February 2008 Issue
‘Integration is Key’
SITUATED ALONG the San Joaquin Delta waterway, about 80 miles east of San Francisco, San Joaquin Delta College has a student body of about 20,000 educated by more than 400 teachers. To help ensure students’ academic success, instructors provide assessments of each student’s progress just before final grades are assigned. The teacher identifies particular areas that need focus so students can gear their efforts accordingly. To produce a variable data piece such as this Academic Progress Letter, the college turns to its 12-employee Publication Center. “With our number of students and faculty, we probably do a half a million sheets of VDP a
A New Xerox
To give its brand a more contemporary, less formal look, Xerox has come up with a new logo. The Xerox name now appears in lowercase red letters and sits next to a sphere-shaped symbol sketched with lines that link to form an “X.” This represents Xerox’s connections to its customers, partners, industry and innovation. The new logo was reportedly designed to be more effectively animated for use in multi-media platforms. To create the logo, Xerox conducted extensive global research with employees, customers and partners. Xerox will now start changing the logo on products, facilities, vehicles and marketing materials in a transition that
A Supreme In-plant
The day we spoke with Wilma Grant, there were demonstrations taking place outside her office at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., where she’s spent nearly 30 years leading the Court’s publishing and in-plant printing facility. “Never a dull moment,” she laughs as she pauses the conversation long enough to close her office door. It’s a passing comment, but when you get to know Wilma Grant—personally or professionally—you’d understand that it’s really an apt description of the life she’s led. Born to a coal-miner father and a mother who was a registered nurse, Grant spent the first 17 years of her life in
ACUP Coming to Florida
After a big success last year in San Francisco, ACUP is moving across the country to Clearwater, Fla. Taking place May 4-8, the Association of College and University Printers conference will be cohosted by Florida State University and the University of North Florida. A terrific lineup of sessions is planned, including topics like: • Justifying equipment and software acquisitions • Transforming your shop from conventional to digital • Blending educational programs with in-plant printing • Outsourcing: A dirty word or a sensible solution? • Merging mail and print operations • Future trends and directions in higher-ed in-plants • Managing a changing work force:
Awards Highlight Portland General Electric’s Progress
SERVING A major utilities company like Portland General Electric (PGE) can be a challenge, to say the least. After all, PGE provides power to over 1.5 million people in Oregon, covering 52 cities in a 4,000-square-mile radius. Its in-plant, Print and Mail Services, handles virtually all of PGE’s printing in its 7,000-square-foot facility. This includes customer billing and notices, mapping books for the line crews, training manuals, engineering/architectural drawings, presentations, self-mailers and more. This amounted to 35 million pages and 12 million mail pieces in 2007. Despite this monumental workload, the 13-employee in-plant has not only impressed PGE with its proficiency, it
Build a Better Bindery: IPG Bindery Specifications Guide
YOU MIGHT be running the latest high-speed digital printers, but if your bindery equipment hasn’t been new since the Reagan era, you’ve lost the fast turnaround advantage you were counting on. Not only that, the quality of your cuts, folds and binds is probably not as good as it could be. Just ask Joe Morin, Production Printing manager at Colorado Springs School District 11. His in-plant just replaced its 26-year-old collator with a new Standard Horizon SPF-200A stitcher/folder and an FC200A trimmer. “The benefits over the previous solution are significant: improved workflow, increased efficiencies through reduced labor and setup waste, and a
Creative Financing Brings CTP to Riverside
Getting money for new equipment is not easy for any in-plant, but community college in-plants in California have a particularly difficult time, thanks to the state’s continuing budget problems. “There is very little capital budget money,” remarks Rich Finner, associate professor, Graphics Technology at the Riverside Community College. “In education, it is particularly difficult to stay abreast with technology.” So when Finner’s in-plant wanted to upgrade to computer-to-plate (CTP) technology, the seven-employee District Printing & Graphics Center had to get creative. First, the Graphics Technology department applied for a $35,000 Vocational and Technical Education Act (VTEA) grant. VTEA funds are distributed by the state
Digital Printing: The Hot Markets
DIGITAL PRINTING has created new opportunities for print producers and print buyers alike. One of the biggest of these opportunities is personalized communication to an individual. Digital printing is the output end of customer relationship management and comprehensive databases. When customer and prospect information is used intelligently and creatively, it engenders larger numbers of calls, clicks and visits. It translates workflow into cash flow. There are 40 primary market segments in which business entities operate, from ad agencies to wholesale food (see list at end of story), and each segment has unique marketing, promotional and communication channels and approaches. The Technology Digital
Educational Extravaganza
THE AIIM/On Demand Conference & Expo is shaping up to be the event of the year for in-plants. Not only will the show feature its usual impressive spread of digital printing equipment and software, but the AIIM/On Demand educational seminars will be augmented by a separate educational program from Xplor International. Xplor will hold its Global Conference in conjunction with On Demand for the first time this year. While On Demand is offering some 55 sessions, keynotes and tutorials, Xplor’s Document University will include 20 courses comprising 150 educational classes. Plus, AIIM has its own set of sessions covering topics like enterprise content management.
From the Editor: The Managers Behind the In-plants
THROUGHOUT MY years as editor of IPG, what I’ve enjoyed most has been meeting the managers who make up this industry. I’ve found them to be extremely approachable and accommodating, and I count many of them among my friends. One man I’ve run into at conferences a few times over the years is Wes Friesen, who oversees Portland General Electric’s in-plant. Our last meeting, at the TransPromo Summit in New York, inspired me to pursue a feature story about his printing operation. Imagine my surprise when I learned I wasn’t the only one impressed with his in-plant. NAPL has just announced
Heidelberg to Host Operator Training Classes on Folding
KENNESAW, GA—February 1, 2008—As part of its ongoing commitment to print industry education, Heidelberg’s Print Media Academy will host operator training classes on basic and advanced folding techniques this month at Hennepin Technical College in Brooklyn Park, Minn. The training classes, which are open to the public, will be conducted on an automated Heidelberg Stahlfolder TH 66 folder, and will assist operators of small and mid-size businesses in building their knowledge and skills on some of the industry’s most advanced folding equipment. “Well-trained operators are a critical component to the success of every print shop,” said Dan Maurer, director of postpress product management
Innovation on Display at SGIA ’07
“Complacency is a dreaded disease,” declared Oren Harari, Ph.D., during his keynote address at SGIA ’07, the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association. In an increasingly competitive, copy cat economy, he said, “technologies alone aren’t the value, it’s how they are being utilized differently and innovatively that matters.” Such was the message at last fall’s SGIA Expo, in Orlando. The major theme was that creativity leads to innovation, and innovation results in new revenue sources. Attendees saw this on the show floor, from high-production digital printers and integrated direct-to-garment equipment to highly developed finishing tools. Messages of using creativity to differentiate and stand out in a
More Power to You: Survey of Utility Company In-plants
MOST IN-PLANTS wouldn’t get much work done without their local utility companies providing the power. And many utility companies would likewise have a tough time getting by without their in-plants. To get a closer look at the many crucial services those in-plants provide, In-Plant Graphics recently surveyed utility company in-plants. Among the facts we turned up: • Average Number of Employees: 9.4 • 71% have the right of first refusal for all printing. • 64% produce variable data printing. • 57% have expanded their in-plants in the past two years. • 57% have implemented an online ordering/job submission system. • 50% insource printing.
PrintFest to Partner with DMA
In an effort to connect the worlds of print and marketing, creative and cross media, PrintFest will partner with the Direct Marketing Association of Southern California (DMAsc) to host the PrintFest 2008 print and marketing expo at the Anaheim Convention Center March 27-29. DMAsc will co-locate its annual expo at PrintFest in the DMwest pavilion. Through this partnership, PrintFest 2008, will expand its traditional and digital printing technology focus to include cross media/multi-channel marketing and design, e-mail and Web site technologies. It will also touch on other current and future communications technologies such as text messaging and video, while continuing to deliver the
Quick Payback for Christian Broadcast Network
Quick Payback Christian Broadcast Network, in Virginia Beach, Va., installed the Rollem TR Die-Score system last summer, and according to Maurice Russell, manager of laser operations, it has already paid for itself. “Management is very happy with the increased production, and the creative department loves the added design possibilities,” he says. CBN purchased the 42˝ Double Head TR featuring the strike perforation feature. This lets the user program the placement of multiple perforations on a single sheet. This is ideal for L-perf reply cards for brochures, direct mailers, postcards and other projects. . Photo: At Graph Expo last fall, Allen Hammer (left),
