Xerox Corp.

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

At an event this week called “Inside Innovation at Xerox,” held at the Palo Alto Research Center, Xerox showcased 10 emerging technologies. Scientists from research centers around the world were on hand to discuss technologies such as self-erasing, reusable paper; pop-up photos; clean technology; and one-to-one communications. Of special interest: • Scientists from Fuji Xerox have developed a “biomass” plastic partially made from corn stalks. • Xerox scientists have invented a way to make prints with temporary images, so that the paper can be used again and again. • Xerox showed advances in solid ink technology with improvements to the print head design. •

TO AVOID problems with superstitious tenants and workers, most landlords skip past 13 when numbering the floors in their buildings. Not so with the offices of HCR ManorCare, a provider of short- and long-term skilled nursing and rehabilitation, headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. The two-employee Document Center is located on the 13th floor, where it shares space with the company’s data center. Both departments report to the manager of Production Services. The in-plant and data center have a unique arrangement. The in-plant uses the print room on the first shift to produce items like flyers, newsletters, postcards, HR materials, manuals and training materials, and then

WHILE ONLINE ordering introduces all kinds of efficiencies, some in-plants have trouble getting their customers to make the switch. That wasn’t the case at Allan Hancock College. Gordon Rivera, coordinator of Campus Graphics at the Santa Maria, Calif.-based community college, saw another school make the transition, so he and his team of three full-time employees—two of whom are designers—ran beta tests using EDU Business Solutions Print Shop Pro WebDesk. Then, he says, “We just set a date of February 29th as the last day that we would accept paper work orders. From what I’ve seen, we have complete buy-in.” Through Print Shop Pro,

PENNSYLVANIA WAS a whirlwind of activity this spring. Campaigning, rallies, forums, debates and other events all led up to the Democratic primary on April 22. Messiah College was right in the thick if it when it hosted the Compassion Forum on April 13 to discuss moral issues that bridge ideological divides within the country. The school’s 11-employee in-plant, College Press, spent 60 hours of overtime to take care of behind-the-scenes printing work leading up to the forum, which hosted presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. “We were very disappointed when Senator [John] McCain was unable to attend due to what his campaign

ROCHESTER, NY—April 30, 2008— PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, announces it is accepting speaker submissions for the 2009 PODi AppForum. The annual event is January 19-21 in Las Vegas at The Rio Casino and Resort. Each year, hundreds of print service providers, marketing practitioners and other professionals attend the AppForum to take advantage of its unique educational and networking opportunities. All selected presenters receive one free registration to the 2009 PODi AppForum, so they can also take advantage of the educational sessions. “A major attraction of the AppForum is the user-focused nature of the sessions. Our attendees count on learning new ideas and innovative

InfoTrends has signed up several industry leaders as sponsors for its second annual TransPromo Summit, taking place August 13-14 at the New York Hilton. Exstream Software, HP, InfoPrint Solutions, Kodak, Océ, Pitney Bowes, Riso and Xerox have all committed to participating in the event as Platinum Sponsors. Other sponsors will include Printable Technologies, Ricoh and Solimar. The TransPromo Summit is designed to educate attendees on the strategies, techniques and tools for fusing the traditional transaction document with marketing messages to enhance customer communications, improve customer retention and increase revenue. “The educational program will bring together senior executives and managers from the vendor, service provider

ROCHESTER, NY—April 4, 2008—PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, announces the publication of the 2008 Digital Print Case Studies collection along with a new and improved online database. Forty-five new digital print success stories are being added to the database, bringing the total to well over 300. The new database gives users expanded search features which allow them to quickly and easily explore the collection and find exactly what they are looking for. The PODi database, www.podi.org/casestudy, contains successful case studies from around the world, covering over 12 market segments and dozens of different marketing communications applications. They demonstrate, with real world stories and results,

IN MARCH 2007, Nordstrom announced it would incorporate more environmentally sound practices into its printed products. It became the first of its peers in fashion specialty retail to print on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified stock. As a result, virtually all of the company’s printing partners are now FSC-certified by mandate. This is just one example of how the Corporate Social Responsibility phenomena has turned what was once just a preference for certified paper into a policy in some organizations. In my article from the January 2008 issue of In-Plant Graphics, I explained how the FSC is regarded as the gold standard among forest

SPEND SOME time talking with Jimmy Robinson and you’ll quickly learn a few things about him. He’s a proud Navy veteran who’s fond of college football, loyal to his friends and proud of his Alabama upbringing. Knowing all this, you might be surprised to learn that Robinson, director of the University of West Alabama’s Department of Printing for more than two decades, actually hails from New Eagle, Pa. That’s where he spent his first five years, until that fateful day in 1965 when the printing company where his father worked—McGregor Printing—pulled up stakes and moved south to York, Ala. It was a move that