IPMA's Operations Survey reveals that nearly 60% of in-plants saw an increase in digital printing in 2011, while 11% a decrease. Offset saw the inverse with 15% seeing an increase and 31% a decrease. IPMA members recently shared their varying experiences for 2011.

"Up until 2007 we were a total offset shop and our job counts were steadily declining. Since adding a digital printer, our total number of jobs has been increasing, but the total impressions/clicks have been decreasing, which means the per job average count is decreasing. This validates our decision to migrate toward a digital shop. Although we still have some small offset presses, our workload is approximately 80-85% digital. We are a partial charge-back operation that recovers costs, plus hopefully a small surplus. We always end in the black and we ended the 2010-2011 fiscal year 13% ahead of the prior year. So far this year, we're at about the same pace as last year, but I expect to end strong and be around 5-10% ahead of last year. Because we're such a small shop (one full-time employee, one 20 hour/week student helper and one graphic designer on campus one day a week), I think these positive figures and trends are significant."

"We keep adding buildings and students so we have had an increase of over 100,000 pieces in incoming alone this past year. Our enrollment has increased by 500 or 600 students per semester for the last four semesters. We are hopping around here!" 

"We have seen an increase in sales due to the economy doing better and enhanced sales efforts to insource greater volumes of work and cultivate new customers."

"Color volume up 20%, black and white production down 3.7%, wide format color static. Our new equipment to scan/print/copy wide format architectural drawings and blueprints has been busy since it's been installed about 2 months ago so I have high hopes for this additional service."

"Unfortunately I'm seeing decreases across all processes, B&W, color, offset and wide format."

Catherine Ciardi

Karen Meyers

In a down economy, in-plant printing and mailing operations are faced with the same issues as the rest of the industry. As budgets get tighter, every dollar spent needs to demonstrate return on investment (ROI) or return on marketing investment (ROMI).  

 

Find out how in-plant managers Catherine Ciardi, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield in Rochester, NY, and Karen Meyers, Michigan Farm Bureau in Lansing are opening doors for new internal customer opportunities, along with expanding wallet share of existing clientele with differentiated applications through digital printing and personalized communications. Plus learn how they're becoming profit centers with the help of external client jobs.  

 

Don't miss this webinar, December 14, 1 p.m. central time, sponsored by Kodak. Attendees will be entered into a drawing for a special prize!

 

*Webinars are a free benefit of membership available only to IPMA in-plant members.

Register Here