Politics And Printing

Government in-plants face difficulties other in-plants seldom confront. Our story and survey results offer a look inside the most political segment of the industry.

Think your in-plant has it rough? Try working at a government in-plant.

Getting money for new equipment is difficult, you say? It's even harder when it's taxpayer money and your proposals have to go through several committees—often years before your purchase.

Concerned your new boss might replace you? Government in-plant managers often wait on pins and needles for months when they get a new governor, hoping to be reappointed.

Worried outsourcing firms will convince your CEO to shut you down? In addition to this, government shops have legislators and citizens screaming out the ultimate dirty word: "Privatize!"

Despite these hassles, though, government in-plants are survivors. Some have been around over a century. The California Office of State Publishing (OSP), for example, has existed, in some form, for 151 years. The U.S. Government Printing Office opened 140 years ago.

These two venerable operations are perfect examples of in-plants that have changed with the times and offer the latest digital technology. GPO has been lauded for distributing data through its extensive Web site. OSP handles variable data printing, electronic forms and CD replication. Other government in-plants offer similar digital services. Still, for many, money is a major obstacle.

"Acquiring new equipment to stay up with technology has been a problem because...the legislative bodies and the administrations do not give up money easily," notes Donald Bailey Sr., Nevada State Printer and 1997 IPG Manager of the Year. "You've really got to struggle to get capital to get equipment."

And even then, he adds, technology changes so fast that new purchases are quickly obsolete. The new computer system Bailey is working into his 2002 budget may not be very cutting-edge by the time he gets it, despite his research.

"It used to be simple," laments Gerald W. Wilson, division director of the Alabama Department of Finance Division of Printing and Publications. "You could buy a press and know it would last 25 years." Not any more, he says.

Still, Wilson is better off than some government in-plants in that his 66-employee operation is self-supporting. It buys equipment with the money it makes selling printing.

His in-plant may see a jump in print production now that the new finance director has mandated that all printing must go through Wilson's department. This means Wilson will determine whether to print jobs in-house or send them out. This will save money for the state, Wilson notes, but it has a downside: People resent being told what to do.

This can have unforeseen consequences. In Ohio, a similar law requires agencies to use the Office of State Printing's services. Enforcement, however, is left to the agencies, and the law doesn't apply to all of them, says Joe Tucker, administrator of the Columbus-based operation, part of the Department of Administrative Services. Some agencies have used this lack of DAS enforcement to start mini in-plants of their own. One agency, Tucker says, bought two Xerox 6180s, though it outputs only 200,000 impressions a month on each.

"Their cost per impression is probably many times what it would be if we did it here," Tucker says. "They're not putting enough emphasis on cost efficiency."

Nor on charging back, he adds. Because this agency doesn't charge for printing, its offices get the illusion that printing is free, he says.

Though such renegade print shops have cropped up in many government offices—several have sprouted in the federal government, taking business from GPO—they're not the norm. In Nevada, where printing is also mandated through the state printer, Bailey says agencies have no desire to buy their own printing equipment.

"We have nobody that wants to be in the printing business," he says, adding that agencies are glad to send their printing to him.

Impressions Down

Tucker wishes all his agencies would just as happily comply with state law and route their work his way. He has tracked a big drop-off in production due to agencies getting their own equipment. Usually his 31-employee operation outputs 130 million impressions a year, Tucker says. Last year it dropped to 126 million.

What has been growing, he adds, is color output. Last year his department leased a pair of Xerox DocuColors.

"Our color copier business has really picked up," Tucker remarks. "Years ago, the color business of government, at least here in Ohio, was taboo."

This is true around the country. Some 71.5 percent of government in-plants say they provide more color printing today than two years ago. The cost has dropped and governments are recognizing the benefits of color to communicate information.

David German, manager of Reproduction & Mail Services for the City and County of San Francisco, offers another explanation: "People can do one-page color really fast on their little ink-jet printers, so now they're wanting to incorporate it into their documents," he observes.

Like Tucker, German sees his offset business fading—but he's not lamenting it. His in-plant has moved boldly into the future, emphasizing Web-based ordering and digital printing. The shop will soon shed one of its last two offset presses, replacing it with an Indigo or Xerox digital color press or a Heidelberg Quickmaster DI. His customers, German says, want short-run color. He has lost some of this type of work to a commercial printer with an Indigo press, and he doesn't want to lose any more.

Reproduction & Mail Services is implementing an online ordering system to let customers order internally printed items like letterhead, brochures, posters, newsletters and more via its Web site (www.ci.sf.ca.us/repromail/homepg.htm). This site will soon expand to allow online ordering of jobs sent to outside printers. This will result from a merger of the in-plant with the city's print purchasing department. All printing will be ordered through German's office.

"We can save more if we can consolidate the expertise in one area," notes German. As a result of this merger, city employees will be able to order any print job and the in-plant will take care of everything from design through mailing.

"We never can stand still," German says. "We need to keep moving as the market dictates."

Internet Initiatives

San Francisco's in-plant is not alone in handling online ordering. Our IPG government in-plant survey shows that of the 25 percent that have Web sites, 41 percent use them to take job orders (10.2 percent of all respondents). Almost 16 percent of those with sites (3.9 percent of all respondents) use them to display jobs that used to be printed.

GPO, for example, uses its site to provide free access to government documents that would otherwise have to be printed and ordered by the public.

Other government in-plants are publishing CD-ROMs in lieu of printing. Ohio's Office of State Printing can get small quantities of CDs burned in-house through the computer services division, but large runs, Tucker says, must be sent to an outside producer.

In Nevada, though, Bailey wants to handle all CD burning in-house. He has earmarked money in the new budget for high-end CD reproduction equipment.

"We want to be the producer of that, because that's revenue," he notes.

Elsewhere, government in-plants are consolidating with other in-house departments. Oregon is a good example. Six years ago, its Department of Administrative Services pulled together its in-plant, several mailing operations and three mainframe printing departments into one central operation. On-time delivery improved from 70 percent to more than 98 percent and postal expenses dropped by a third.

In Ohio, a steering committee is being set up to look into the growing similarities between the in-plant and the Ohio Data Network printing facility, part of computer services.

Privatization Worries

Moves like these broaden in-plants' responsibilities, giving them stronger positions when talk turns to privatization, as it inevitably does.

"Every time a new administration comes in, that always resurfaces," testifies Gerald Wilson, of the Alabama Department of Finance Division of Printing and Publications.

New governors, eager to score points with constituents, look for ways to bring jobs to the private sector. Often overlooked are the convenience and security benefits of in-house printing.

Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn has set up a review committee to look at privatizing the state printing office. Guinn, in office a year and a half, has yet to officially reappoint State Printer Bailey, who has held his office since 1976, serving five governors.

Avoiding Privatization

Sometimes the right mix of in-house and outsourced printing can spare an in-plant from privatization threats. Over in Mesa, Ariz., Tim Dougherty, administrator of the city's six-employee in-plant, says his shop has been challenged just three times in the 20-plus years he's been there.

"The outsiders have a hard time getting in because we're already giving them work," he notes. All of the city's print work is centralized through his office, and he sends about half of it out to commercial printers.

Dougherty says it's important, for security reasons, that his department decides where to print jobs. A few years ago, he says, the police found a police procedures manual in a criminal's apartment during a bust.

"It turns out at the time we had farmed that job out," he recalls. A janitor at the commercial printer grabbed a copy and gave it to a friend. Printing such jobs in-house, Dougherty maintains, will keep them more secure, since in-plant employees have more loyalty to the parent organization.

Getting good in-plant employees, though—that's another issue entirely. Wilson, of the Alabama Department of Finance, says he's having a tough time hiring trained employees because the graphic arts schools are putting too much emphasis on computer skills and not enough on ink and paper. "That's a major problem," he says. IPG

Insourcing Is In

Though many government in-plants say they can't print for anyone but their parent agency or division, insourcing is still big in the government sector. A surprising 48.4 percent of respondents to our survey of government in-plants said they take in work from outside organizations. This work is largely non-profit work, university work or jobs for other government offices—but the additional revenue is helping in-plants fund more equipment and grow their operations.

For example, the in-plant for the city of Plano, Texas, takes in work from other cities and local suburbs—and it's hungry for more.

"We're hoping to expand that now that we're growing," says Dale Rollins, manager of graphic communications. Not only has his shop added a two-color Hamada 248C, it has increased its staff to seven. This, he says, paves the way for him to start marketing the in-plant to outside government organizations. The added work, he says, will increase his productivity and help him expand his in-plant even more.

"My bosses feel as long as we can keep up with our work load, we can take in other work," he says.

Between the Hamada and a Xerox DocuColor 30, the in-plant does a huge amount of four-color work—60 percent of all jobs, Rollins says. And color is what customers want in the brochures his shop designs and prints.

by Bob Neubauer