In-plant Managers Tune Up 
In Nashville

ANY TIME in-plant managers get together, the conversation and camaraderie never end. This was particularly true at the recent Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC). About 30 in-plant managers from universities all over the southern U.S. and as far away as the state of Washington got together in Nashville, Tenn., to exchange information and listen to presentations to help them tune up their operations.

Organized by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the University of Tennessee, Martin, the 36th annual SUPDMC covered topics like outsourcing, social media, adding value, FSC certification and more. It also included a tour of Vanderbilt University Printing Services, which features six- and four-color Heidelberg offset presses, a room full of Xerox digital color and monochrome devices, and a busy bindery operation.

Hosts Jack Williams, Doug Inman, Mary Ann Adams and Dorothy Hauhe planned a full schedule. When attendees weren't listening to sessions, they were hearing about the latest equipment and software in the vendor exhibit area. They also enjoyed dinner at Nashville's famed Wildhorse Saloon and a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The Myths of Outsourcing

The conference began with Ray Chambers, of the Chambers Management Group, who debunked many of the outsourcing myths commonly cited by organizations to justify eliminating their in-plants. Most of them contend they want to outsource to cut costs, yet little research has been done to validate whether outsourcing actually brings savings.

"I have not, in my research, found a single study [meeting academic standards for research design] that supports the notion that outsourcing a non-academic support service decreases costs or improves quality," Chambers stated. "And I've looked."

To back them up, schools and organizations use "research" offered by vendors and special interest groups. But these self-serving statistics do not hold up to the standards of academic evaluation, which require peer review and follow sound research design principles. Managers should point this out when confronted with such studies, Chambers said.

"The legitimate research suggests that decisions to cut off pieces of organizations based on these biased and self-serving claims have not been successful," he said. "That is, they do not reduce costs and/or improve services."

Chambers said outsourcing is sometimes used to avoid having to address management or poor performance issues in the in-plant. It is often proposed after a change in leadership at the university, or because administrators hear that other universities have tried it. Consequently, they don't approach it with clear goals and don't measure results. This generally leads to failure. If you don't have the skills to manage a service internally, Chambers noted, you probably don't have the skills to manage it when it's outsourced.

The next speaker, Catherine Chambers, of Virginia Tech Printing Services, discussed how in-plants can use social media (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and blogging) to promote themselves. She showed the Facebook pages of several in-plants as examples. To be successful, she said, find someone on your staff who can be in charge of updating the sites—but don't post too frequently, or you will annoy your followers.

Attendee Glenda Miley, of Auburn University, noted that her in-plant's Facebook page has more than 500 fans, largely students. The in-plant got many of them to "like" its page using free giveaways as a reward. Chambers also showed how The University of Texas at Austin uses YouTube to share videos of its services.

Group Chain-of-custody Certification

Consultant Vic Barkin gave a presentation on sustainability in the in-plant. He noted that most organizations have a sustainability strategy, so in-plants that can market their own green initiatives will integrate with their parent organizations' sustainability goals, becoming more valuable partners. He told attendees about group chain-of-custody certification, which allows in-plants to share the cost of certification, dropping the price by half.

Eric Kempton, of Océ North America, offered tips on how in-plants can better sell their value to customers. Come to every customer meeting armed with solutions, he advised, such as how you can help them resolve a conflict, simplify a process or solve an operations problem.

"Give the customers some takeaways from your meeting," he suggested.

But don't appear too "needy," he added. Instead, understand in advance why they should buy from you and why someone else can't provide them with the outcome they want.

IPG Editor Bob Neubauer gave a presentation listing ways in-plants can add value. He went over numerous new services he has seen in-plants adding, such as document scanning and archival, laser engraving, selling promotional products, e-communications and more.

Kevin Beatson, of Rochester Software Associates, focused his session on M.I.T. Copy Technology Centers, the in-plant for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and how Konica Minolta helped it through a difficult time by providing equipment to keep the in-plant afloat. The in-plant then upgraded its Web-to-print system, choosing a system from RSA that offered user-friendly submission, online quoting, automatic PDF conversion, e-mail confirmation, job status updates, and the ability to view changes made to documents before submission.

The last session was a panel discussion on value-added services, featuring Paul Jones, of Ashland University, and Hilarie Bain, of the University of Mississippi. Jones noted that, five years ago, he realized his shop had to look for non-traditional revenue, such as T-shirt printing, laser engraving, specialty awards, plaques/trophies and CD/DVD duplication. His in-plant will soon add screen printing and document management for other departments.

Next year, Valdosta State University will keep the SUPDMC tradition alive when it hosts the conference in Valdosta, Ga.