UNT: Ready for Anything

A QUICK look at the list of winners from the In-Print 2010 contest will tell you what the folks in Denton, Texas, have known for years: University of North Texas Print & Mail Services is one of the most quality-conscious in-plants in the country. When the contest judging wrapped up last month, the 40-employee in-plant had won 10 awards—seven of them Gold awards—in both the offset and non-offset categories.

This is one in-plant that knows printing.

Sitting in his office on the UNT campus, about an hour northwest of Dallas, Director Jimmy Friend is ecstatic about his in-plant's accolades.

"It's unbelievable," he exclaims, almost speechless upon hearing the news. "I'm so, so proud of my staff."

Since 2004, he says, the in-plant has won an impressive 38 In-Print awards, earning it great respect across the 36,000-student university.

"The reputation we have here is unbelievable," proclaims Friend. Last year, he says, the university president even announced the in-plant's awards to all UNT staff and faculty at a luncheon, earning the unassuming Friend an ovation.

The stellar reputation of UNT Print & Mail Services is bolstered by more than just its print quality, though. Its customer service is legendary, its turnaround time unbeatable. The gratitude of the campus community has been heartwarming.

"Three weeks ago our Development office had a reception for us," says Friend, a man whose last name suits his personality well. His entire staff was invited, refreshments were served and the university's vice president of Development personally thanked all of them for their hard work.

"A vice president of a university our size doesn't break themselves away to come talk to the print shop and the mail room," says Friend, humbled by the experience.

That official and many others at UNT recognize the crucial role the in-plant is playing in the university's success. Whether it's fulfilling recruiting material, adding time-saving services or just paying close attention to customer needs, the in-plant is determined to do all it can to make UNT a success.

"We try to be more than a print shop," Friend affirms. "We want to be part of the solution."

This extra effort has paid off. Despite the recession, the in-plant's revenues are up 8-9 percent over last year, Friend reveals. Current sales are about $4.8 million, and he expects them to reach $5 million by next year.

"We're up about 3 percent in the number of jobs produced," he adds.

What's more, the in-plant is getting ready to add two offset presses: a five-color and a direct imaging press. This follows the shop's consolidation into a new facility in 2008. Clearly this is an in-plant that knows how to do things right.

Lemonade from Lemons

It wasn't always this way. When Friend arrived at UNT in 1989, "respect" was not a word customers were likely to use when discussing the in-plant (and vice versa). Delivery times were slow, quality was less than desirable and customer complaints were a fact of life.

Friend's five years at Southern Methodist University's in-plant had taught him the value of customer relationship building and "personal contact," and he strived to bring some of that to UNT.

In 1995, Friend was promoted to director. Soon after that, he was asked to take over UNT's mailing operation, and was able to successfully merge it with printing (see sidebar).

Then, in September of 2001, a serious setback in his personal life provided an unexpected impetus for change. Friend was diagnosed with cancer. For the next four months he was out of the office, undergoing treatment. Rather than give in to depression, Friend decided to use that time to do some hard thinking and planning.

"That time away...gave me the time to research, gain some knowledge and really feel where the market and our business was going," he reflects. "And it gave me time to really decide to put forth much more effort."

His illness, he admits, may have been a blessing in disguise because of the extra time it gave him to make plans.

"We get so busy, we can't actually plan properly," he laments.

With his newfound time, Friend poured through trade magazines, researched new technologies like the HP Indigo digital press, and came away from his recuperation period with a whole new outlook and a stronger motivation to succeed.

"You've got to make good from a bad situation," he says. And he certainly did that.

Digital Press Changes Everything

Once he returned to UNT, Friend renewed his focus on customer service, and looked seriously into a digital press. The shop added an HP Indigo 3050 in 2002, and that changed everything. The high-quality color and fast turnaround was a big hit with customers. Soon much of the shop's offset work had moved to the digital press—almost too much.

Over time, the backlogs got so large, that the shop looked into adding a second HP Indigo, which it did in 2008. That press, a 5500, has been a great success. Because of its advancements over the 3050, particularly in paper feeding, Friend now feels the shop could handle everything with just the 5500.

"Our uptime is unbelievable on the new machine," he enthuses.

Today, the HP Indigo presses produce 72 percent of all the shop's jobs, with an average monthly throughput of 600,000 clicks. Many of these jobs are recruiting brochures, posters and post cards. (To protect post cards from damage in the mail stream, the in-plant added an Epic CT 660 offline coater.)

Though the shop produces 20 to 30 variable data jobs a month on the HP Indigos, Friend is frustrated by those customers who, after a successful VDP mailing, return to a mass mailer. He suspects they are concerned with the cost of VDP jobs, and acknowledges that he—and all in-plant managers—needs to focus on showing customers how successful their VDP campaigns are, so they will realize that a slight price increase on the front end results in a big increase in revenue.

One department that does realize the advantages of VDP is Admissions. The information that Admissions gathers about potential students is used by the in-plant to create personalized materials. Then, the in-plant's fulfillment operation, called the Recruiting Mail Distribution Service, gathers the requested brochures and materials, packages them, addresses them and mails them out. Materials reach the future students within a week. Admissions has been extremely happy with the in-plant's fulfillment services.

"I think that makes us not just a printer, but we're part of the university's solution for recruiting students," notes Friend, who was honored with a UNT Staff Contribution Award last fall for his dedication to the university.

Strong Offset Capabilities

Despite the in-plant's proven prowess in digital printing, offset is still a big part of its operation. Its two-color Heidelberg and Ryobi presses produce numerous four-color magazines, booklets and newsletters. More than half of the shop's large offset press jobs are four color, Friend says, adding that several have earned In-Print awards over the years.

"I want to print everything I possibly can," proclaims Friend. "I honestly do feel we can do it cheaper" than commercial printers—and he has the numbers to prove it. He frequently gets quotes from outside printers. Also, the in-plant doesn't charge extra when overtime is required due to customer delays. Outside printers are not so generous.

Not only that, he says, by keeping offset printing on campus, the in-plant is saving UNT the time it would take for departments to drive to Dallas for press checks at other printers' plants.

For the most part, the shop has been successful at keeping work in-house. Out of the 35,000 print and copy jobs produced for UNT last year, only 125 were sent off campus.

Friend wants to expand his shop's offset capabilities and just sent out an RFP for a five-color, 29˝ press. What's more, the shop has just taken delivery of a Ryobi 3404 DI direct imaging offset press to handle jobs in the 1,500- to 5,000-impression range.

"We've pushed the Indigo to run some longer lengths than we ever should have," he admits. "We didn't make any money on those jobs."

The in-plant maintains an equipment reserve fund to pay for new equipment like this. Recently it tapped that fund to purchase its first wide-format printer, an Epson Stylus Pro 9880, along with a Ledco Digital 44 laminator and a new C.P Bourg collator/booklet maker.

Last year the in-plant started using Avanti's eAccess Internet modules, part of the Avanti Print Management System. This is allowing customers to order business cards, brochures and other items online. Once customers approve a PDF proof, the jobs go right to the HP Indigo. The in-plant is now building an eAccess site for UNT's career center, to allow graduate students to order business cards.

The in-plant has been using other modules of the Avanti Print Management System for a few years, including estimating, order entry, scheduling, reporting, shop floor data collection, customer relations management and more. Job tickets are created automatically and follow the job through production.

Consolidating Services Under One Roof

In the fall of 2008, the in-plant completed a major relocation and consolidation of its services. Now its front office, prepress, production copy, bulk mail/fulfillment and warehouse areas are together in one 29,000-square-foot building. This has tremendously improved logistics and communication, Friend says, and allowed staff to be moved more easily to areas where they're most needed.

"That's been a big benefit, especially in the August-September time frame when it's so, so busy," remarks Friend.

The in-plant also has a 1,000-square-foot copy and retail center called Eagle Images in the student union building. Staffed by two full-time employees and a student worker, the center features four self-service computers, which students use to print their projects. Equipment there includes five Kyocera Mita 4050 black-and-white self-service copiers, a Canon 9070, an Ikon CPP-660 color printer, a 24˝ Epson Stylus Pro 7800 printer and assorted bindery equipment.

Eagle Images also includes a separate production center, located in the main printing facility, and staffed by four full-timers. Overseen by Manager Roy Nance, this operation features a Kodak Digimaster E125 black-and-white printer with an in-line coil punch; three Canon imageRUNNER 9070s (one with an in-line booklet maker); a Canon image–RUNNER 3220; a Rimage Professional 5300N CD/DVD burner with an Everest printer; and the new 44˝ Epson Stylus Pro 9880.

Looking at the success of Print & Mail Services, Friend traces it all back to his decision nine years ago to make major changes.

"We have re-equipped ourselves...to adapt to a quick response to our customers," he explains. This has made the in-plant very popular, as has the shop's genuine interest in each customer's success. Instead of just printing what they're given, he says, "We try to understand, what are the results they want. We're here for the customer."

As for his own health, Friend says his doctor recently declared him cancer free. And despite the trauma of the experience, he tries to look on the positive side of it.

"It was a blessing for me, from the perspective of coming back and putting forth more effort," he reflects, "and really, really trying to be all we could be."