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

Back in 1993, the higher-ups at the University of Central Florida, in Orlando, looked at the books one day and were shocked to discover their in-plant was running a deficit of more than $100,000.

Even though they subsequently learned the print shop manager was pilfering funds—and driving up the negative numbers—upper management decided to bring in outside help.

"The print shop's account was so far in the hole that outsourcing was the only way they saw of bringing money back in," says Jodi Peters, the current Printing Services manager.

So the university brought in a facilities management (FM) provider. Unfortunately, it got more than it bargained for. What followed were years of poor service, dissatisfied customers, disinterested employees and financial trouble.

This sad chapter, though, came to an end two years ago when the university finally brought its in-plant back. And though the shop is still rebuilding, already customers are returning, profits are replacing deficits and praise is flowing.

"It's getting more positive all the time," remarks Ed Hindle Jr., print shop manager, "right up through our vice-president."

Money At The Root

No matter what excuses companies and organizations give when they decide to outsource printing, the reasons usually boil down to one thing: money.

Whether justifiably or not, they usually feel they're laying out too much money for in-house printing. They think they'll get a better deal outside.

But often they overreact. Instead of investigating to see whether the problem stems from poor management, they decide that the fundamental notion of having an in-plant is flawed. And all too often, years have to pass, with customers stewing in frustration, before they realize they made a bad decision.

At the University of Central Florida, problems developed gradually. When the decision was made to outsource, the Printing Services department, which encompasses both the in-plant and the copy division, worked up a request for proposal (RFP). Once bids came in, responsibility for the in-plant was awarded to Total Graphics, a local print provider that pledged to return 15 percent of its gross earnings to Printing Services. Total Graphics signed a three-year contract, with two one-year options the university could exercise.

To keep its new partner close to the action, the university had Total Graphics operate out of the old in-plant's space. Some in-plant employees chose to hire on with Total Graphics; others left or were transferred. In addition to bringing in equipment of its own, Total Graphics used and maintained some of the in-plant's original gear.

Even after outsourcing the in-plant, Printing Services still had to handle some of the less pleasant details that come with printing.

"We did all the billing to the university departments," says Peters. "Total Graphics would then invoice the university and we would cut them a check for the jobs they completed."

Everything worked out well in the beginning, and university departments were happy. But before long, Total Graphics started running into trouble.

"They had problems paying their bills," recalls Peters. "So it got real sticky for them to get paper delivered on time. And of course, when you can't get the supplies delivered, you can't get the jobs you've promised delivered on time either. The delay in turnaround time discouraged a lot of people."

Dissatisfied departments were free to take their business off campus, which they started doing in greater numbers as the months wore on.

The owners of Total Graphics decided the only way out of their financial bind was to sell the company. In late 1995, with six months to go on the contract, they found a buyer in a well-known facilities management firm. But, says Peters, "things only got worse after that."

Employee retention developed into a big problem, with pressmen and delivery people changing all the time and only one or two managers sticking around to guide them. But even the managers seemed to lack needed skills.

"They had more of a copier mentality than a print shop mentality," says Hindle, manager of the copier division at that time. The employee at the counter, he says, "would be given a four-color job and agree to have it in two days because he thought you just had to press a button. Then he'd bring it back to the print shop and the employees there would say, 'Are you nuts? We can't do that in two days.' "

Hanging On By A Thread

Despite the problems and the increasing flow of work to outside vendors, the FM still managed to secure the optional years in the contract.

"They were threatened with non-renewal, so they took a survey on campus and wound up getting just enough support that they were able to survive," says Hindle. The FM tallied up a 60 percent approval rate—just ahead of the 50 percent figure that the university required.

With print work being dispersed around Orlando in ever-increasing amounts, the additional problem of standardization became a factor.

"We have a specific gold color that we use," says Hindle. But many of the outside printers didn't bother to match it—or print the school logo the proper size—on the business cards, letterhead, flyers and other materials they handled.

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."

Still, the director of Printing Services continued the bid request process. From the four bids submitted, the university chose to go with a local quick copy franchise. The FM protested the decision, but since the university wasn't obligated to address its protest in detail, its attorney threw out their complaint. What's more, she dismissed all other bids at the same time.

"That's when we took over the print shop," says Hindle. "We were forced into it. But now that we've been in it for two years and starting to get the work back, we're starting to see the benefits and savings of doing it in house."

The Road To Recovery

The attorney's decision coincided with a change of Business Services directors, and the new interim director also favored reopening the in-plant.

"He said, 'Let's see what we can do to start over and bring money in,' " says Peters.

But the renewed in-plant was almost completely unprepared to take on work.

"I became the print shop manager of no print shop, per se," remarks Hindle, who had some offset printing experience. "I had the building and a press that wasn't running."

Most of the university's work was outsourced for the first year (ironically to the bid-winning quick copy shop) as the in-plant slowly rebuilt itself.

"It took us over a year to get customers to start coming back to the print shop here because they were still skittish that we weren't going to be able to turn jobs around," says Peters.

Still Rebuilding

Even after two years, the in-plant is still in the rebuilding stages.

"We're doing the low-end materials like business cards, letterhead and envelopes," says Hindle. "We'll do some invitations and things like that, but all we have is one A.B.Dick 9840 with a T-head, as far as a press. We have a few Risos, as well, and just in this past year we've gotten into digital copying."

The shop accomplished this by adding a T/R Systems Micropress cluster system, with three black-and-white Konica Minolta Di620s and two Minolta color devices: a CF900 and a CF910. With the system in place, Hindle says, customers can now send files electronically. Job tickets and templates are available on the in-plant's Web site (www.printing.ucf.edu).

In the bindery, the in-plant has cutting, folding, stitching and booklet making equipment. Hindle plans to add a couple more A.B.Dicks before the in-plant moves into two-color or full-color work.

"We're going to try to do it by baby steps and not shock anybody too much," he says. "Then we'll start working up to true two-color—maybe something in a wider format so that we can do more up at one time."

Hindle says his involvement with the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) helped him a lot in making equipment decisions and in creating an expansion plan.

Assuming Full Control

The facilities management firm no longer runs the one copy center, so now everything—the in-plant, the three copy centers, the 300 walk-up copiers for the 34,000 students—is once again under the command of Printing Services and its 10 employees. And the lingering cries within the university for outsourcing have finally been stilled.

"We started last year $150,000 in the hole and by the end of the fiscal year we were up by $20,000," says Peters. "This year we've been operating in the black the whole time, and the more money we make, the more chance we have of keeping the print shop. They can see that the money's here now, that we're capable of getting the business back. All of that contributes to keeping it in house."

The in-plant has also regained the "right of first refusal" that it lost in 1993 with the outsourcing, and Hindle and Peters are currently figuring out how to smoothly bring all the departments back in line without upsetting anyone.

"We're still on the low end of everything," says Hindle, "so there's a lot more to come."