After outsourcing its printing, the University of Central Florida endured a nightmare of inefficiency and expense. Now the in-plant's back and customers are happy again.

By W. Eric Martin

Once the FM entered the last year of its contract, Peters and Hindle were put in charge of writing a new RFP. But when they investigated the overall printing figures for the university, they received a shock.

"That's when we really saw how much work was going off campus," says Hindle. "There was a quarter million dollars worth of printing work being done in the print shop and almost $1.25 million going off campus"—exactly the opposite of what it used to be, he estimates. "The presses used to run from morning to five o'clock, and sometimes even after hours. Now, there were times you could walk into the print shop and not hear a press."