UC-Riverside Printing, Reprographics and Mailing: A Valuable Asset

“OUR PRIMARY focus really is color,” declares Dallas Johnson, from his office at the University of California-Riverside. “We’ve moved away from black and white. We saw that as sort of a dying market…still see it that way.” With 35 years of printing experience to guide him, Johnson thinks he has a pretty good idea where the industry is headed. So when the director of Service Enterprises decided to move his in-plant away from the “dying” monochrome market and into the more promising world of color printing, he did it in a big way.

A year and a half ago, the 37-employee Southern California in-plant acquired a five-color Kodak NexPress 2100 digital color press. Since then, the shop has been steadily increasing the amount of digital color printing it does, while using the NexPress to bring variable data printing (VDP) to UC-Riverside.

Recently, Johnson says, the in-plant produced a brochure for the university’s 4,000 incoming freshmen that included an impressive 17 variable data points for each student.

“The brochure replaced several documents and was custom designed to the new student,” Johnson reports. For example, each student’s brochure showed exact photos of that student’s dorm room along with information on the dormitory building, the amenities, the roommate’s name and phone number, the resident advisor, the specific meal plan and much more. The in-plant printed this job on the NexPress in less than one day and saved the Housing Department more than $15,000.

“It gave a very personal touch to new residents’ information,” Johnson adds. “According to our Housing administrators this was a first in the housing business.”

Successes like this emphasize the important role the in-plant plays in supporting the university’s mission. By combining its digital printing experience with its extensive mailing capabilities, UC-Riverside Printing, Reprographics and Mailing is proving itself a critical force behind the university’s success.

In Living Color

Focusing on digital color marked a major shift for this in-plant. In the past, Johnson says, the overwhelming majority of the shop’s work was black and white.

“Our initial goal was 75,000 [color] units a month, and we’ve averaged over 200,000,” reports Johnson. “That was actually somewhat shocking for me.”

Another shock came as the quality and speed of the digital press actually increased the demand for fast-turnaround color printing, including a huge jump in requests for variable data work. According to Johnson, the in-plant created its own color and variable data market.

“It sort of reminded me of ‘Field of Dreams,’ ” Johnson muses, referring to the 1989 Kevin Costner film. “We built the capability and they showed up.”

As an example, before the NexPress, it would take the in-plant four or five days to turn around a four-color 11x17? glossy brochure. Now, with the NexPress printing 70 pages per minute, that same job is done in 24 hours. Because the in-plant has this new capability, the clients are taking advantage, and the requests keep coming.

Though the in-plant has had success using VDP, Johnson does have one warning to those looking to purchase a digital press:

“Don’t buy it if you were going to do variable data only. It’s only 15 percent of our work load,” he says. Variable data, he asserts, is just one part of what the NexPress can do.

Though the NexPress now handles the lion’s share of the in-plant’s work, the shop keeps a four-color, 20x28? Mitsubishi press on hand for longer-run jobs.

To help job ordering go more smoothly, the in-plant created its own online ordering system. Jobs submitted this way remain attached to the work order once the job is complete.

“At a later date if the customer wants additional copies, all they need to do is look up the old order electronically and click on a ‘create as new’ tab,” Johnson says. The job is assigned a new order number, all specifications are filled in and the old file is reattached. Thus the client can print more jobs on an as-needed basis, cutting down costs and waste.

It’s in the Mail

The mailing department at UC-Riverside is a state-of-the-art operation. It includes two Accufast labelers, a Bryce 20K ink-jet addressing system, a Plockmatic 46 inserter, a Pitney Bowes DM1100 Digital Mailing System and more.

“We have a little bit of everything that you’d see in a mail center,” Johnson reports. “We do Postal Standard, First Class, Express Mail, parcel shipping. We do labeling and spray bar coding and addressing, but that has decreased significantly because we’re doing it on the printing side.”

In addition, the mailing department handles campus delivery twice a day to 170 departments, along with a messenger service.

“The Express Mail statutes don’t allow for individual department deliveries. Plus this campus is 2,700 acres. The post office isn’t going to go to every building. They see UC-Riverside as one entity. If you’re going to have someone sort out the incoming mail you might as well have someone sort out the outgoing mail, too. It more than pays for the staff that we have. It’s not even a contest.”

About the only thing the in-plant doesn’t do is ZIP code sorting, which the shop outsources.

Proving its Worth

Johnson knows that having an in-house mailing department, especially for a college with nearly 20,000 students, plus faculty and staff, is a huge cost saver, and he’s always prepared to let the administration know it.

“Let’s face it, there are so many people in the printing and mailing business, you have to be prepared to explain and justify your existence, have the stats at your fingertips,” he says, “and it’s so hard not to take that personally because you work hard and take pride in what you do.”

The in-plant’s mailing expertise and knowledge of postal discounts have saved the university thousands of dollars, Johnson says. For example, the University Extension division used to do its own mailing and ran up a bill of roughly $80,000 a year in stamps. When the university decided to let the in-plant handle that department’s mailing, the bill dropped to $45,000. This is the kind of data Johnson keeps close at hand, in case he has to use it to show how valuable the in-plant is to the university.

Understanding Postal Regulations

The U.S. Postal Service in and of itself can be tough figure out, so experience on staff is crucial.

“The post office is struggling just like everyone else is,” Johnson laments. “Because the USPS has a right, without going to Congress, to raise rates every year, it seems that when they do that they change the rules in the process. Now it’s really important for printing people to understand postal regulations because they change on a regular basis.”

This can lead to some challenges.

“The post office makes these changes without consideration to equipment or sometimes lead time,” he says. “We invested fairly heavily in postal equipment about five years ago.”

Then the post office changed a few things.

“Because the software on that equipment could not be updated to the new dimensional pricing, we had to [purchase] new equipment,” he laments.

Given the volatility of the Postal Service, it’s important to have experienced people running the mailing department. Johnson can’t speak highly enough about his staff, especially Bulk Mail Specialist Mickey Engstrom and Mail Services Manager J.C. Allen, who, in Johnson’s words, has “so much experience in the mail business it’s criminal.”

Copier Management

In addition to the main printing and mailing facility, the in-plant also runs two copy centers and has a service agreement for the various office copiers located throughout the campus. There are 225 copiers in its copier management program.

“We go buy office copiers…and supply them to the departments,” Johnson says. “I don’t want to call it a money maker but it’s definitely not a money loser.”

A new trend that Johnson speaks very highly of is a monthly meeting of the minds that takes place via conference call between all in-plant managers in the University of California system.

“This seemingly small effort is really paying off,” he says. “In the conversation, we share our experiences with vendors, work procedures and generally commiserate about issues.”

In the future, Johnson sees the lines of communication between printing and mailing growing tighter. He also foresees more high-speed color work coming to the in-plant. Despite all the shop does for the university, though, he knows the constant task of proving the in-plant’s value to the university isn’t going anywhere.

“I think about it from the time I walk in, in the morning, to the time I leave, every day,” he muses. “But I only have to do it for another three more years then I can retire.”

Until then, the in-plant is in very good hands. IPG