Upgrades Support Vanderbilt's Mission

Standing with Vanderbilt University Printing Services’ new Xerox Versant 80 digital color printer are (from left) Debora Kennedy, production manager; Sean Carroll, director of Business Operations; and Alvin Yuen, assistant director.

This has been a year of major change and growth for Vanderbilt University Printing Services. Already a standout operation, with a six-color offset press and $5.2 million in annual revenue, the 26-employee Nashville-based in-plant has significantly enhanced its front-end and digital printing capabilities, and strengthened its strategic position within the university.

“This has been a fun year,” remarks Sean Carroll, who was recently promoted to director of Business Operations, which has him overseeing not only Printing Services but Mail Services and the bookstore as well.

Within the past 12 months, Carroll has made several major installations at the in-plant, including:

• Much of the EFI Productivity Suite, including Pace, Digital StoreFront, DirectSmile VDP, Process Shipper, Metrix and Pace Scheduler.
• Two new wide-format printers: an HP Scitex FB550 flatbed UV printer and an HP Latex 360.
• A Xerox Versant 80 digital color printer.
• Two Ricoh Pro 8110se monochrome printers.
• A Canon varioPRINT 110 monochrome printer.
• A Bell and Howell Mailstar 500 inserter.

What’s more, the in-plant has been placed in charge of the university’s MFD fleet management program, which will eventually encompass more than 200 machines.

A Robust Operation

Roger Sauls (left), prepress technician, and Sam Daugherty, prepress supervisor, stand in front of Vanderbilt's HP Scitex FB550.

With four sheetfed offset presses in its 25,000-sq.-ft. production facility, including a six-color Heidelberg, Vanderbilt University Printing Services is an impressive operation. In business since 1960, the FSC chain of custody-certified in-plant is busy 24 hours a day, five days a week, producing jobs for Admissions, Recruiting, Alumni Relations, Development, Fundraising, Athletics and others. The six-color press alone produces 12 to 14 million impressions per year — approximately 80% of the shop’s offset workload.

Carroll was named director of Printing Services in 2015, taking the reigns from long-time Director Tom Fox. While still assistant director, Carroll was on a team assembled to assess the effectiveness and viability of the in-plant. He worked with Business Services, Consulting Services and Procurement to conduct a “make vs. buy” assessment. Fox retired in the middle of the six-month project, and Carroll became interim director. In that capacity, he was asked to develop a long-range strategic plan for the department.

“We were able to make a strong case that we were not only viable, but we were necessary to support the key mission of the institution,” he notes.

Carroll presented this strategic plan to the CFO and vice chancellor for administration. He pointed out how integral the in-plant’s printed materials were to the university’s recruiting and fundraising efforts. They were impressed and invited him to present his plan to the chancellor himself. Overall, the plan received strong endorsements from senior leadership.

“To get that level of support and buy-in and approval ... that was good to hear,” he says.

This top-level support paved the way for the technology advancements that followed. At the same time, after working so closely with Procurement on this project, Carroll was able to educate that department on the in-plant’s capabilities and turn Procurement into an advocate for Printing Services. As a result, work that had previously been outsourced is now being steered toward the in-plant.

“They want to do what’s best for the institution so it’s been good to help them see why an in-plant is the right choice,” Carroll says.

The upgrades started in December when the in-plant acquired the suite of EFI software. The Pace MIS went live in July, replacing the shop’s 13-year-old Logic system.

“That was so fundamentally life changing,” exclaims Carroll.

Logic was much more labor intensive, he says, while with Pace everything goes more smoothly.

“It has really streamlined our workflow,” he says. “My CSRs are essentially now estimators.”

Price quotes are more consistent now, he notes, which makes things less confusing for customers. Carroll hopes to integrate Pace with the university’s new Oracle Cloud financial and HR management system.

Pace and Digital StoreFront work well together, Carroll says, and he looks forward to launching DSF in the next couple of months. His staff is currently building and overhauling templates, including a database of 10,000 medical forms.

The in-plant’s current online ordering system was built internally, and Carroll is eager to leave it behind.

“We want to be able to grow,” he says. “Logic and our homegrown [online ordering] system were not scalable.”

DSF will tie into real-time inventory and order tracking, he says. By creating templates that use the correct university branding, the in-plant will help ensure brand compliance. These templates will include signage, which will help drive that work to the in-plant.

Growing Wide-Format Business

Printing Services got into the wide-format printing business in May when it added both a flatbed and a latex printer. So far business has been booming.

“That’s something I wish we would have done years ago,” Carroll admits.

The in-plant previously outsourced wide-format printing work, but after surveying customers he realized there was a great demand for this work. Now when he brings customers in for shop tours, “that is one area that really gets people excited,” he says. When they see what the HP Scitex FB550 flatbed UV printer and the HP Latex 360 can do, they come up with creative projects.

For example, one customer, Vanderbilt Card Services, asked if the flatbed printer could print the Vanderbilt logo onto 200 card readers for the science and engineering building. So the in-plant arranged the readers in a grid on the print bed and did the job.

Another time, the in-plant printed 400 two-sided luggage tags on flexible PVC. A job for the medical center required the shop to print more than 500 17.5x22.5˝ clear acrylic posters for doctors’ offices and clinics.

Vanderbilt University’s recent separation from its medical center has created a lot of signage business for the in-plant, as departments were relocated and buildings renovated.

Though the shop has printed some floor graphics and table runners with the HP Latex 360, Carroll sees a lot of opportunities for growth with that capability, particularly with outdoor graphics for sporting events and other activities. The in-plant has also purchased a Graphtec vinyl plotter, and he looks forward to getting that into operation.

Overall, adding wide-format printing has been a very successful venture for Printing Services.

“I would say it’s been an amazing revenue generator,” Carroll says. He anticipates an ROI of less than two years for the equipment.

New Digital Printers

The most recent equipment additions have been the digital production presses, which were installed in July. Carroll lauds the quality and capabilities of the Xerox Versant 80 digital color printer, which replaced a Xerox 700. The Versant 80 runs at rated speeds of 80 ppm on all stocks (up to 130-lb. cover). The in-plant uses it to print brochures, patient education materials, business cards, posters for events, orientation materials, postcards and even envelopes.

The two new Ricoh Pro 8110se monochrome printers replace a Xerox Nuvera 120 and a D125. One has been outfitted with a GBC StreamPunch Ultra and the other has a robust Plockmatic 350 booklet finisher, which can be used as an off-line finisher. The machines handle forms, course packs, patient education materials and more.

Management of the university’s MFD fleet program came to the in-plant in part because of its reputation on campus. Since the medical center had administered the fleet program, the university knew it would need to start its own program after it separated from the medical center. The in-plant had been marketing itself as a provider of end-to-end print solutions on campus, “so we were looped into that conversation,” Carroll says.

The program, called CampusPrint, is off to a great start, and will eventually have more than 200 Canon imageRUNNERs in place. It uses Pharos software to provide “follow-me” printing; users print to a universal print queue, where the document sits until they scan their ID card at the printer of their choice to securely release it and print it. Users have complete control over sensitive or confidential materials.

“We were able to leverage our print expertise to completely reimagine the office print experience at Vanderbilt,” he says.

Managing the fleet is a great asset for the in-plant, Carroll believes.

“We gain a footprint in every office across campus,” he notes.

Using Pharos, he can see when users are printing large jobs themselves and can approach them to point out the cost savings they will get by sending such jobs to Printing Services.

With the launch of DSF still in process, Carroll has a lot of work on his hands right now. Despite all this new technology, though, he’s not through with his upgrade plans. He has his eye on replacing the shop’s workhorse six-color Heidelberg with a similar press. High-quality printing, he explains, still plays a crucial role in the university’s recruitment efforts.

“Vanderbilt’s cross-media communication mix still relies on print to help tell Vanderbilt’s story, and to convey the excellence associated with the Vanderbilt brand,” he notes. “Every detail, from the metallic gold ink, to the FSC certification, to the quality of our printed publications, helps to reinforce that message. Offset printing is still the best way to deliver each one of those components, and as long as that need exists, we’ll be here to answer that call.”