Printing Partnership Brings Business to Illinois In-plant

An inter-campus collaboration in central Illinois will bring much-needed revenue to an in-plant suffering from deep budget cuts.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Illinois) Document Services will take on printing from University of Illinois, Springfield (UIS), located about 90 minutes west, after the latter decided to phase out its in-plant. UIS approached Liz Bowden, Illinois’ assistant director of Document Services & Campus Mail, last spring about collaborating on printing.

“I said absolutely,” remarks Bowden. “I will do everything I can to support them.”

From left: Liz Bowden, Matt Mabry, Megan Beeson, and Devin Dariotis-Pridgen stand with the new HP Latex 830 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Having lived through an in-plant shutdown scare in 2010 when Illinois pulled the plug on its in-plant, only to later resurrect it as a smaller print-on-demand operation, Bowden was especially sympathetic to UIS’s situation. Her 15-employee operation will take on all stationery jobs from UIS, as well as wide-format work, bulk mail processing, and as much of the other production printing as it can handle. UIS wanted her in-plant to print its jobs rather than an outside printer, she says, “to maintain the brand integrity.”

While job delivery details are still being ironed out, Bowden is glad to bring in the new work. Revenue is down 20%, she says, due to national funding cuts to higher-ed, which have hit some of the in-plant’s biggest customers, forcing them to cancel large jobs. One such job would have brought $75,000 to the in-plant, she contends.

Beyond the revenue, Bowden notes, this deal gives the in-plant a big boost in credibility.

“It shows collaboration between the campuses, which the university system is always looking for,” she notes. “We’re going to get more exposure.”

Bowden hopes to bring some of UIS’s equipment into her shop, like its digital envelope printer, as well as its surplus stock and supplies.

Wide-Format Upgrade

Located in a 25,000-sq.-ft. space split between two buildings on the edge of campus, Document Services & Campus Mail runs a Ricoh Pro C7100, a Xerox V3100, and a Xerox D125. It recently upgraded its wide-format printing capabilities by adding an HP Latex 830 and a Mutoh ValueJet 1628MH flatbed to replace older models that had stopped working. Both machines arrived quickly, Bowden says, particularly the Mutoh, which the shop purchased at a great price from its supplier, The Oldham Group.

Megan Beeson and Matt Mabry show off the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign’s new Mutoh ValueJet 1628MH flatbed.

“I took advantage of a $15,000 customer special,” she relates. “I sent the PO request on a Thursday. I got it Friday afternoon. The deadline to get that customer special was 5:00 p.m., so I got the PO to the vendor. The machine showed up on the next Wednesday. We didn’t even get shipping notices. It just appeared.”

Thanks to her quick acting, the in-plant paid less for the Mutoh ValueJet 1628MH than it paid for its original Mutoh flatbed 10 years ago.

The 64" HP Latex 830 W came with the white ink option, which brings new capabilities to the in-plant.

“We had had a lot of customers asking for clear vinyl and white ink for projects,” she says. “Now we’re doing double-sided clear vinyl, which a lot of people are liking.”

Document Services, which has served Illinois for more than 100 years, is also expanding into apparel decoration after the chancellor’s office urged it to do so. Bowden has plans to get a heat press to do direct-to-film transfers. She also intends to add embroidery equipment.

“Our directive is to get it placed by March,” she says.

Document Services is collaborating with the bookstore, which will take orders for apparel. Decorated shirts and hoodies will only be sold internally at first, Bowden says. The in-plant will keep an inventory of basic blank shirts as it gauges popularity of the new service.