You Can't Print It All In-house

IT MAY not be a popular topic among in-plants, but sending work to outside printers is often a necessary part of an in-plant manager's job. After all, in-plants can't possibly print everything in-house. Still, some managers don't like to admit that.

"At some industry conferences, it has been like hypocrisy talking about print procurement," admits Joe Tucker, administrator of State Printing and Mail Services for the state of Ohio. "But what better place to have print procurement handled than with the printing experts?"

According to IPG data, almost half of all in-plant managers are in charge of procuring printing, in addition to overseeing in-house production. And this makes perfect sense. Who better to buy printing than a printer?

"We are the experts, and we understand the process and the materials," agrees Bob Keats, director of Document & Mail Services at Colgate University, in Hamilton, N.Y. "It is easier for us to talk to another printer than it is for the customers."

Each in-plant, though, has its own criteria for deciding what to outsource and where to send it. For instance, Keats turns to a small number of pre-approved vendors when faced with a job his shop is not equipped to handle.

"I can't do perfect binding in-house, and we do a number of jobs each year that require perfect binding," Keats notes. "We have two or three approved bindery vendors, so we use them. In the case of a long-run, full-color job that does not lend itself to be produced digitally, we do the same thing—we have three or four pre-approved vendors who we contact for prices and turnaround times."

Colgate's vendors are all vetted for quality, as the in-plant goes through stringent tests with all of its outside partners. If it comes down to two printers that are close in price, the work goes to the firm that can turn around the job the fastest, Keats says.

Online Procurement Saves Time

In Ohio, on the other hand, the in-plant uses an online bidding system, which it created four years ago because of a state requirement to competitively bid anything it buys. Previously, Ohio's State Printing and Mail Services department had to publicly open the bids with a representative from the state auditor's office to certify that they were received in accordance with state law.

"We looked for a better way to automate it, but we felt somewhat limited by statutes that specifically said that we had to have a public bid opening," Tucker recalls. "So we set out to develop a system that was not only automated but would help us overcome some of the limitations that had been interpreted from the statutes."

The in-plant got the go-ahead from the Ohio attorney general's office to create an online system that allows the auditor to electronically certify the bid. The bids are then posted on the in-plant's Web site for public viewing.

Vendors are notified when the auditor has certified the bids, and they can see all the bids submitted for each job. Typically there are 10 to 12 bidders on each project.

"We used to advertise jobs for at least two weeks," Tucker says. "Now we may advertise the bids for less than a day if we need to."

Another state government in-plant that is using an online system to get bids is the Washington State Department of Printing. A little over a year ago the in-plant added P3 Expeditor software to manage its print procurement process. Data on all of the shop's print vendors is stored in the software's database, and each is categorized by specialty. When it's time to bid out a job, the specs are entered into the system, the appropriate vendors are selected, and the software sends each of them an e-mail with a link. When they click on it, they're taken to a secure site where they can review the bid and submit a quote.

"It streamlined our processes quite a bit, and it also gave us the ability to hit a larger vendor community," says Jason Bippert, production planning and print buying manager. Just a few mouse clicks can now accomplish what used to take numerous faxes, he says.

Maintaining Brand Standards

Certainly there are potential problems associated with sending work to outside printers. For one thing, commercial printers may not be as vigilant as in-plant staff about spotting color or logo inconsistencies.

"We have brand standards that we like to abide by, and when work gets sent out, the brand can get compromised if the proofs haven't been run by the proper people," says Katie Szews, manager of Graphic Design & Print Shop Services at Aspirus Wausau Hospital, in Wausau, Wis. "It is a big advantage for the hospital to have the in-plant as a gatekeeper."

Among other things, the in-plant keeps an eye out for color consistency, distorted images and improper logo usage. So when Szews needs to outsource a job, she makes sure the printer is just as diligent about catching these problems.

"I look for sales reps and printers that go that extra step if they notice something is wrong or one of our artists have not caught a problem," Szews points out. "And that they are not afraid to shoot it back and point out things for us to correct before they print several thousand copies."

In Florida, the City of Hollywood's in-plant sends out about 15 percent of its work to commercial shops, says Charles Kerr, Copy Center supervisor. Kerr says that while he runs a robust digital shop, sometimes the volume of jobs is just too high to efficiently produce them in-house.

"We have a digital color copier that will run 300,000 a month, but I currently don't have a service contract for that machine," Kerr maintains. "If I have a job of 5,000 or more two-color brochures, I'll send it out just because it is not worth the service impact to my machine."

Kerr follows the guidelines of the city's purchasing department: any job over $1,000 must have three written quotes. As a government shop, Kerr must maintain a paper trail tracking the quote process.

"But nine times out of 10 I can pick out the right vendor just from experience," Kerr contends. "The two print shops I use most are both trade shops. My customers wouldn't even know how to find them—they aren't listed in the phone book and don't have a Web site. So if you didn't have a salesperson come for a visit, you'd never know they existed."

Kerr uses a FileMaker-based chargeback system, which was extended so he can keep detailed notes on previous projects and track the prices paid for those jobs.

"I can give you a ballpark estimate on pretty much any job that has been done before, based on the last three similar jobs," Kerr says, noting that this allows him to quickly respond to customer inquiries.

Timing is an important factor when Mike Sternfeld sends a project out to a commercial shop. The manager of the University Print Shop & Departmental Copier Program at California State University, Long Beach, says he looks at the quantity, complexity and turnaround time of a job before deciding whether to do it in-house or go the outsourcing route.

"For instance, we get a job every year that is always last minute. It's a 24-page saddle-stitched, four-color book," Sternfeld says. "It's only a run of 300, so it's really not a difficult job to do, but we get it on a Thursday and they want it on Monday. We could do it in-house, but we wouldn't be able to do it on time."

Sternfeld estimates he sends out about 20 percent of the shop's overall volume. This includes items that the in-plant cannot produce, such as official university stationery that requires foil stamping.

"You really can't be a Jack-of-all-trades," Sternfeld concludes. "But you do need to service your customers as best as you can and get them the products they need."

The State of Ohio's Joe Tucker agrees.

"We don't look at it as 'we should do it in-house because we want the business,' but try to find out what is the most cost-efficient [solution] for our customer," he explains. "Either way I am handling it."

"It's easier for us to just say, 'we'll handle that for you,'" adds Keats, of Colgate University. "It's transparent for the customer."IPG