Washington State Department of Printing wins IPMA Management Award making Senate efforts to close it seem ridiculous

By Bob Neubauer

The Washington State Department of Printing (PRT) has had a tough year, with some members of the state senate pushing for its closure. A recent victory for the in-plant, however, is sure to make some of those pro-outsourcing senators squirm.

The Department of Printing has won the 2011 IPMA Management Award, which recognizes an outstanding in-house publishing department for its team effort in support services to the organization. This is the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association’s top honor and is an impressive vote of confidence for Director Jean-Luc Devis, who also presided over Oregon State University Printing & Mailing Services when it won the IPMA Management Award in 2006.

“PRT is an example of government at its best—an entirely self-supporting state agency effectively responding to a dire budget crisis in a way that reduced costs, improved efficiency, maintained core service levels, while delivering even higher value to the state,” lauds IPMA Awards Chairperson Chris Anderson. After praise like that, any senator who continues to claim the in-plant is inefficient will seem insincere at best.

“I am extremely proud of our team approach of delivering greater value to Washington State government, while successfully navigating the worst recession in 80 years,” notes Devis, director of the self-supporting 97-person team, which generates $27.5 million in annual revenue. “We are very proud that we were able to reduce expenses in tandem with declining revenues and that we continue to enjoy high customer satisfaction ratings. Our actions have resulted in increased sales per FTE of 1.5 percent, ranking us as a top performer compared to commercial printers and the in-plant community.”

With just a month to go until its educational conference in Charleston, S.C., IPMA also announced the winners of several other prestigious awards:

• The Mail Center of the Year award, which recognizes an entire corporate mail center for outstanding improvements, will go to Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, in Rochester, N.Y. Overseen by Catherine Ciardi, director of Document Services, the in-plant was featured on the cover of IPG’s January issue.

• For the second year in a row, The University of Texas at Austin won the In-House Promotional Excellence Award, which recognizes excellence in promotional campaigns developed by and used to promote an in-house publishing facility. Richard Beto, director of Document Solutions, oversees this facility.

• IPMA’s Outstanding Contributor this year is Mark Raschka, of the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in-plant, in Appleton, Wis. He is an active member of Northeast Wisconsin Chapter.

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Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.

Hey Senate: Who’s Inefficient Now?