Variable Printing Brings Competitive Edge at ING

Thanks to its cutting-edge expertise in variable printing, mailing and fulfillment, ING's Document Management Center gives the company a strategic advantage over competition.

By Bob Neubauer

Tim Steenhoek knew his in-plant had turned a corner the day it completed its largest variable data print job ever.

Using a single Xerox printer and only one operator per shift, ING's Des Moines-based Document Management Center (DMC) output 4.5 million mail-ready pieces in just one month. Such a feat shows how far the 73-employee in-plant has come on its journey into the world of on-demand, variable printing.

But DMC's expertise in customized printing, along with its substantial mailing and fulfillment know-how, have done more than just cut costs for ING, an international financial services firm. They have helped the Amsterdam-based company differentiate itself from its competition.

"The customized fulfillment, the electronic print and the automated mail—we clearly feel like we have an edge over our competition," affirms Steenhoek, head of document management.

By helping create that edge for ING, the in-plant has become a vital and trusted part of the company.

"My management team is very supportive," notes Steenhoek. So much so that it approved a major equipment upgrade that will net the in-plant 11 new Xerox printers once installation is complete.

Such upper management support is no surprise. Steenhoek and his team are continually using their knowledge of technology and variable data to offer ideas that will help ING's core departments in its U.S. Financial Services operations do their jobs more effectively.

"We bring solutions to the table where we help develop, design and implement new document solutions," remarks Steenhoek. "We don't just print the stuff. We help them run their business."

Steady Growth

It wasn't always this way, though. Back in the mid 1990s, before the in-plant had become an $11.5 million digital print and mail center, it was a regular copy shop, part of a Des Moines company called Equitable of Iowa.

Steenhoek was hired in January of 1995, and almost immediately he started merging the print and mail departments. A year later, Equitable acquired Golden American Life Insurance and moved its print fulfillment operation from Wilmington, Del., to Des Moines.

When Equitable erected a new building in 1997, the company saw an opportunity.

"We merged electronic print, mail, fulfillment and copy centers," Steenhoek says. The new department, Data and Graphics Printing, was housed in a new 15,000-square-foot facility. At the same time, the in-plant replaced its mainframe printers and analog copiers with networked Xerox printers that could handle copying, variable data printing and mainframe printing. An Oracle fulfillment system was also implemented.

"That was a big leap forward in technology," recalls Steenhoek. "That's really what positioned us for our future devices."

As if those changes weren't big enough, in late 1997, Equitable was purchased by ING, a growing Dutch firm that originally went by the name Internationale Nederlanden Group.

The new company's Denver and Atlanta fulfillment operations were merged with those in Des Moines.

The in-plant continued to refine and expand its capabilities, adding two high-end Böwe Bell & Howell inserting machines, with a video camera to read the bar code.

Merging Two In-plants

In 2000, ING made two major acquisitions: ReliaStar Financial and Aetna Financial Services. Aetna had been outsourcing its printing, mailing and fulfillment, but Minneapolis-based ReliaStar Financial had its own 107-employee in-plant, with design, offset printing, mail and fulfillment all housed in a 110,000-square-foot building.

ING decided to move all of ReliaStar's electronic printing, mailing and customized fulfillment to Steenhoek's Des Moines facility, and all remaining offset from Des Moines and other locations to Minneapolis. Copy centers were retained in Denver, Minneapolis, Minot, N.D., and Atlanta, the site of ING's U.S. and regional (Americas) headquarters.

About a year later, though, the company closed the Minneapolis offset facility and began outsourcing all offset work.

"It simply was a decision based on cost," explains Steenhoek. "One plant can run cheaper than two plants."

That wasn't the only reason, though. The Des Moines operation had distinguished itself in the area of customization. Ever since 1996 it had been doing variable data printing, getting better all the time. ING saw a future in this.

"Where ING felt we could differentiate ourselves between us and our competition was in the customization of material," Steenhoek says. So the company threw its support in this direction and let offset printing go.

That support included a new building to accommodate the core functions of electronic printing, fulfillment and automated mail. Design and forms management were returned to the business units in various cities so the in-plant could focus on being an output house.

A Document Center Rises

A project team was assembled to plan the new building, and in March 2002 construction began to convert an empty warehouse. On June 9 the in-plant moved in. Only six months had passed since the decision was made to consolidate. Steenhoek credits employees for the speedy move.

"We just had lots of great people," he says. He singles out Program Manager Steve Carney, who was in charge of the project managers. He also praises the Xerox employees who were on hand full time to move and set up the Xerox equipment.

Since then the in-plant has focused on improving its mailing, fulfillment and variable data printing prowess.

"This plant actually is a good example of integrating the fulfillment operation with the data print operation," Steenhoek proudly notes. The same equipment runs mailers for the fulfillment operation by day, and data print jobs by night.

For most variable jobs, Steenhoek says, DMC uses Xerox VIPP software and eXstream technology. Variable jobs run the gamut from simple mailers, where only the names and addresses change, to more complex pieces where whole sections of text and even images are swapped.

Convincing ING departments to do personalized mailings has been surprisingly easy, he says. DMC just showed them how on-demand printing could turn jobs around faster for less money and they were sold. And it doesn't hurt that ING lists "responsiveness to the needs of customers" as one of its core values. By providing personalized mailings, DMC is helping the company meet that goal.

Major Upgrade In Process

DMC is currently in the midst of a major equipment upgrade. It is replacing all Xerox DocuTechs and DocuPrints at its main facility with DocuSP printers, using Xerox EPS software for added functionality.

Jim Geneser, digital print director, says DMC's four remote copy centers are already using DocuSP equipment. They will also be upgraded to the EPS platform. The switch to EPS, he says, is preparing the in-plant for future enhancements.

"It's setting the stage for another step to put in more print control and scheduling tools," he explains, referring to one of DMC's future plans—to install an automated job tracking system to keep tabs on the status of every job.

Getting the green light for all this new equipment has not been that difficult, explains Steenhoek, because he has proven repeatedly how much money his operation is saving ING, and how having an in-plant gives the company a strategic advantage.

"Our costs are very competitive," he declares. "We can demonstrate that we add additional value and a competitive edge over our competition by having this plant. We've demonstrated performance excellence through performance reporting.

"We are the document management experts," he adds, "and we know what...printing and mailing and manufacturing techniques are out there, and so it's a matter of us bringing that piece to the table."

To keep informed about new technology, Steenhoek has made a habit of attending the Xplor conference, as well as meetings of the Des Moines chapter of the International Publishing Management Association.

Steenhoek would like to increase the number of color variable print jobs DMC does. In pursuit of that goal, the in-plant upgraded from a Xerox DocuColor 40 to a 2060 three years ago.

"That made variable data for color much easier," he says.

DMC outputs customized post cards and brochures in color, but does many more black-and-white variable jobs, like booklets, flyers, newsletters, forms and statements.

Steenhoek's eventual goal is to stop having color pieces printed offset and then assembled into a kit after they're ordered, and start building the kits electronically and then printing them digitally, thus saving on outsourcing and labor costs. Within the next two to three years he plans to unveil a "digital storefront" where customers can request sales collateral online and have it personalized and printed at the time of the order.

And lest anyone wonder if the quality of those digital color jobs will be good enough, DMC can point with pride to the recent In-Print award it won for one of its booklets, printed on the DocuColor 2060. It also won an award for digital four-color printing in the 2002 Gallery of Superb Printing, sponsored by three Iowa printing associations.

To get more digital color work, Geneser says, "we plan on focusing on working with the marketing departments." This includes those of ING's Defined Contributions operations (formerly Aetna Financial Services). The in-plant hopes to continue developing relationships with Aetna departments to better support them in the future.

Since moving into the new plant, Geneser reports, DMC has been on the lookout for more work. Though the size of the staff hasn't changed since the move, he says, the monthly impression count has jumped from 5 million up to 9 million.

"We've got the horsepower and the people now, so the more we can push through, it just drives down unit cost," he says, then adds, with a laugh, "Tim's got that drilled into us pretty good."