New In-plant Helps Liberty University Thrive
Two years ago, Liberty University did not have an in-plant. Marketing materials were being outsourced, and Bob Boyer felt an opportunity was being missed.
“One of the things that one of the directors and I talked about a lot were variable data applications—how [VDP] was still not being utilized by a lot of colleges and universities,” recalls Boyer, senior director of Fulfillment, Postal Services, Print Shop and Warehousing. “It would really open up the spectrum of marketing we could do overall for the university.”
But the print strategy at the time—procuring print from outside—was standing in the way.
“We had a lot of applications out there that, if Liberty were to pursue with a print vendor, it might not be cost effective to do,” he says.
Boyer felt, by starting up a new in-plant with cutting-edge equipment, he could provide these variable data marketing materials, on demand, properly branded and for much less money than the outsourcing alternative.
“So we started researching what it would look like to bring operations in-house at Liberty,” he says.
After a diligent investigation of digital print and bindery equipment, Liberty University opened its new in-plant for business one year ago last month. The nine-employee operation runs an HP Indigo 7800 digital color press, an HP Scitex FB500 wide-format printer, a Graphtec vinyl plotter and a full bindery stocked with Standard Horizon equipment, including a StitchLiner 5500 saddle stitcher, a BQ-270V perfect binder and an AFC-566FG folder.
“We are a brand-new start-up operation, so we had the luxury of designing a solution without having to consider a legacy installation,” explains Boyer. “Marketing’s printing needs demanded more control and flexibility in the printing process, which was previously outsourced. We determined that an in-house operation would deliver cost reduction, more control and the ability to incorporate variable imaging into our marketing materials.”
Over the past year, the new in-plant has printed nearly 13 million impressions on the 7800—jobs like targeted direct mail, recruitment and fundraising letters, event invitations, programs, calendars, class schedules, campus maps and more.
And while print jobs that aren’t marketing-related are still currently being done off campus, Boyer has plans to bring more of that work in-house.
“It’s my goal, as the director, to try to bring more and more of that business in-house because, ultimately, we’re going to be able to save a good amount of money versus going outside,” he contends.
A Large University
Founded in 1971, Liberty University is reportedly the largest nonprofit university in the United States. Total enrollment is about 110,000 students. Located in Lynchburg, Virginia, the liberal arts institution offers more than 200 undergraduate and graduate residential programs in fields such as medicine, religion, law, aviation, cinematic arts, psychology and business.
Before settling on the HP equipment, Boyer and his staff evaluated several digital presses.
“We undertook side-by-side comparisons of print as we considered the digital press vendors,” explains Danny Horsley, Print Shop Manager. “Apart from print quality, we looked at ease of operation and maintenance, training and support, and compatible finishing solutions. Accurate and consistent reproduction of the specific red and blue of the university’s colors was also an important factor.”
“HP Indigo and the HP team offered the best fit for our current needs, with opportunities for expanded capacity in the future,” notes Boyer. He especially liked the ability of the 7800 to consistently match Liberty’s red and blue colors.
“With HP’s ink technology, [ink] comes pre-mixed and we’re hitting it 100 percent of the time,” he says. “So it was another level of branding control that really helped marketing out.”
In-plant Expands Creative Options
Boyer feels that having an in-plant has allowed the university to be more creative with the pieces it produces. He cites an alumni survey that, when produced by outside printers, was basically a standardized form that looked the same for every school. Since bringing printing in-house and implementing HP SmartStream VDP software, more possibilities have opened up.
“We’ve been able to personalize it for each different school,” he says. This has greatly improved response rates. “Last year alone we were able to increase the response rate via mail from 9 percent to 25 percent, which is pretty significant.”
In-house printing has also enabled jobs to be printed on demand, rather than printing large runs and storing them, only to have to recycle pallets of outdated material later.
Having an in-plant has saved Liberty a lot of money, Boyer adds.
“We’ve been able to see about an average of 25 to 27 percent savings over what we were doing before,” he reports.
One area where the in-plant has saved a significant amount of money has been in wide-format printing.
“In addition to purchasing commercial and academic work, we were also
buying large-format print with very high mark-ups,” says Boyer. “We decided to look at doing our own large-format printing while we were at it.”
The shop bought an HP Scitex FB500 hybrid printer, which can print rigid and flexible substrates.
“We print graphics, signage and pop-ups for our recruiters to take on the road with them,” says Horsley. “We do campus decorations, like pole banners, and also directional and informational signage.”
In addition, banners can be printed overnight to celebrate an important sports victory.
“This sort of thing, with colorful imaging and branding, adds a lot to life at Liberty University,” Boyer says. “On large-format print, we can regularly deliver cost savings of up to 30 percent over outsourcing.”
The in-plant uses its Graphtec vinyl cutting plotter to contour cut decals and signage, some of which is used to brand university vehicles.
Big Bindery Buy
No in-plant is complete without a bindery, and Liberty’s in-plant went all out to get the best finishing equipment. Boyer, Horsley and John Fleming, president of local Standard dealer Consolidated Marketing, traveled to Boston to visit the Standard Finishing showroom.
“We were very pleased with what we saw,” Boyer reports. “We saw a great deal of potential for meeting our current and future needs, and the training facility is very impressive. With the configuration we selected, we have plenty of capacity, even if we choose to add another digital press.”
The in-plant installed a Standard Horizon StitchLiner 5500 saddle stitcher with an HOF-400 sheet feeder to process digitally collated output from the HP presses into professionally finished booklets. It also implemented a BQ-270V perfect binder with HT-30 three-side trimmer to produce variable thickness books. Also added were an automated AFC-566FG folder and an RD-3346 rotary diecutter.
The Liberty team was impressed by the durability of the equipment as compared to some other brands they considered, as well as the ability to automate the finishing process.
“I come from a traditional print background,” Boyer explains, “where it could take the better part of a day to set up a stitcher. Our setup on the Standard Horizon StitchLiner is already so much more efficient, and we will reduce that to less than five minutes when we implement HP’s Direct2Finish solution. If you don’t need to add a stitch head or put a center cut knife in, you just scan a barcode and push start.”
“We also had the benefit of our marketing department providing us with samples of all of the established pieces we would be expected to produce,” Horsley adds. “Standard Finishing was the only one that could deliver the commercial quality we had been getting from outside vendors. And visiting the Standard Finishing showroom was like being a kid in a candy store.”
Looking forward, Boyer says the in-plant is close to signing a deal to add an HP Indigo 5600, which can print 90 color and 272 monochrome pages per minute. He’s optimistic the in-plant will be able to continue bringing more of Liberty University’s print work in-house, saving even more money for the university.
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