Xerox Corp.

IT STARTED in the parking lot. As he stepped out of his car one day, Greg Cooper, print shop manager for the city of Baltimore's Digital Document Division, happened to run into the city's IT director. They started talking about the checks and bills that IT was printing for the city on its Xerox 92C printers. Cooper told him, flat out, that his in-plant was better positioned to handle this work than IT, whose main focus was supposed to be computers and data.

Though attendance was noticeably down on the first three days of Print 09, by Monday morning it was starting to look like a trade show again. Booths were packed with attendees, and vendors were busy giving demos, trying to capitalize of the sudden resurgence of interest after a lackluster weekend. IPG spent four days at the show, and the first three...let's just say we never had any problem finding someone to talk with at vendors' booths. Perhaps the beautiful Chicago weekend weather lured many to delay their arrival. (Or maybe it was the questionable wisdom of starting a trade show on a Friday.) Whatever the reason, though, by Monday morning, attendees arrived with a vengeance, including scores of in-plants managers.

Once their digital color presses are up and running, in-plants often discover a few things they wish they had known ahead of time. We asked six managers to tell us what they learned and what they wished they had done differently.

Tucked inside a nondescript brick building at the edge of campus, the University of Delaware’s Graphic Communications Center has brought a lot of favorable attention to the university in recent years. The quality of its offset printing has earned the in-plant numerous awards, including two Best of Show honors in the In-Print contest. Now the 19-employee in-plant is bringing the Fighting Blue Hens into the spotlight once again by becoming one of the first in-plants to install a new Xerox iGen4 digital color press. 

After more than 10 years of service, the two-tower collator/booketmaker at Ken Maley’s in-plant was showing its age. Though it had served the Monroe Two-Orleans Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) very well, it was increasingly down for maintenance, and repair costs were mounting.

The University of Delaware's Graphic Communications department has installed a Xerox iGen4 digital color press and a 20-station Standard 5500 Stitchliner.

IN-PLANTS HAVE watched it happen for years: Some of the same vendors that sell them equipment are also trying to shut them down by pitching facilities management services to their bosses. So when HP announced it was going to start providing "managed print services" and "offering outsourced alternatives," the natural reaction in the in-plant world was a head-shaking "here we go again."

Xerox held another of its Thought Leadership Workshops in Rochester recently, this one dedicated to in-plants serving the public sector. About 30 in-plant managers attended, from organizations like Mississippi Department of Health, Syracuse University, Hobart & Smith College, University of Arkansas, Eagle County School District, Bank of Canada and others.

To improve the quality of its brochures, booklets, post cards and color statements, the 23-employee printing and mailing operation at Western & Southern Financial Group recently became one of the first in-plants to install the new Xerox iGen4 digital press. Dan Cowan, Print/Volume Document Production Manager, feels the quality of the iGen4’s output is even better than that of the iGen3. “It’s much closer to offset,” he contends.

Over the past few weeks, in-plants in Delaware and Ohio have installed Xerox iGen4 digital color presses. The University of Delaware, in Newark, Del., and Cincinnati-based Western & Southern Financial Group are among the first in-plants to install the latest Xerox production presses.

Both shops traded in other Xerox equipment that was nearing the end of its lease. As a result, they were able to keep lease costs at or below their previous levels.