Scott Nelson

Bringing in outside work is a challenge, but serious revenue is waiting for managers who know how to get it. By Mike Llewellyn JUST ABOUT 20 percent of Cameron University Printing Services' revenue comes from insourcing. According to Director Stanley Verser, that's a contentious number. Like many in-plants looking to insource work to fatten their profit margins, Verser says his Laughton, Okla.-based shop has to walk a fine line between serving the needs of external customers, and making sure the school is always the first priority. But then, serving the school's printing needs was the impetus behind insourcing in the first place. "The more

By Mike Llewellyn Managers say attention to detail and a focus on customer service have made their in-plants among the most respected departments in their organizations. One of the toughest, and seldom discussed, challenges for in-plant managers is the battle to win recognition and respect from their parent organizations. "A lot of managers think they're rated very low on the totem pole," says Mike Renn, assistant vice president for corporate services at Philadelphia-based Mellon Financial. But this isn't because they lack the expertise needed to win the support of upper management. Rather, Renn says commercial printers have the time and money to sit

Early last month, In-Plant Graphics hosted its first educational conference and exposition, in conjunction with our company's successful BookTech conference, now in its seventh year. I traveled to New York for the event and moderated several panel discussions. I enjoyed the opportunity to sit and talk with so many in-plant managers, both from the New York area and from out of state. Two in-plant representatives even flew in from the University of California-Davis. One of them, Alan Bump, told me his in-plant has added several Heidelberg 9110s and some bindery gear in the past year. On the first day of the conference, I had