NSPA Conference Thriving Despite Cutbacks

With cutbacks everywhere, government in-plants must operate more efficiently. Managers met recently to share their ideas.

by Bob Neubauer

Government in-plants are travelling a rough road these days. At the recent National State Publishing Association conference, words like "financially strapped" and "hiring freeze" spilled frequently from the mouths of attendees.

Yet just as often, discussions centered on solutions to these difficulties, ways to bring in more revenue with new services, and ideas for doing more with fewer employees. This positive outlook and eagerness to overcome obstacles is one of the defining characteristics of the NSPA, and a key reason the association is still going strong after 26 years.

Though state travel restrictions brought fewer attendees than usual to rural Lakeville, Conn., the site of this year's conference, the resulting intimacy enabled everyone to quickly become friends. Even newcomers, like Joe Hills, the new California State Printer, felt immediately at ease.

"It's one of the best conferences I've ever attended," he said during the event. "This is a great way to network with other state printers. We all have the same type of issues."

Such enthusiasm makes Don Bailey proud. Bailey, Nevada State Printer, started the NSPA back in 1977, and he has attended every conference since then—"and never missed a class," he emphasized. "I've always taken something back that saved the state of Nevada money."

With the technology changes going on in the industry, Bailey said, government printers need to get together to compare notes and learn from one another's experiences. This is especially important for in-plant managers in more remote locations, like Harold Pence, Duplicating Services manager for the Alaska Legislative Affairs Agency, in Juneau.

"Information is always valuable to me on where the printing industry is headed because I'm so far away," he commented, in between sessions.

Attendees like Pence were not disappointed in the recent conference, where speakers from a range of companies brought attendees up to date on the latest trends and technologies.

Ironically, for such a technology-focused conference, cell phone reception was very limited in the facility. This brought fewer distractions, though, making the conference feel more like a retreat, a feeling bolstered by its woodsy setting, with trees showing the first touches of autumn color.

Arthur Paulette, director of Connecticut's Department of Administrative Services, organized the conference, putting together an impressive program of speakers, and securing strong vendor participation. The evenings were filled with enjoyable social activities.

Flexibility Essential

Kicking off the conference was Keynote Speaker Mark Hoffman, president and CEO of Corporate Express. He urged managers to keep their operations flexible so they can react quickly to market changes.

"If your organization doesn't have some flexibility, you're going to need it," he advised.

Hoffman talked about the growth of e-business and the continued consolidation of suppliers, resulting in more "one-stop shopping."

He discussed his company's strategy, which includes broadening its product line, investing strongly in technology, focusing globally and emphasizing customer service.

Hoffman went on to explain the importance of customer relationship management. Anyone running a business should learn their customers' needs, then create custom solutions for them. By personalizing customer service you remain close to your customers, an essential place to be.

Magical Presentation

Returning this year in his humorous role as "The Wizard," complete with pointed hat and wand, was Danka's Dick Olenych. He offered a light-hearted session on "super-sizing" your services, imploring managers to expand their services and add value. Ask customers what they are really looking for, he said. Visit agencies with the intent of just listening to them.

He also urged managers to win new customers with kindness. Make them rave about you, he said.

"You've got to be a Wal-Mart greeter," he declared, implying that in-plant employees should be friendly to every customer as they arrive. Sales, he stressed, is everyone's job.

Don't neglect your employees, either, he added. Bring your passion and excitement to them.

"It starts and ends with your example, your passion, your commitment," he said.

Also stressing the importance of employees was Cheryl Sawina, of the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services.

Meanwhile, Back Home... One of the best parts of any NSPA conference is when members update each other on what they have been doing back home. Two members, Gary Judd of Missouri (see article on Mr. Judd's recent death) and Raúl Guevara, of the Kansas Department of Transportation, talked about the recent open houses they held to introduce new customers to their services. Both reported very positive results. In addition, Guevara's in-plant produced a promotional CD-ROM, featuring video clips of his department. He passes this out to customers and prospects to familiarize them with his in-plant's services. He played the disc for NSPA members. Among the other news reported by members: • The California Office of State Publishing is seeking a new location for its large operation in Sacramento. It recently added an Agfa Galileo computer-to-plate system. • The Louisiana Office of State Printing recently completed its move into a new 67,000-square-foot facility in Baton Rouge. • • The Iowa Department of Transportation leased two new Xerox DocuTech 6115s to do more on-demand printing. • The Alaska Legislative Affairs print shop purchased a Ricoh 110 for mail merge documents. • North Dakota's Central Services Division has started sending out thank you notes to customers along with a satisfaction survey to encourage feedback. Director Linda Belisle said she got this idea from another NSPA member.

"We, as managers, have a great influence over whether our employees stay or go," she pointed out. The leading cause of employee dissatisfaction, she said, is their relationship with their manager. Once an employee leaves, it costs four times their salary to replace them and takes about a year for the replacement to become as productive as the one who left.

Sawina encouraged managers to identify their "stars"—employees who are most important to the department's success. Then make sure they are recognized for their efforts (though keep in mind that not everyone enjoys being recognized publicly).

Sawina also advised managers to act as coaches, helping employees to get to know their strengths and supporting them as they translate those strengths into goals that keep them motivated.

Provide your employees with flexibility and even autonomy, added Michael Foye, of paper company Lindenmeyr Munroe.

"You have to let them make a mistake," he said. At the same time, hold everyone accountable for their actions.

Listening to ideas from employees is another crucial tactic, he stressed. Also, listen to customers, suppliers and even competitors, he said. Strive to continuously improve your operation. The future, he said, will be dominated by organizations that possess imagination, not necessarily those with the greatest resources.

Don't Trust Your Eyes

Speakers filled the three-day conference with relevant information. One of the more interesting sessions was about color. Steven Miller, of Kohl & Madden, gave the group a number of tests to show how hard it can be to trust our eyes when comparing colors. For example, colors appear darker when they are on different color backgrounds. And trying to compare colors using only memory is nearly impossible.

For that reason, he said, in-plants should use spectrophotometers to identify colors by numeric descriptions.

"I think this was just an excellent program," said Don Bailey afterwards, adding that the importance of ink has long been overlooked.

Another session discussed the idea of bringing print and mail under one roof. Brian Baxendale, executive vice president of Pitney Bowes, pointed out that mass communication is being replaced by one-to-one communication, requiring more accurate data to be compiled on constituents. He urged in-plant managers to get control of the data streams, enabling them to be the providers of personalized printing and mailing.

Walt Sledzieski, of Hewlett-Packard, introduced the group to a new technology HP is investing in called the digital pen. Using a digital paper, which has a grid on its surface, the pen transmits "digital ink" via a built-in camera. The digital pen could, for example, read the topic on the paper and then open a Web site on that topic.

This idea captivated Alaska's Harold Pence.

"That's something that would be well used by a lot of people in the legislative branch," he remarked.

A Digital Future

The fate of printing in the digital age was also discussed at the conference. Richard Sand, Heidelberg's business development manager, noted that profit margins are slipping on high-volume printing, and said that digital printing has the best potential for growth.

"We see the future of our business in digital," he said of Heidelberg.

He pointed to personalized printing as a great opportunity for in-plants, though he cautioned it requires a change in business procedures. For one thing, he said, you will need personnel to deal with database issues.

Sand went on to explain how variable data printing works. Pages have areas set aside for static text and for variable images and text. Business rules tell the printing device when to print which information from the database.

Sand also talked about the NexPress 2100 digital printer, including recent advances to the NexStation, like a larger processor.

Richard Cutri of Xerox also lauded the power of personalization, saying that personalized marketing pieces increase response rates. He discussed the Xerox iGen3 color printer, contending that it produced better registration than offset presses.

Binding Issues

Fast digital printing is great, but traditional binding equipment has not always kept pace, causing bottlenecks. Andrew Fetherman, of Muller Martini, said the company's new Amigo Digital binder was designed to handle the short runs produced by digital printers.

"We needed to have a binder that's not the bottleneck," he said. The Amigo collates and binds jobs inline so human hands don't have to touch the pages between the time they enter the printer until they come out as finished books.

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NSPA 2003 will take place September 13-17 in Des Moines, Iowa.