Workflow/MIS/Web-to-Print

Understand how a robust web-to-print tool can make your in-plant more essential and increase the amount of work you receive.

A few years ago, veteran print manager Terry Oliver faced a situation familiar to many in-plants: an organizational review to justify the expense of her in-plant compared to outsourcing. While she prided herself on her ability to meet the needs of OhioHealth's internal clients, defending her in-plant meant she would have to quantify many of the intangibles of service that her five-employee in-plant offered.

About five years ago, the San Joaquin Delta College Publication Center, in Stockton, Calif., retired its offset presses and moved to an all-digital production platform. This consisted of color and monochrome digital devices operated by the in-plant's staff as well as a monochrome digital press available for walk-up traffic.

This is the first of two webinars highlighting the experiences of in-plants using web to print technology to steer operational success.

As your customers ask for increasingly more of their jobs in smaller quantities, how are you managing the increased workload in prepress while still keeping your presses printing? As your management asks for yet another round of cost cutting, where do you squeeze this time? And as your customers move to digital campaigns and use print more selectively, what is your in-plant doing to stay relevant?

Over the last 15 years, we have seen Web-to-print technologies become increasingly common. Thousands of print providers have stepped up to implement solutions to serve their customers, some with great success and others with not as much.

To service its customers in the industrial and manufacturing sector, Allied Reliability Group depends on its in-plant to provide hundreds of thousands of training manuals, training certificates, course catalogs, brochures, posters and other materials each year. The company's network of 200+ employees turns to Production Specialist Cindy Ley, the in-plant's sole employee, for these products, and she, in turn, relies on her shop's Ricoh Pro C901 digital color press.

In today's Web-connected world, real-time access and a laser focus on developing efficient processes are driving many business decisions. Web technology enables in-plants to create self-service options for buyers to order, track and collaborate on jobs using the Internet. As a result, Web-to-print storefronts have become an important part of the print business.

Don't tell the Blue Valley School District of Overland Park, Kan., that the digital age is cutting into the need for hard copy documents. Its Printing Services operation has been humming away all summer, delivering on as many as 40,000 job orders to satisfy about 3,100 teachers at 35 schools.

Held in the sleepy state capital of Harrisburg, Pa., in late April, the 47th annual Association of College and University Printers conference brought together nearly 100 higher-ed in-plant managers from all corners of the country—and from four other countries.