UC-Davis Stays A Step Ahead
Retaining customers at a large institution like the University of California-Davis requires a mix of customer service and cutting-edge technology.
By Carol Brzozowski
One of the most distinctive aspects of the University of California-Davis' Repro Graphics department is that it commands 85 percent of the university's market share—even though there's no mandate that campus departments utilize the operation.
"Most in-plant operations in other academic environments require departments go to that in-plant for printing," contends Ed Dunn, design services and business development manager. "We like to believe we are doing something right."
Across the country, campus in-plant operations are cognizant that they are competing with the private sector. They know they have to find some way to distinguish themselves.
"The tie-breaker has to do with the level of customer service," says Dunn. "From an internal standpoint, it has to do with the intimacy from which we are able to operate with the university, really having an understanding of and wanting to support the individual departments so they can focus on their area of expertise."
Director Will Watson, who came to the operation almost a year ago from Kinko's, observes that regardless of how long employees have worked at Repro Graphics, they are flexible and can accept change.
He also notes an intimacy at the operation different from other types of customer service-based organizations.
"There is a lot of first-name interaction and a lot of understanding by many employees of specific departments," he says. "They have spent a lot of time getting to know what happens in each department and how we can more effectively serve them."
Expansive Operation
Set in the heart of California's Central Valley, the agricultural heart of the state, UC-Davis calls itself "one of the last small-town universities." Its 30,065 students and 8,307 full- and part-time faculty members enjoy the area's Mediterranean climate, where temperatures rarely dip below freezing or above 100 degrees.
The UC-Davis in-plant has an annual operating budget of $7.4 million and employs 45 full-time people and nine students. In addition to Dunn and Watson, the in-plant's management team consists of:
• Susan Kennedy-DuHain, operations manager
• Christy Pearce, campus copier program manager
• Anne Stewart, business manager
• Dan Washabaugh, production manager
Watson spent 11 years at Kinko's, starting at entry-level management with analog technology and ending as a district operations manager. He has noticed that campus structures are in line with the private sector in availing themselves of digital technology knowledge.
"A lot of those practices I was able to champion at Kinko's I believe are valuable to my current role as the director," he says.
The in-plant at UC-Davis, which lies just west of Sacramento, is rooted in the early 1940s, when university records indicate it was established to service the engineering department by printing drafting materials. As it grew, campus administrators continued to support it, rejecting the idea of privatizing campus printing.
In March 1998, the printing operation moved into a new location off campus. Repro Graphics assumed 24,000 square feet of one floor, consolidating its administrative and production departments. The second floor went to the Information and Educational Technology Department. This has enhanced communication efforts.
The in-plant has satellite operations in the campus administration building and the main university library. People can have copies made while they wait or use the convenience copiers.
Repro Graphics' electronic prepress department migrated to computer-to-plate technology a year and a half ago when it added Presstek CTP equipment. The prepress design department hosts two full-time employees and a part-time student.
A mostly Heidelberg shop, the operation uses three single-color and three two-color Heidelberg offset presses, ranging from small duplicators to 18x24˝ format.
Its bindery features a Polar cutter and a Stahl folder—both of which were acquired in September 2002—plus a 20-bin C.P. Bourg collator. Rounding out the bindery are a stitcher, a trimmer, a five-hole drill and various tabletop binders.
Four Digimaster 9110 black-and-white printers were added two years ago to replace aging Xerox products, Dunn says. The shop also has a pair of color printers and a 52˝ wide-format color printer.
|
Online Opportunity When University Communications at UC-Davis designed new business cards that no longer required thermography, Repro Graphics saw an opportunity. The in-plant expressed an interest in producing the cards, which had previously been done by an outside vendor. University Communications indicated that it wanted the in-plant to provide online ordering of the cards. So Repro Graphics developed an online ordering system that not only provides a PDF proof, but verifies the account number, notifies the account manager and automatically bills the department through the university's accounting system, says Ed Dunn, design services and business manager. The in-plant has made it easier for departments to utilize electronic ordering and free up time and materials that were necessary through paper-based ordering processes. "We are very aware companies specializing in business cards are very competitively priced," says Dunn. "We were told our pricing, quality and turnaround had to be as good or better than the existing vendor." So Repro Graphics streamlined its production process, built templates, prints business cards only one day each week to minimize washups and setups and delivers them with its courier staff. "Our goal with the business cards is not to generate a lot of revenue—because they won't—but rather use them as an opportunity to gain visibility and access to almost every employee on the campus," Dunn says. "Our couriers deliver information packets on Repro Graphics' services while they are delivering the business cards to the clients." In addition to the online business card ordering system, the in-plant also will introduce online ordering for other services when it rolls out its ePace management information system to replace its legacy system. ePace includes an e-service module allowing Repro Graphics' clients direct access to its products and services. |
A 65-ppm scanner was installed for scanning class readers and course materials. It lets Repro Graphics do OCR scanning and turn documents into PDFs.
Objectif Lune's PlanetPress software is used by the operation for its variable data printing of employee pay statements, W-2 forms, transcripts and university billing statements. Repro Graphics also added DataXceed software when it transitioned to PlanetPress.
"We did not desire to recreate the legacy forms in PlanetPress, so this allowed us a solution to continue supporting the existing forms," Dunn notes.
Retiring such technologies as microfiche and large-format black-and-white printing has led to some downsizing, and vacant posts were not filled. Additionally, analog equipment has been replaced by digital, affecting the design area.
Services Provided
The most common items printed by UC-Davis Repro Graphics include educational materials, syllabi, readers and course binders. Course packets comprise up to 60 percent of its impressions. Run lengths average 5,000 for offset and 2,500 for copies.
Spot color makes up the majority of the in-plant's offset printing, with five percent of the offset work being four-color. Digital color continues to grow.
Among the unique services Repro Graphics provides is Web site design and hosting. It got involved in the latter at the request of a campus department that was divesting itself from that job. Repro Graphics also started printing business cards recently (see sidebar on page 14).
Inter-campus Cooperation
The University of California system has 10 main campuses, several of which have their own in-plants. The UC-Berkeley in-plant, about 70 miles away, is even larger than the Davis operation. Dunn speculates that the University of California's rationale for having two large in-plants close to one another is so each campus can control its printing and turnaround times.
Recently, several of the UC in-plants met at UC-Berkeley to discuss ways they can partner, Dunn says. Repro Graphics already works with Berkeley and other campuses on some of the bid projects, "so if there is something they can do for us, they can bid on it like any other vendor. We try to keep as much as possible within the family whenever we can because we have a tax advantage over our competition. We don't have to charge our clients taxes, whereas a commercial provider does."
Repro Graphics already farms out in excess of a million dollars of work that it cannot do in-house to outside shops.
"We don't think twice about sending something out to somebody if need be," Dunn says. "If you need something from us, we are going to secure it. The client could send it directly themselves, but they come to us because they want experts to manage it."
Adding Value
The in-plant feels its value-added services keep customers coming back.
"They don't have to spend a lot of time searching around for where to go for specific things," says Dunn. "They can focus on their area of expertise and we will take care of the legwork."
Additionally, the in-plant can offer departments advice on how to produce certain publications or make the transition from print to an electronic format, Dunn adds.
To further endear the in-plant to customers, Repro Graphics' lead designer offers free courses to the campus staff development department on printing and creating files. This not only educates the client on how to perform a function correctly, it is also a marketing opportunity, Dunn notes.
"These are things we can introduce that another vendor may not because we are only here looking out for the campus and departments; we are not here to do commercial work," he says. "We need to stay progressive and creative in order to be able to have that loyalty from the campus community."
A year and a half ago, the operation adopted a different delivery distribution model.
"We have four drivers who were on an on-call service and we moved to a more efficient model, very much like the mail department comes in each day," Dunn says. "Instead of going back and forth we've got scheduled stops whether there is a pick-up or not."
That move has not only helped manage the drivers and their routes, but has added a sales opportunity to the fleet operations, as drivers note what Repro Graphics may be able to do to help the departments.
Looking ahead, Watson says plans for the in-plant operation's continued development will depend on the university's educational focus.
"We always recognize who our primary customer is and that's the students," he says. "We want to make sure any decisions moving forward support that academic mission. We want to make sure, from a personal and professional standpoint, we are putting together cost-efficient programs and processes that reduce some of the stress on the financial infrastructure."
