Heidelberg

When University of Alabama President Dr. Witt took the Crimson Tide's reins in 2003, enrollment stood at 19,000. His aggressive growth initiative has resulted in a nearly 100 percent enrollment increase to 35,000 this past fall. In an age of multi-channel marketing, it was the humble yet time-tested success of printed recruiting materials that played a significant role in the population surge at Tuscaloosa, Ala.'s legendary 180-year-old institution.

After putting up with an inefficient, Excel-based job management system for years, Ashland University Printing & Imaging Solutions acquired EDU Business Solutions' Print Shop Pro Manager software. Since then, life has been so much simpler for the in-plant's six full-time and four part-time and student workers. Customers can now pull up previous jobs and review the details, sparing staff from fielding their calls.

Like most of the East Coast, Jim Lyons braced for Hurricane Irene last August. Unlike most Easterners, though, his in-plant at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz is only now recovering from the resulting catastrophe.

With 68 percent of in-plants still providing offset printing (according to a new IPG survey), and shops like University of Alabama, University of Oklahoma, Vanderbilt University, and many others still keeping their presses very busy, it appears that long-run offset printing is a long way from fading away.

WHEN GARRY Boytos arrived at the University of Texas Health Science Center's in-plant (UT Print) in 2008, he faced a challenging situation. Boytos knew that to effectively compete with outside vendors, UT Print would have to make a lot of improvements.

ANY TIME in-plant managers get together, the conversation and camaraderie never end. This was particularly true at the recent Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC). About 30 in-plant managers from universities all over the southern U.S. and as far away as the state of Washington got together in Nashville, Tenn., to exchange information and listen to presentations to help them tune up their operations.

Vendors reported a good amount of interest in bindery equipment at this year's GRAPH EXPO in Chicago. The bindery equipment at the show offered in-plants some great opportunities to expand their services and increase their efficiency.

For years, Southern in-plant managers have been inviting me to the Southeastern University Printing and Digital Managers Conference (SUPDMC). As the name implies, this is a group of in-plant managers who hail mostly from Southern states.

A new white paper from Heidelberg USA called “Data Protection for Printers” focuses on the unique issues printers face in keeping production running smoothly in the event of unexpected interruptions.

Earlier this year, Noridan Mutual Insurance Document Services made a significant change. “We eliminated all of our offset applications,” says Doug Weatherly, manager of the 29-employee in-plant, located in Fargo, N.D. “We figured we could do every application on digital printers.”