Xerox Corp.

LOUIS FERREL wakes up each morning in the driver's seat, operating ahead of schedule even before he assumes his official duties as manager of printing services for Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro). What gives him such a head start?

Still one of the strongest parts of the in-plant industry, government in-plants are being challenged to get leaner and update their services. Our new survey of this sector shows an increasing number have added capabilities like wide-format printing, scanning/archiving, fulfillment and online ordering. They’re also doing more four-color printing and variable data to accommodate the increasing demand. 

Most of the finishing touches at Highmark's two main Pennsylvania facilities are applied using inline equipment from C.P. Bourg. In Pittsburgh, three of the Xerox iGen4s have Bourg BMEx booklet makers with BCMEx creasers, and all three Nuvera 288 EAs at both the Pittsburgh and Camp Hill locations have Bourg BDFx finishers to stitch, fold and trim booklets, reports and various other documents.

To Naomi Quiram, it is vital to keep as much print work in-house as possible. "It is always difficult when you outsource because of the time requirements," says Quiram, director of Print and Mail Services at Gustavus Adolphus College, a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minn. Her in-plant's recent installation of a Standard…

Three in-plant managers recently paid a visit to Russia to share information about their operations with a group of university book publishers there. They spoke at a three-day conference held by the Publishing and Press Association of Universities of Russia, in Pushkin, Russia.

When Colorado merged its print and mail operations with its document imaging/data entry units in 2005, the state was looking to increase efficiency and save money. Under the direction of Manager Mike Lincoln, the resulting Integrated Document Solutions (IDS) unit has been doing exactly that ever since.

At the Mail and Copy Solutions shop at St. Louis, Mo.-based Webster University, six to 10 work study students are recruited each semester to fill important roles ranging from graphic design to marketing to copywriting.

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.

At the INTERQUEST Digital Printing in Government and Higher Education Forum speakers from government and university in-plants discussed best practices at their operations. In between, principals from INTERQUEST—the market and technology research and consulting firm that organized the event—presented trends and research results.

Dozens of government and higher-ed printers met in Washington, D.C., for the INTERQUEST Digital Printing in Government and Higher Education Forum.