Longhorn Stampede Gaining Momentum

For years the University of Texas at Austin operated two distinct in-plants that seldom worked together. With a new director and a new strategy, they are slowly discovering the strength of unity.

By Bob Neubauer

It's an indelible Texas image: the longhorn stampede.

It's also the analogy Richard Beto uses to describe the changes coming to University Services at the University of Texas at Austin.

"In the beginning of the stampede you see the dust," says Beto, director of document services. "As it moves toward you, you can feel it."

Likewise, he notes, the stampede of new ideas, new equipment and better service taking place at the 63-employee in-plant is starting to shake the ground at the 50,000-student university, home of the Texas Longhorns athletic program.

"We're sort of stirring some dust up. We're changing some things," he says. "People are beginning to hear and feel the difference."

That difference includes shorter turnaround times, improved customer service, more marketing and a host of new digital equipment. But even so, Beto admits, the longhorn stampede hasn't arrived just yet.

"When we become the vendor of choice, when those steers are running through Congress Avenue in Austin, then we've made it," he says, adding, "We've got a long way to go."

An In-plant in Transition

The West Virginia native joined the UT-Austin team in May of 2004 as head of University Services, an operation in transition—and one still trying to escape the pull of its own past. A few years before he arrived, the school's Printing Services and Copy Center Services departments were being run as separate divisions.

"I think that they, at times, competed," says Beto.

Three years ago, the university brought them together under the same director and asked them to work with each other. It was hardly a match made in heaven.

"Being that we were separated and we never worked together, it was hard," acknowledges Copy Center Manager Albert Puga, a veteran with 16 years of service to the department.

Marla Martinez, associate vice president for Employee and Campus Services, conducted a thorough search for a new director to help smooth the transition. Martinez consulted with other university in-plant managers before she and the search committee narrowed down their choices and eventually selected Beto.

When he was hired, Beto—the former director of West Virginia University Printing Services—was charged with bringing the disparate operations together into one cohesive team. Included in the mix was Mail Services, which has long been co-located in Printing Services' off-campus 48,000-square-foot facility.

To help him accomplish this, Beto set out three goals:

1. To deliver services from the portfolio (University Services) rather than from the three individual service units. ("If you have more services to sell," Beto explains, "you're more attractive to your customers.")

2. To become the vendor of choice when customers need printing, copying or mail.

3. To bring financial stability to these chargeback units.

To help accomplish the first goal, Beto directed Printing Services' five customer service representatives to start selling copy and mail services, as well. This has required some adjustments both for the CSRs and for the copy and mail center managers, who never had anyone selling for them before. But it has given printing and copying the opportunity to work together on jobs like books, which require services from each of them.

The CSRs have also helped sell the UT-branded novelty items (clocks, paper weights, portfolios, etc.) that UT Copy Centers offer, as well as the promotional key chains, mugs and other items offered through IPMA Marketplace.

"That's really helped our income," says Puga.

To improve pickup and delivery times, University Services reassessed its delivery van situation. Previously, Printing Services had two vans, Copy Centers had two and Mail Services had nine. Now all 13 vans are available to any of the three divisions that needs them. And instead of sending both a mail van and a printing van to one location, such as a branch campus, mail and print deliveries are now combined.

Identifying University Services

As a newcomer to the university, Beto noticed right away that University Services had a bit of an identity problem. Internally, the units and their employees did not look and feel like a team, and externally, many of those on campus knew little about the in-plant.

One way Beto has tried to address this is by providing each unit with shirts identifying them as Printing, Mail and Copy Center employees. This not only fosters team spirit but helps market the in-plant to outsiders.

"I liked the idea of our employees walking into a building and people know who they work for," Beto says.

Vans are also now identified so customers get used to seeing the department's name.

Beto's marketing efforts have gone beyond this though. He visits customers and attends the meetings of various groups on campus, sometimes giving away prizes such as coupons for a free Texas flag poster. Thank-you cards and free "Go Horns" stickers are now included with orders. New services and equipment are promoted with printed pieces that are either mailed, left behind after customer visits or included with job receipts.

"He's really worked the marketing angle," remarks Puga. "Any chance he gets, he markets. He's good at that. That's really helped our business."

The need for more marketing dawned on Beto while he was going through the new employee orientation process. He saw that no information was given to new employees about the in-plant—and some 1,500 new staff and faculty arrive at UT-Austin each year.

"So I thought, this is an opportunity for us to reach out," he says. (New employees now get a notepad with a welcome message from Beto and information on the in-plant.)

One of the in-plant's main selling points is the tremendous breadth of services it offers, from quick copy jobs (using new digital equipment) to long-run four-color printing on its Heidelberg Quickmaster direct imaging press. The in-plant offers design services, Web development, copyright clearance, wide-format printing, binding, fulfillment and, of course, free pickup and delivery with its fleet of vans.

Mail Services (comprised of Campus Mail and Mail Special Services) handles inserting, tabbing, addressing, CASS certification, bulk mailing and more.

Also a key strength is the in-plant's focus on maintaining University of Texas standards when printing logos, PMS colors, etc.

Plus, Beto adds, the in-plant is just more convenient than off-campus vendors.

"We're obviously trying to get the message out...that it's easy to do business with us," he says.

This extends to state government offices, which have long provided a source of revenue for the in-plant. As an approved franchised state printing facility, the in-plant can use interagency contracts to do work for state agencies without the need for bidding. Being located right in the Texas state capital only makes it easier for the in-plant to go after this business.

A History of Separation

In his struggle to change perceptions about the in-plant and get its offset and copy operations to work as a team, Beto is hindered by the two operations' long histories. While Printing Services has been around for about a century, Copy Center Services—originally called Duplicating until Beto renamed it—was born in the late '60s, Puga says.

At the time, Printing Services' focus on long runs was leaving the short-run, quick-turnaround customers out in the cold. So a small press was purchased and Duplicating Services went into business.

"We filled a void," says Puga, who gleaned the department's history from the old-timers he used to work with. Gradually other small presses were added and satellite operations were set up. Eventually Duplicating had eight shops spread around the 350-acre campus. (Four were later closed.) With an entirely different reporting structure, Printing Services wanted little to do with the upstart Duplicating operation.

In 1997, Puga says, the university decided to relocate all of Duplicating Service's small presses to Printing, leaving the shops with just their copiers. Wise move or not, it only furthered the antagonism between the two.

When they were brought under the same director in 2002, the two divisions eyed each other warily at first. Now, Puga admits, they have come to have "a mutual respect for each other." He credits Beto with bringing some direction to the whole merger process.

"Having the right director that understands the business," he says—this has made a difference. "I think we're [heading] in the right direction. He's got the right idea."

Beto, though, directs credit right back to employees. Their dedication during this transition, he says, is what is bringing University Services farther down the trail to success.

"There are a core of employees that work here that take a lot of pride in their work," he says.

Thanks to them, he adds, it won't be long until the in-plant stampede thunders into the awareness of everyone on campus.

"We've gone from seeing the dust to actually, maybe hearing the cattle and feeling that ground move," he says.