dust covers on unused equipment. This makes his equipment last longer, while increasing its resale value, he said.

Tim Hoffstedder, of Western and Southern Financial Group, said that after his in-plant purchases new equipment, he makes sure to report to upper management on the return on investment. He also does studies comparing the cost of in-house printing to what outside printers charge and submits them to management. These reports help improve his relationship with management.

Debbie Pavletich, of Briggs & Stratton, in Milwaukee, explained how her in-plant has expanded in scope over the years, with two notable growth spurts:

• In 1995, when the in-plant started insourcing from outside organizations, sales grew 50 percent.

• In 2000, when it added variable data printing, sales jumped 27 percent.

Despite this growth, it has not always been easy to get permission to add new equipment, so the in-plant began leasing equipment and justifying the cost through resulting print sales. The most recent addition was a four-color Ryobi press, installed in June.

Market Your In-plant

A session on marketing the in-plant, moderated by Liz Hunter, of the City of Colorado Springs, featured a panel of three managers from different parts of the country. Jean-Luc Devis, of Oregon State University, described some of his successful marketing ideas, which have included open houses, educational sessions for customers (on topics like setting up variable data jobs) and putting a "Printshop" icon on customers' desktops to provide a direct link to the in-plant's Web site.

The in-plant, he said, is on a distribution list to be notified of promotions within the university. Each person who is promoted receives a congratulatory note from the in-plant and instructions on how to order new business cards.

Tonya Demerson, of the City of Denton, Texas, markets her in-plant by writing articles about the shop for the employee newsletter. When the in-plant rolls out a new service or holds an event, she sends e-mail notifications to customers. She also participates in annual department meetings to discuss the future needs of customers.

Mellon Financial's Mike Renn, whose in-plant is just down the street from the conference location, stressed that having a good reputation is not enough for an in-plant. Management moves around and people forget about the in-plant. He aims high with his marketing efforts, sending quarterly cost savings reports to upper management, with job-by-job comparisons to outside printing costs. Last year, he said, he saved Mellon $6 million.

Renn also seeks meetings with various company managers by simply scheduling them with their secretaries. He gives them 15-minute PowerPoint presentations about the in-plant.

Like other in-plants, Mellon Corporate Publishing prints self-promotional material, but Renn tries to produce items that customers will keep, like calendars, note pads and mouse pads.

In-plant Market Research

The conference featured the results of two separate research studies on the in-plant market. The first was given by IPG Editor Bob Neubauer. Among the many facts revealed were these:

• In-plants are gaining employees. Two years ago an IPG survey showed an average employee count of 22; that number is up to 29.

• In-plant operating budgets have grown from just under $3 million in 2002 to $4.62 million this year.

• Half of all in-plants are insourcing.

• More than 90 percent of in-plants now handle digital printing.

(Survey results will be presented in more detail in a coming issue of IPG.)

The second study was carried out by InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. Charlie Corr, a former in-plant manager, presented some of the data. In-plant managers, the survey found, are more conservative than those in the print-for-pay market, and are driven more by cost savings than opportunity. Just 22 percent say their primary reason for investing is to drive business growth and offer new services. Only 17 percent describe themselves as early adopters while 43 percent qualify as "laggards." (The most successful in-plants, the survey found, were the early adopters.) Still, the study found significant movement from offset to digital technologies among in-plants.

Other trends: 52 percent of in-plants are insourcing printing (similar to IPG's figure of 50 percent), and 33 percent offer variable data printing (compared to IPG's figure of 42 percent).

Corr advised in-plant managers to become "print czars" in their organizations, in charge of all printing and print buying, as well as the copiers and printers distributed throughout their organizations. In-plants should also oversee paper purchasing and mail, he recommended.

Working With Others

The three general sessions at IPMA 2004, each infused with its own brand of humor, shared a common theme: How to work well with others.

To improve the performance of those you work with, Kerry Johnson, of Peak Performance Coaching, advised attendees to praise people at least three times a day, preferably in front of others. Be specific with your praise, he added. Also, try to catch people doing something nice instead of always looking for bad behavior.

Johnson noted that people respond better when you combine your verbal message with a brief touch of their arm below the elbow for less than three seconds.

Frequent IPMA presenter Carrie Griffin, of Peopleware, animated the crowd by incorporating dance lessons into her session. She also talked about the different ways people communicate. Observe the behavior of the people you lead, she said, and communicate with them the way they like to communicate.

Personalities, she noted, fall into one of four categories: Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness or Steadiness. A manager in the Dominance category, who values immediate results, might not understand or get along with someone in the Influence category, who values interacting with people. A true leader will recognize the difference in styles and alter his or her behavior toward someone with a different type of personality.

In an often amusing presentation, Ross Shafer, author of the book "Nobody Moved Your Cheese," debunked some of the popular books on success by "experts" and stressed that "success is your own fault."

He noted that relationships are replacing customer service. If people trust you, he said, they will give you their business. As for your own staff, he added, make sure you hire people who know things you don't know, just clones of yourself. And be sure you're exploiting your employees' talents, he urged—and not just the talents for which you hired them.

Adding Value

As demand for print slows, the importance of value-added services is growing, noted G. David Dodd, principal of Point Balance, LLC. In fact, they will be critical to the future growth and prosperity of all in-plants, he said. But in-plants must initiate these new services carefully, evaluating each prospective service as a stand-alone business, he advised. Find synergies between this service and your core business, he said, and develop a solid strategy for each new offering.

First, he said, decide which customers will get the greatest value from the service and which provide the best growth opportunities. Develop a value proposition: Why should the customer buy that service from you, and how does it improve their competitive position? Next, consider all the activities you will have to do to deliver that service. Can you do them all in-house? Finally, define what you will do differently than your competitors.

Think solutions, not services, he said. Treat individual services as the building blocks of more comprehensive solutions that will help a customer achieve a desired business outcome.

Start Charging Back

Al Schmidutz, manger of Graphic Services for Steelcase Inc., discussed why chargeback systems are important for in-plants to adopt. Mainly, he said, they provide accountability, letting in-plants track unnecessary spending, document facts and show how and where money is spent.

Having a chargeback system saved Schmidutz and his staff their jobs. Steelcase was cut in half from 20,000 to 10,000 employees over the past couple of years, but by having reports and hard core facts to take to executive management, the shop proved its necessity. Schmidutz uses software from Franklin Estimating, and says it is inexpensive but serves in value.

"I use the all-inclusive plan," Schmidutz says. "Everything that is purchased goes into the database. I automatically set up and figure out, with adjustments, the cost of time so I know what to charge for fixed or variable costs."

Schmidutz suggests that managers start small with an Excel Spreadsheet or Access Database and prove the worth of the chargeback plan.

Disaster Recovery Planning

Sixty percent of businesses that experience a catastrophic event go out of business within two years; 93 percent of businesses that experience a data center disaster go out of business within five years. Kevin Dohrmann used these facts to shake up the crowd at his session on Disaster Recovery Planning.

Dohrmann, chief technology officer of IPR, a company specializing in risk management, said in-plants should have a strong recovery plan and make sure all employees know what to do. Testing is the key to successful recovery

"If you don't test the plan, it might not work...during a disaster," he warned.

Staff must know how to evacuate and know what alternate facilities are available. Backups for key personnel must be trained. Data backups and documentation of critical processes must be kept current and off site. By making sure all employees are not only allocated the proper resources, but understand the impact of a disaster, Dohrmann said, the operational impact and loss of revenue to the organization can be kept minimal.