Successfully Blending Print & Mail

By Toni McQuilken

Print and mail: For most in-plants they go together like bread and butter. According to IPI research, 70% of in-plants also handle mail — which makes perfect sense. The two services complement each other, allowing in-plants to better serve their organizations, increase efficiencies, and save money.

“There is a lot of synergy with printing,” says Brandon Karcher, manager of Print & Mail Services at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. “Mail services can provide design input, and provide insight into postal regulations to ensure proper delivery. A mailing can exceed 100,000 pieces, and close proximity with Print Services allows for easy transfer of the printed piece to the mailing equipment.”

Greg Christiansen (left), director, Aggie Print and Mail; and Ryan Stoff, mailroom coordinator, Utah State University, with the shop’s FireJet press.

The ability to move pieces seamlessly between print production and mail is a benefit Utah State University has seen as well. Greg Christiansen, director of the Logan, Utah-based university’s Aggie Print and Mail operation, notes that marketing mail can just move from one workstation to the next as it goes through the system, rather than having to be transported from the print shop to the mail center in another building.

“Many projects include variable data for the mailings,” he adds. “Some of that can be done during the printing process, eliminating steps on both ends. … Also, part time employees are able to work where they are needed, whether it’s in the mailroom or print production areas. Departments are receiving one invoice that includes both print and mailing costs, and they can coordinate their projects through one CSR.”

Another benefit of combining print and mail? Time.

“Handling the print and mail together is going to allow for a higher chance of success when it comes to due dates,” says Don Keen, administrative manager of Print Copy Mail at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “I couldn't imagine trying to coordinate either of these services with a vendor.”

Cross-Training

The University of West Georgia Print & Mail Services team (from left): Eva Marchbanks, Michael Post, Brooke Keener (seated), Janet Dillard, and Carlos Olvera.

The ability to cross-train employees on both print and mail equipment is another benefit many in-plants have realized. “Combing the staffing and cross-training have provided the best impact,” notes Michael Post, director of Campus Services at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. “We are working to establish a full-time staff mail content expert who will be able to assess, verify, and ensure all postal regulations are met, followed, and informed so our customers don’t experience any delays or additional costs in their projects due to bad information, poor layout, or non-compliant mailings.”

Of course, it should come as no surprise that perhaps the biggest benefit to tightly integrating the print and mail operations comes down to cost savings. Whether an in-plant is revenue producing or not, the ability to streamline costs and find efficiencies in the process is nothing be a net positive.

The State of Oregon’s Publishing & Distribution operation is a perfect example of that. Tim Landgren, manager of Production Mail & Mail Metering Units, notes that over the past 10 or so years, Publishing & Distribution has slowly combined all of its mail and print operations into a single division. With around 85 employees, it’s the ninth largest in-plant in North America. Though the operation does not handle any inbound mail, outgoing mail alone totals more than two million pieces per month, printed and mailed, Landgren estimates. That volume lets the in-plant take advantage of large postal discounts.

Postal Discounts

“We have three different batches of discounts,” he notes. “We mail our letters at 54.5 cents, instead of a meter cost of 69 cents. So we’re saving 14.5 cents per letter two million times a month. That’s a significant amount of money, and why we’re here.

“Flats we do a few different ways,” he continues. “The majority, usually around 20,000 a month, we send to [a third-party partner] that has a flat sorting machine. They give us a discount on that — presorted it could be as much as 60 cents per flat, but we pay them 30 cents per flat to sort it for us. And then our third toy, that we’ve had for about a year and a half, is basically a commercial parcel station from Pitney Bowes, where they’ve made a deal with the USPS where if we put all the information we can into the system, and use all the tracking on all the parcels, they give us the commercial discount, which is about 30% of retail. Last month we did almost 2,500 of those.”

To get to those volumes, he notes, the operation combined all outgoing mail from all departments, even running a shuttle for pickups to collect all the outbound mail each day from various sites around the state.

“Each department might not have enough to make up the volumes, but together we can get those bulk discounts,” he says.

Tips and Tricks

So how can an in-plant integrate mail and print more closely? There are a few tips and tricks these experienced pros were able to share.

1. Take advantage of the ability to cross-train. Most in-plants are familiar with having every employee wear a number of hats, and mail adds another layer of complexity to the system. But it also generally means being able to justify having another person or two working in the operation, or merging the print and mail teams into one bigger staff. And if everyone has some ability to move not only between the equipment and processes in their own sphere, but throughout the in-plant as a whole, it can help ease labor challenges during the busiest times.

“You have to be flexible,” stresses Landgren. He also notes that you need to have faith in your people and not try to micromanage them. Make sure they have the training and knowledge to do the job, and then get out of the way and let them do it.

2. Take advantage of efficiencies and discounts. One of the single biggest selling points is the ability to streamline operations and reduce costs, not just by cutting waste and reducing the time it takes to get a piece out the door, but also by taking advantage of postal discounts. Having everyone as part of the same team means print and mail can work together to ensure every piece is optimized to get the highest discounts.

“We are all about saving departments postage,” Christiansen say, “and if we find a better and more efficient way to mail something we will do that.” That includes, he notes, not just relying on the rates and discounts from the USPS, but always checking services like FedEx or UPS to compare rates. Designate a person to stay on top of all this.

3. Take advantage of new technologies. Manufacturers are always improving on the speed, quality, and efficiencies of their offerings. Establish a five-year plan, for example, for swapping out equipment, staggered so no two pieces are being changed on any given year. Leasing equipment rather than buying can be one way to accomplish that. Many manufacturers also have robust upgrade paths that can make it more affordable to stay abreast with the latest advances.

There are many benefits to combining print and mail. There is a lot of synergy between the two and many opportunities to be found. That said, it doesn’t have to all start at once. Bring together the segments that already align the closest, and then roll other functions in over time. That can help ease the transition and allow everyone to cross-train as they go, rather than all at once.

But no matter how fast or slow it comes about, if your in-plant offers both print and mail services, there is no denying there is a strong argument to be made for combining them under the same roof.