Pitney Bowes

Ralph Sperrazza has been at the forefront of the digital revolution and has brought new technologies and techniques to the in-plant at Pitney Bowes. by CHRIS BAUER ATTENDING THE 1990 IPMA conference, Ralph Sperrazza recalls walking through and seeing a table covered with copies of the May 1990 issue of the then IN-PLANT Reproductions magazine with his picture on the cover. He sums up that experience with one word: "Amazing." "Ten years goes by very fast," admits Sperrazza, 1990 Manger of the Year, who is general manager of the document services division for Pitney Bowes, of Stamford, Conn. He remembers getting a warm response

Mike Chapman, print manager for Habitat for Humanity International, has moved his in-plant into a new facility that's three times as large. LOOKING FOR work straight out of high school, Mike Chapman consulted a friend whose father was a manager for a local Atlanta print shop. He took an entry-level position there, and immediately knew that he had made the right decision. "Once I got printing in my blood I knew I wanted to be a printer," recalls Chapman, now print manager for Habitat for Humanity International. But in between his first job and his current one, he did a bit of traveling.

When you've been at the same in-plant as long as these folks have, you see a lot of changes. Company loyalty may not be as prevalent as it was 30 years ago, but it's not gone yet. Around the country, scores of in-plants are being run by seasoned managers who, in many cases, started decades ago as press operators at the same shop. Like the craftsmen and women they are, they take pride in what they have built and continue to work towards making it better. To honor some of these long-term managers, IPG conducted a nationwide search. Though we couldn't reach

USAA San Antonio, Texas With a customer base of more than 3.5 million people—a figure that grows every year at a rate of 6 to 8 percent—the USAA in-plant in San Antonio, Texas, is kept busy on a daily basis. This insurance and financial services company's in-plant department was founded about 40 years ago to primarily print business forms and declaration pages for automobile policies. Today, the operation boasts a 40,000-square-foot facility and averages 36,000 jobs per year—a figure that is expected to grow annually, according to Jack Mondin, executive director of publishing output services. Despite this anticipated growth, Mondin put some pressure

Our Great Debate series tackles the facilities management issue by pitting a respected in-plant manager against a leading FM. No topic gets in-plant managers more agitated than facilities management. We all know of shops that were closed by FMs. Stories of their "shady" tactics spread like gossip. But how many of these stories are true? In-Plant Graphics decided to dive right into the heart of the issue and talk directly to one of the larger FMs to find out what really is going on. But to address both sides of the issue, we wanted to have an in-plant manager on hand to

In-plants all over the country have gone digital and are enjoying a host of big benefits. Here's a look at what they like—and what they'd like to see—in their systems. "DIGITAL PRINTING, while convenient, can never match the quality of traditional offset." Sound familiar? It does to proponents of digital printing systems. They have heard this argument plenty of times before. And, in their opinion, it's an argument without merit. "It's very high-quality printing," says Meredith's Bob Furstenau of his IBM InfoColor 70. "It's very comparable to offset." And in some cases, even better. Furstenau, director of digital content management for the

Discover the benefits of offering printing and mailing all under one roof. Read what these managers say about running a successful mailing operation. We've all heard the familiar (though unofficial) United States Postal Service (USPS) slogan: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." This creed also seems to be the testament of many in-plant managers who offer mail services, in addition to printing, to their parent companies and organizations. In recent years, however, there's been a change in the way mail is handled and distributed. Today, having a