Xerox Corp.
As director of the Bureau of Publications for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of General Services, Audrey Marrocco is both a devoted public servant and a dynamic publishing master. In her 22-year tenure with the Keystone State, Marrocco developed one of the government’s first Intranet sites, as well as its first Web-to-print application. She is currently seeking to centralize the majority of its printing and publishing services within a newly upgraded in-plant. Marrocco grew up near Harrisburg, the state capital. After high school, with no opportunity to attend college, she began her career in 1986 as an entry-level clerk typist for the Commonwealth. She
ROCHESTER, NY—August 19, 2008—PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, announced today that a stellar group of industry leaders has been confirmed to chair track sessions at its seventh annual AppForum, January 19 - 21, 2009 in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. • Laurie Beasley, President of the DMA of Northern California, will chair the new Direct Marketing Track. Laurie runs Beasley Direct Marketing and has managed hundreds of successful direct mail and online campaigns. She’s been honored with Echo, Summit, Marcom, Pyramid and Caples awards. • Joe Metzger, President of Metzgers Printing + Mailing will be leading the Web-to-Print Track.
When demand for color printing increased, Johnson County Community College’s Xerox 2045 color printer could not keep up. So the Overland Park, Kansas-based in-plant recently added a Xerox iGen3 90 to meet its changing needs. “The speed and ease of use of the iGen has helped us improve production of high-quality complex color documents on tight deadlines,” says Bruce Hines, manager of JCCC Document Services. “It has provided the additional capacity to accommodate the increased demand for color-printed classroom materials.” The new iGen3 has allowed the in-plant’s staff to produce more complex pieces, including posters, brochures, books, postcards, labels, signage, pocket folders and educational
DIGITAL PRINTING technology had its strongest showing yet at Drupa 2008, the world’s largest graphic arts trade show. The two-week event, which took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, last month, lived up to its billing as “The Ink-jet Drupa,” with “green printing” being the only challenger as a show theme, since virtually every exhibitor touched on it. About 391,000 visitors prowled the 19 halls of Drupa this year, (see sidebar about in-plants that attended), checking out the 1,971 exhibitors from 52 countries. Most of the attention, though, centered on the new digital printing devices, particularly those in the ink-jet category—though with prices ranging from $1
The unveiling of the iGen4 may have been one of the best-kept secrets of Drupa 2008, but for sheer impressiveness, the numerous high-speed ink-jet printers may have taken the prize. HP’s massive Inkjet Web Press stretched across its exhibit, pumping out 400 feet per minute of 600x600-dpi color printing. Kodak kept its Stream Concept Press behind a barrier, which it lifted during presentations to show off the continuous ink-jet press, reportedly able to produce more than 500 feet per minute. Océ unveiled its JetStream 2200 ink-jet press, printing 714 feet per minute. Dainippon Screen was proud of its sheetfed ink-jet press, the
I’M GETTING ready to leave Germany as I write this, having just completed a grueling four days at Drupa, the international print show held every four years in Düsseldorf. It was a hot time—and I mean that literally. Thanks to the mugginess, and a somewhat different interpretation of air conditioning in Germany, I spent most of my time sweating and fruitlessly fanning the air with whatever press literature I picked up. It didn’t help that each day was filled with extremely long walks—miles of back and forth trudges between the hot meeting rooms where press conferences were held and the 19 exhibit halls.
You probably don’t need to be convinced that it is important to offer your customers a way to do business with you using the Internet. After all, print e-commerce, commonly referred to as Web-to-print, has been on the scene for more than a decade. Although the dot-com bust of 2001 put mass adoption on hiatus until the past couple of years, today it is not only an accepted way to do business, but an expected one. Web-to-print solutions address, among other things, consumers’ desire for self-service options. Do people really want to serve themselves? Yes—and more so every year. According to the third annual
When McMaster University Media Production Services installed its Xerox 2060 back in 2001, print on demand took off—particularly the “demand” part. Customers quickly began to expect color jobs almost immediately. “Their expectation is, ‘I want sun, moon and stars and I need it yesterday,’ ” quips Sue Moorcroft, senior manager at the Hamilton, Ontario-based in-plant. So if the 2060 needed service, all of that print on demand work came to a halt. “We were getting held accountable for that on campus,” she says. To build in some redundancy, the 20-employee in-plant recently replaced that 2060 with not one but three Xerox digital color
Last month’s ACUP conference in Clearwater, Fla., was a great opportunity for in-plant managers to share their stories. Most of them have been very busy back home and had a lot to talk about. IPG Editor Bob Neubauer spoke with as many attendees as he could corner, to find out what’s been happening in their in-plants. Here’s what a few of them have been up to: • The University of Tennessee is replacing its four-color Heidelberg with a new four-color, 40˝ Heidelberg XL-105 with in-line coating and an image control system. The shop also purchased a pile turner for press stock preparation. • California
The University of Washington’s Xerox iGen3 has been a smashing success since it was installed in October. In April, it set a new record when it produced nearly 400,000 prints, shattering the previous record of just under 300,000. “We are currently way ahead of the initial volume projections,” says Frank Davis, associate director of Creative Communications. Since installation, the iGen3 has printed more than 2 million sellable prints. Two of those jobs won Gold and Silver awards in the In-Print 2008 contest.