Business Management - In-plant Justification

It may have looked and felt just like a traditional ACUP conference, but when the Association of College and University Printers met in Dallas in April, it was really a new beginning. This was the association's first meeting as a dues-paying, non-profit organization.

Private sector printers have been bad-mouthing in-plants since time immemorial. Hungry for business, they have long tried to shame governments/universities/companies into privatizing their printing, with claims of their own superior prices, quality and service.

The current economy can be viewed as a threat or an opportunity. For in-plants that have made the right investments, the economy has opened the door to some new and exciting opportunities.

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 won the 2011 IPMA Management Award, which recognizes an outstanding in-house publishing department for its team effort in support services to the organization.

The best session at last month's Association of College and University Printers conference was the story of how a failed in-plant fought its way to the top. It was a tale told by Jimmy Friend, director of Printing and Distribution Solutions at the University of North Texas, and Deborah Leliaert, vice president for University Relations, Communications and Marketing.

You need to proactively and succinctly communicate the value that the in-plant is delivering to the organization in terms that all levels of management will understand.

In a difficult economic climate, organizations are seeking to improve business metrics by outsourcing operations that are not directly related to their core products.

Océ North America has sponsored a research project that documents the value of in-plant printing operations in the college and university environment. The resulting white paper is initially available for download exclusively from In-plant Graphics.

Invariably in a plane or at a hotel I'll get into the typical "So what do you do?" conversation with another fellow road warrior. My answer has been boiled down to a classic elevator speech. "I'm a consultant in the wood and paper industry, primarily dealing with chain-of-custody certification, which tracks trees and reclaimed material from their source all the way to the end user through transparent, credible, third-party auditing systems. FSC, the Forest Stewardship Council, and SFI, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, both offer labeling systems where certified organizations are licensed to apply trademarks to their products and advertising. Anything made from wood or wood fiber, like paper, can be certified to ensure that the material used came from legal, ethical and responsibly managed sources."

Océ, a Canon company, has sponsored a new study titled "In-Plant Printing: Bringing Value to Colleges and Universities"