Whatever it Takes in Tennessee

Poring over 15 years of her in-plant's data recently, Tammy Golden made an intriguing discovery. Since 1999—the year she started at the State of Tennessee's Division of Printing and Media Services—annual revenue has stayed relatively consistent, despite the fact that print volume has been declining.

"What that says to me is we've got to keep offering new services and getting into new markets just to stay even," says Golden, director of the 57-employee in-plant. "Had we not done that and just kept doing what we've always been doing, we'd…have 25 percent less business today."

Instead, the Nashville-based operation has sought out new opportunities, adding services like scanning, envelope printing and business cards, and integrating with other departments like the data print center.

"Five years from now there'll be three new things that we're doing that we never did before," she predicts. 3D printing is high on her wish list, she says, though she's waiting for customer demand to crystallize.

Golden is among a growing legion of forward-thinking in-plant managers actively seeking new ways to add value. Being seen as valuable, though, means being ready and willing to do anything that customers request, something Golden knows all too well.

"We don't say no," she affirms. "If somebody needs something, we find a way to do it. Yesterday there was a job for the first lady's office, and they changed the copy yesterday morning. And they still needed 200 by the close of business."

Because her staff is cross trained, she is able to assign sufficient operators to handle rush jobs like this and meet very tight deadlines.

Winning Over Customers

"We just do whatever we have to, to get it done, and I don't think there's any commercial printer that's going to do that every time," she notes.

Though there is a mandate requiring state printing to be sent to Printing and Media Services, Golden prefers to win customers over with excellent service.

"I want them to come because they want to come," she says.

And once customers get a taste of the in-plant's service, they're not let down.

"We do have a reputation within Tennessee government of giving good service," she says.

With a customer service background, Golden is intimately familiar with the importance of providing great service.

"Everybody's most important responsibility is customer service," she insists. She cites one example of a cutting machine operator who worked overtime every day for six months when the shop was short staffed because he wanted to make sure jobs got out on time.

"That's great customer service," she says.

Because of their years of service, employees have built relationships with customers, she says, "and they don't want to let people down."

Three Facilities

With its main 35,000-square-foot plant located just a block from the state capitol in Nashville, Printing and Media Services also includes two other facilities: a 10,000-square-foot data printing operation and a 5,000-square-foot photography studio, both located in the landmark Tennessee Tower, a 30-story downtown state office building.

The in-plant uses a mix of one- and two-color offset presses, two Didde web presses and assorted digital printers to produce brochures, training manuals, posters, flyers, forms, certificates, tax notices, motor vehicle registration renewals and much more. An annual report it produced on its Xerox Color 1000 won a Gold award in the In-Print 2012 contest.

The in-plant has used the Color 1000's clear dry ink feature to great effect, highlighting images and creating artistic effects on pieces like its calendar, which won a Bronze award in In-Print 2012, along with a Best of Category award in the Printing Industry Association of the South contest. It features photos submitted by state employees and selected by staff photographers. More than 500 photos were submitted for this year's calendar, Golden says.

"People can't wait to buy them for their family and friends," she remarks.

New Businesses Bring Profit

That digital press also allowed the in-plant to break into a new business a few years ago, when the central procurement office asked Golden if her operation could take over the printing of the state's business cards. Those cards had long been printed on the outside, using thermography to create a raised effect on the state seal.

Golden worked closely with the governor's office, which eventually agreed that the thermographic effect was no longer essential, and that printing the cards digitally would be acceptable. The in-plant got approval to acquire a slitter, install a PageDNA online storefront to streamline ordering and online proofing, and start printing business cards on the Color 1000. In the most recent fiscal year, the shop generated more than $100,000 in revenue from business cards and is on track to repeat that this year.

"Besides just being an easy thing to pick up, it also gets us a different set of customers because the people who order the business cards are typically office supply people instead of the printing people, so now [more] people know about us," Golden says. It helps that her staff slips marketing pieces into each box of cards describing the other services the in-plant can provide.

Another new business the shop moved into was envelope printing. Customers were clamoring for

long runs of envelopes, so the in-plant added a Halm Superjet envelope press in 2011 and moved into this business. It now prints runs in the 50,000 to 200,000 range, but sometimes produces as many as a million.

Scanning was another new service the shop started offering. It now has four scanners and sometimes goes on-site to scan sensitive files. The in-plant uses a Contex HD5450 wide-format scanner to digitize maps and building plans for Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation, as well as the Department of General Services.

The Art of Gallery Wrapping

When a state commissioner inquired about having the in-plant matte and frame photographs to be hung in a state building, Golden explored the option of printing photos on canvas using the shop's Epson proofer and then gallery-wrapping them. The new service has been a hit with customers all over state government, and these gallery-wrapped prints now decorate many state offices. With three photographers on her staff snapping images all over Tennessee, there is no shortage of material. Without adding any new equipment, Golden says her in-plant has collected more than $10,000 from this service.

One of the biggest revenue additions to the in-plant came in late 2013 when the Division of Printing and Media Services integrated with the state's data print center. This idea had been bandied about for years, but it took a while to get the needed support.

"I knew it was the right thing for the state," Golden says. By letting the state's print experts handle the printing of bills, certificates, tax notices, motor vehicle renewals and other transactional items, the state has saved more than $1 million a year, she says, through improvements in efficiency, staff consolidation and reducing the operation's footprint. This new work has added about $3.5 million in annual revenue to the in-plant's coffers, bringing annual sales up to $7,392,184 last year.

A year ago, she moved the data print center into its current facility, which is in the same location as Postal Services.

"They were delivering to Postal three to four times a day, five days a week," she notes. Since the two operations were a few blocks apart, pieces had to be boxed up and delivered.

"Now it's 50 feet down the hall," she remarks. "Definitely it was a good move."

An Upbeat Outlook

With its international reputation as a musical Mecca, Nashville is a vibrant setting for a state capital. Golden says the city is booming right now, with job growth on the upswing and a generally positive vibe within state government. She is factoring this upbeat mood into her next five-year plan (dubbed "2020 Vision") as she tries to imagine the new businesses Printing and Media Services will move into in the years ahead.

"We definitely want to make sure we use technology in the best way possible," she muses, citing automated workflows and online ordering as areas of focus. She is currently reassessing the shop's PageDNA online storefront to determine whether it's sturdy enough to support a move into online ordering of letterhead, envelopes, note cards, forms and other items. Not one to let opportunity pass her by, Golden is determined to change the perception that government is slow moving and behind the times.

"Typically, people don't perceive state government as being the forward thinkers, the innovators, tech savvy," she laments, "and really there's a lot more great things going on in state government than we get credit for."

Golden intends to make sure her in-plant gets that credit.