Color Printer Expands In-plant’s Marketing Role

Cedarville University Postal & Print Services is in an envious position at its 3,200-student school.

“Basically, we’ve become a part of the marketing strategy for the university,” says Tammy Slone, manager of the 10-employee printing and mailing operation.

After the university’s Enrollment Services division collects data from prospective students via Cedarville’s Web site, it sends that information to the in-plant, which pumps out personalized postcards within a day or two, to entice those students to enroll.

“We’ve really become an integral part of their whole marketing process,” Slone reiterates—and that is a great position for an in-plant to be in.

To expand this role, Slone knew her in-plant needed to upgrade its color printer. Its Canon imagePRESS 6000 was state-of-the-art when it arrived three years ago, but over time color inconsistency and frequent breakdowns were hampering productivity. So at the end of August, the in-plant installed a new Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition digital color printer.

“We loved the color on it,” says Slone, adding that it’s much more accurate and consistent. Plus, at 90 pages per minute, it’s also much faster than the Canon.

“We can kick work out a lot quicker,” she affirms.

The in-plant has gone from producing about 20,000 impressions a week on the Canon to between 70,000 and 80,000 on the Ricoh. This boost in productivity has been enormously helpful in churning out the brochures, booklets, table tents and greeting cards the in-plant is called on to produce. Also helpful is the fact that the C901 almost never breaks down.

“We’ve rarely had a service call,” Slone confirms.

Perhaps the biggest bonus, however, was that the in-plant was able to keep its Canon imagePRESS 6000. And due to some shrewd negotiating with Ikon, the cost to the in-plant did not change.

“We’re making the same payment, and we have two production color units in our shop,” Slone says, proudly. (Ikon bought out the lease but left the machine in place for the remaining two years of its contract.)

Having two digital color machines has proven useful. When the C901 is busy, the shop can use the 6000 to run jobs that are less color-critical.

Before investing in the C901, Slone took some of her customers in the Creative Services department to see the device.

“I knew that...if I didn’t have their buy-in, it wasn’t going to do me any good to get a piece of equipment that they weren’t going to send work to,” she notes. Creative Services was very happy with the machine.

Another thing that customers are happy with is the inline Plockmatic booklet maker, which produces a stitched, square-folded spine, reminiscent of a perfect bind.

“Your document lays flat because you’ve got that square fold,” she says. “Our customers have really liked that.”

The in-plant also recently added a Duplo DC-445 creaser to eliminate toner cracking on folds. Most of what the shop prints is full bleed, Slone says, so folding has been a challenge.

“It really has done a wonderful job,” she says. “That Duplo compliments the C901 so well.”

By increasing the automation in its postal operation and bringing more printing in-house, the in-plant has saved Cedarville University a good amount of money, Slone says. The university has been able to pull $120,000 from departments’ operating budgets—money they no longer need to spend on print and mail.