The Coming Of The Digital Dynasty

In-plants all over the country have gone digital and are enjoying a host of big

benefits. Here's a look at what they like—and what they'd like to see—in their systems.

"DIGITAL PRINTING, while convenient, can never match the quality of traditional offset."

Sound familiar? It does to proponents of digital printing systems. They have heard this argument plenty of times before. And, in their opinion, it's an argument without merit.

"It's very high-quality printing," says Meredith's Bob Furstenau of his IBM InfoColor 70. "It's very comparable to offset."

And in some cases, even better. Furstenau, director of digital content management for the Des Moines, Iowa-based publisher, points out that the webfed InfoColor 70 provides duplex printing with excellent registration in sizes ranging from 4˝ to 109˝. He adds that digital systems offer a wider color range than offset. Why? Because the printed pages are one generation closer to the job files.

"The offset compresses a lot down into film and CMYK," Furstenau explains. "This is CMYK, but it's digital and closer to the electronic file. We don't have film and plates."

Webfed, two-sided digital systems don't get all the glory, though. Marvin Shimabukuro, operations manager at Halawa Correctional Facility, in Aiea, Hawaii, speaks very highly of the quality that his shop's sheetfed DocuColor 40 delivers. More importantly, his press operators—the true experts—compliment the system's capabilities.

"Some of the guys say, 'Wow, this is fantastic,' " he claims.

Customer reaction has been similar. Once resistant to the new technology, Shimabukuro's clients—which include Hawaiian state agencies and non-profit organizations—have found the quality impressive. And they appreciate the convenience of cost-effective short runs.

Only need five copies of a particular book? No problem with digital printing. There is no film involved, so extremely short runs are not cost-prohibitive.

"This is where the DocuColor beats the pants off the offset press," Shimabukuro contends. "All we have to do is scan the copy in and make the desired number of copies. You can retain the data, and it's there for future use."

Ease Of Use Critical

The advantages of digital printing don't end with fast makereadies. Ease of use is another major benefit, Shimabukuro says. This is especially important in his situation, since he often loses his inmate employees to prison transfers. With digital printing, however, new employees can be trained in a snap.

"All the user has to do is push the button," Shimabukuro says. "The quality is already built in."

His shop is putting this quality to good use in brochures, calendars, annual reports and other four-color work that's beyond the scope of the shop's two-color presses. And since the DocuColor 40 can print at a cost of four cents per page, the operation doesn't hit customers with high prices.

"We're charging 50 cents per sheet to do color work on the 40," Shimabukuro says. "I can reduce the cost to provide color work."

At Meredith, the webfed InfoColor 70 has also reduced costs for customers. "We charge by the linear inch internally," Furstenau reports. "So if you want to save money, you can make the job smaller or run fewer copies. With offset, that's not possible."

Steve Kotrch, director of publishing systems at Simon & Schuster in New York, added a DocuColor 40 not only to save money but to save time. "We need to be able to send out marketing pieces at a moment's notice at a very low cost and a suitable quality," he says. "That's the kind of stuff I'm getting out of the 40."

Easy to calibrate and hooked into a digital network, the 40 can accept jobs that customers send directly from PCs and Macs. Kotrch calls the system a "real workhorse." It outputs a variety of marketing materials and business graphics—all in vibrant color.

"In terms of the business color," Kotrch says, "there has been an explosion here."

Arizona State University, in Tempe, has also been printing a great deal of short-run color products with its digital centerpiece: an Agfa Chromapress. The operation has gotten innovative with the machine, running everything from traditional items, such as posters, to new jobs created especially for the Chromapress.

One new product, designed like a baseball card, is growing in popularity with ASU's different colleges. On the front of the card is a picture of the college's building; on the back are the college's "stats"—mission statement, Web address, etc.

Designing For Digital Output

According to Bob Lane, the university's assistant director of document production services, creative products like these cards allow his operation to get the most out of the Chromapress. He points out that the machine, being a toner-based system, excels at certain colors. By recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the Chromapress, the in-plant can push the system to its full potential.

"We found that the key to our success is designing," Lane reveals.

The university installed the Chromapress in May of 1997, so Lane's department has spent nearly a year learning the intricacies of the machine.

"We've educated ourselves to make sure that we don't run something that isn't going to be aesthetically pleasing to the customer," Lane says.

How do Lane and his compadres please customers consistently? For starters, they never forget that they are working on a Chromapress. Treat a digital printing system like an offset press, Lane warns, and you expose yourself to quality disasters. Treat a digital system like a digital system, however, and you can surpass offset.

"If you design correctly, you will match offset—if not excel it," Lane claims.

Arizona State University doesn't boast the only in-plant producing hot original items on a digital printing system. Pitney Bowes' in-plant is unleashing a wave of new products thanks to an Indigo 1000—and enhancing old offerings at the same time.

Conventional jobs include brochures, sales guides, newsletters, parts lists, manuals and business cards. Pitney Bowes has also occupied the Indigo with some unusual color projects, such as sleeves for cassette cases.

"We've done some crazy things," admits Ralph Sperrazza, general manager of Pitney Bowes document services.

While the Indigo has increased the number of products the in-plant can offer, it has decreased the amount of space the operation requires. Specifically, the department went from 17,000 square feet to 8,100.

Does Sperrazza feel confined? Not at all. He points out that the Indigo's short-run printing not only cuts costs, it cuts warehousing space. Since customers can order the exact number of products they desire, there are no extra copies collecting dust.

"You eliminate the obsolescence created by overordering," he points out.

According to Sperrazza, DocuTechs complement the Indigo's services at Pitney Bowes. By offering both color and black-and-white capabilities, Pitney Bowes document services is creating an environment conducive to digital print on-demand. In this world, you can make changes up to the last minute.

"You can manage the whole process better," Sperrazza says. "You are able to provide, on a quick turnaround basis, what is essentially needed."

The ability to turn work around quickly was one of the key features that drew Shimabukuro to the Xerox DocuColor. "That's the primary reason for getting this digital equipment," he notes.

Lane also lauds the turnaround times of digital printing equipment. He is especially pleased with the quickness of the Chromapress.

"If the file is correct, we can have a proof within 20 minutes," he says. "That's really fast."

Black-and-white Benefits

When it comes to speed, color digital systems don't necessarily dominate the race. Bonnie Stern, associate director at Trustmark Insurance, in Lake Forest, Ill., says that her department's three Xerox DocuTechs are very quick. Moreover, downtime on these machines is minimal. According to Stern, the DocuTechs deliver "the ability to scan many jobs in the queue while you're running a job."

Trustmark Insurance is using its DocuTechs to print insurance booklets and provider guides in runs under 2,000 copies. Longer jobs go to the operation's offset presses.

Farmers Insurance Group, in Los Angeles, is another insurance agency benefiting from black-and-white digital printing. As part of the EDGE (Electronic Document Generation Enterprise) initiative, Farmers added an Océ PageStream 744 Twin printer and a 2140 Twin printer.

The EDGE project focuses on personal lines applications, such as auto policies. "We're cranking these things out so fast, they make your head spin," says James Fridenberg, the EDGE project manager. "And they're quality. You should see these documents. These Océ printers do a great job at 300 dpi.

"These rolls that sit on these printers provide eight to 12 miles of paper," he continues. "They weigh about 1,000 pounds. They just keep rolling, cranking these policies out."

In the past, a client would have to wait as long as 15 days for a policy. Not in the age of EDGE.

"If you're clean," Fridenberg says, "you'll have a policy in your hand in less than three days—depending on the mail."

Here's how it works. A Farmers agent keys in all the pertinent data for the potential client. The information then passes through the Océ's front end. An underwriting application will do an initial evaluation of the insurability of a person. Anything questionable is kicked out and manually reviewed. Otherwise, the information goes straight to the Océ printing system for immediate processing.

"We will print your policy that night and, assuming that we can underwrite you without a big risk, we'll send out a policy the next day to you, bypassing any manual intervention," Fridenberg says. "And each policy is a personalized document developed specifically for the insured."

Personalization such as this is a big benefit of digital printing. Lane notes that the Chromapress' variable data printing capabilities provide a powerful marketing tool. "We believe that's the key to the machine," he says.

Lane is not alone in his thinking. Furstenau estimates that half of the jobs coming off of Meredith's InfoColor 70 take advantage of variable printing. He adds that the machine's personalization has attracted clients who never did business with his department before.

"In presenting the concept, I went to marketing people...and then talked about the variable printing, about how every piece can be unique to each customer," Furstenau says. "We are now doing printing for people who never ordered printing before in their lives."

That's part of the reason why Furstenau is so excited about digital printing. In his 25 years at Meredith, he has witnessed the birth of many new technological innovations. In his opinion, digital printing surpasses them all.

"I've not seen a piece of technology that has so much potential," he says. IPG

Jerry Janda can be contacted at:

jjanda@napco.com

Digital Wish List

Although digital printing equipment brings a bevy of benefits, there's always room for improvement. If in-plants get their wishes, here's what the future may hold for digital printing.

Halawa Correctional Facility: When Marvin Shimabukuro, operations manager, ordered a DocuTech 40 late last year, he made a verbal commitment to buy a DocuColor 70. Shimabukuro can already think of plenty of uses for this versatile webfed, duplexing press.

"With the 40, you need the smooth stock," he says. "With the 70, it will use all types of media, including cloth. And there is no limitation to the types of paper."

Meredith: Personalization plays a pivotal part in the work that Meredith prints on its IBM InfoColor 70. If Bob Furstenau, director of digital content management, had his way, he would make the variable imaging even better.

"I would say that the variable data software could be more enhanced, more user-friendly," he says.

Simon & Schuster: Steve Kotrch, director of publishing systems, wants to implement a color management scheme that lets anybody working on any of Simon & Schuster's six floors scan something in, view it on the monitor, print it out locally at a Xerox Regal, print out multiple copies on the DocuColor 40 and offset press, and get the same results.

"Right now, that's more of a dream," Kotrch admits. "I haven't seen a solution that will work for us yet."

Arizona State University: Next up for ASU's Chromapress? The IntelliStream, a hardware component that increases the capabilities of the Agfa digital printing system. Although the IntelliStream provides efficient solutions for many printing applications, the university will add this product with one specific purpose in mind.

"It allows you to do a banner-sized product—large enough to cover a wall," says ASU's Bob Lane.