College Shop Gets Digital Overhaul

IN-PLANT UPGRADES come a lot more easily when your organization’s marketing department is pushing for them. Take the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), for example. For years the Central Duplicating department had been getting by with aging Itek, Multi and A.B.Dick duplicators, with barely a dime of investment money coming from the school.

But as CCP kicked off a new branding and marketing campaign, the benefits of print-on-demand and variable data printing—and the role they could play in the school’s recruitment efforts—became obvious. This realization prompted the college to install a remanufactured Kodak NexPress 2100 with a fifth unit for adding clear gloss or an extra color.

The most immediate benefit of having a digital press, notes Eve Markman, executive director of communication, is the four-color capability it brings.

“We’ve always gone outside for four-color,” she says. “Bringing it in-house gives us a lot more control.”

Not to mention a lot more opportunity. Brochures previously printed with just one or two colors due to the in-plant’s limitations can now be upgraded to four colors, making them more noticeable and thus more competitive.

The NexPress will also prevent a lot of waste. Previously, she says, academic brochures were printed outside, and when the programs changed, the school would have to toss the out-of-date copies and print new ones.

“This way we would be able to print just what we need, and if, two months later, something changes, we change it and send it again,” Markman says. “Departments can be more agile in changing their information.”

Variable Data Plans

The next step, she says, is variable data printing, an exciting prospect. The college plans to gather personal information from prospective students via its Web site, then print customized brochures for each of them.

The NexPress 2100 will make the in-plant a much busier place, says Stephen Aicholtz, manager of administrative services.

“Roughly a half million dollars worth of work will now be brought back to the shop,” he says.

Aicholtz was hired by CCP to give the five-employee in-plant a digital facelift. He and Markman worked together to prove the benefits of adding a digital press, comparing the cost of sending VDP work to commercial printers with the cost of doing it in-house. They looked at Xerox and HP Indigo products before settling on the NexPress. Aicholtz has been impressed with Kodak’s service, responsiveness and its programs to help the in-plant market what the NexPress can do. Kodak will even assist him with an open house he has planned.

Aicholtz says his press operators are excited about the NexPress. Having printed only two-color work for so long, they never thought they would get a chance to do four-color printing, he says.

Installing the NexPress was no easy matter. The in-plant’s dark room had to be dismantled and two presses were moved. To ventilate the new machine, a hole had to be cut into the ceiling—a difficult task considering the room used to be a bomb-proof vault.

Offset Upgrade

The NexPress wasn’t the only new equipment this in-plant has added in recent months. In November it installed a two-color Hamada H324A press to replace older presses that were on their last rollers. The Hamada, which has an infrared dryer, produces much better registration and better solids than the old presses, Aicholtz says.

Also added in November was a Pitney Bowes six-station inserter for the in-plant’s mail operation.

Together, these upgrades have revitalized the in-plant and given it a much more important role in the college’s future. Markman says her clients at the college are thrilled with the quality and capabilities the in-plant can now provide.IPG

Kodak’s Patrick McGinty makes adjustments to CCP’s new NexPress during installation while Stephen Aicholtz, manager of administrative services, looks on.