Using Technology to 
Help Build Enrollment

The strategic value of an in-plant all comes down to how well it meets its internal customers' needs. So when the Admissions department at Rochester Institute of Technology—the biggest customer of RIT's Print and Postal Hub—turned to Director John Meyer for help with increasing enrollment, he gave the project his full attention.

Admissions had set a goal to increase enrollment by 10 percent a year for the next 10 years. It wanted to send personalized printed admissions materials to prospective students to prompt them to visit a personalized Web site.

Meyer quickly found a solution using XMPie's variable data publishing software. He and his team had it up and running in just two weeks. After Admissions identified –potential students to target, the in-plant created personalized application forms that included information on the students, captured from a variety of data sources. A personalized URL (pURL) in the printed form directed each recipient to his or her own microsite where they were prompted to provide additional information.

"The first time we did this application in the fall of 2007, we produced 33,000 personalized applications," Meyer recalls. "We have increased it every year, and we did 103,000 this year."

This is just one example of how valuable in-plants can be to their parent organizations. Since enhancing the organization's success is always a top priority, in-plants are constantly looking for opportunities like this to use their expertise to help the organization thrive.

One reason RIT's Print and Postal Hub was able to quickly jump in with a solution is because the 20-employee in-plant had all the required technology on hand. "Technology," after all, is part of the school's name, and the in-plant certainly knows how to use it.

The shop was an early investor in production digital color. It installed a Xerox iGen3 in 2005 to complement its existing digital black-and-white devices and offset presses, then upgraded to an iGen4 in 2010. That same year, it opened an On Demand Center on campus, fortifying it with a Xerox 700 for digital color, a Xerox Nuvera for black-and-white jobs and some wide-format digital printing devices. The in-plant now has five locations providing print and mail for the Rochester, N.Y., campus.

Digital Production Management

Operational efficiency is a priority for the in-plant, Meyer notes.

"We implemented an Avanti print MIS system to streamline operations and enhance our overall efficiency," he says. "Jobs are in the system within an hour of receipt, estimates are done the same day and billing and chargebacks are automatic."

The in-plant is very close to launching Avanti's Web-to-print module, Meyer reports. "I'm expecting that for spring," he says.

Another recent accomplishment of RIT's Print and Postal Hub was attaining Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) chain-of-custody certification last spring.

"That's worked out very well for us," declares Meyer. "It's really shown that we have a commitment...to going green."

Customers like having the FSC logo on their printed products, he says, to show others their dedication to sustainability.

Gearing Up For Growing Volumes

Getting the iGen4 was an important step for the in-plant. Volumes on the iGen3 had been rising steadily, from 70,000 pages per month (ppm) when it first arrived to more than 220,000 ppm by 2010. Also, variable data was playing an increasingly large role.

"With the increases we've seen in print volumes and run lengths," Meyer says, "we wanted a CPU that could handle variable data processing at the speeds we need."

So he and his staff looked into upgrading to an iGen4.

"The pricing was not that much different to upgrade it," says Meyer, "and that gave us so much more than just a more powerful CPU. With the iGen4, we got a new press with all new mechanics—plus expanded capabilities."

Within the first few months of acquiring the iGen4, the in-plant was able to bring jobs back in-house that required short-run, on-demand printing—such as a series of athletic media guides. The iGen4 let them quickly respond to needs.

"Installing the new press went incredibly smoothly," says Meyer. "The old one came out on a Thursday, the room got new paint and carpet on Friday, and the iGen4 was installed on Monday. We were up and running with it that Thursday."

The department's three offset press operators had already been trained on the iGen3, so it was easy to get them recertified on the iGen4. And because the new press requires much less operator intervention, the department can save on labor costs for each job while maximizing production capacity. It also requires less maintenance, Meyer says. The department has reduced its weekly scheduled maintenance from two hours to 20 minutes, and its daily maintenance from 30 minutes to five minutes.

"We walk in every morning knowing that this machine is ready to run," says Meyer. "We do our weekly maintenance on a Monday and then we're good to go any day of the week."

More Schedule Flexibility

By eliminating maintenance time, the department has expanded its capacity for handling work and accommodating quick turnarounds.

"We now have more flexibility with our schedule when it comes to taking in rush jobs, as well as those that could be run offset or digital," says Meyer. "Now we're more likely to take those borderline jobs and run them on the iGen4."

As a result of all this, color volumes have grown 36 percent since adding the iGen4. The shop now outputs more than 300,000 ppm—and half a million a month in September and October when it produces the personalized recruitment pieces for Admissions.

Color quality and consistency has improved as well. With the in-line spectrophotometer and auto-density control on the iGen4, color adjustments are done on the fly and calibrations are automatic.

"We're getting more consistent color and less variability, without having to plan jobs around a maintenance schedule," Meyer says.

As a result of technology upgrades like this, Meyer feels his in-plant is now better prepared than ever to support the needs of customers, campus wide. IPG