In-plant Print Centers Matter

In-plant Graphics invited me to write this new blog column, “Print Center Matters,” as a result of the stories that I’ve written for IPG and my experience working with in-plants. In my marketing role at Rochester Software Associates (RSA) the last four years, in-plants have allowed me to help them share their stories, both with other in-plants and with other printers.

Though this is a new blog column for In-plant Graphics, I’m not new to blogging. I’ve actively sought out in-plant leaders who we can learn from. A healthy in-plant community benefits us all. As many of you have pointed out, you don’t compete with each other, so sharing ideas, best practices, failures, information and successes enhance your business, rather than jeopardize it. In a panel that I moderated recently one in-plant shared an idea that paid off for another immediately just by changing one word. I’ll be writing about that soon.

I believe that a good number of in-plants perceive themselves as underdogs. I can relate to that. I’m part of a firm that offers our solutions principally through all of the major production print equipment vendors working primarily with in-plant print centers. Though we’ve been around for over 30 years— old by software firm standards — RSA is always looking for ways increase our awareness and name recognition.

It’s not that print vendors don’t recognize the importance of workflow for in-plants and their place in the print ecosystem, it’s just a matter of focus. Because we focus almost exclusively on in-plants they matter a lot to us. Through our years of working with in-plants we’ve seen the issues you face first hand. I see in-plants struggling with how to: relate your purpose, value and relevancy; market to your audience; gain senior leadership’s support; deliver new services and more, all while “doing more with less.”