University In-plants Meet in Birmingham

Xerox gathered a dozen or so university in-plant managers together recently in Birmingham, Ala., for its annual Higher Education Customer Advisory Council Meeting. Attended by in-plants from Yale, Penn State, RIT, Bucknell, Villanova, University of Louisville, Ithaca College, Citrus College and several others, the meeting featured interesting speakers, excellent discussions and a tour of the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s in-plant.

Speakers at the two-day event included:

• Bryan Yeager, of InfoTrends, who presented InfoTrends survey data and talked about new directions printers are moving, such as cloud-based applications, social media and mobile strategies.
• Prof. Alexander Ivanov, of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, in Russia, discussed his printing program and some of the challenges he faces.
• Howie Fenton, of NAPL, encouraged managers to monitor their current applications mix to find their “sweet spot” and then focus on it. Survey customers, he advised, to learn how your in-plant compares to outside providers.
• Jeff Gworek, director of Yale University Printing & Publishing Services, gave a detailed presentation about his operation and some of the challenges he faces.

After the meeting, the group walked a few blocks from the hotel to UAB’s downtown Birmingham in-plant. There, Director Stephen Murray showed off the shop’s extensive mailing, offset and digital printing capabilities, which include a six-color Heidelberg press and a Xerox iGen4. The 35-employee in-plant is preparing to move in June to a renovated 19,000-square-foot facility nearby to make way for a new minor league baseball stadium. Watch a video tour of the facility and an interview with Murray.