PODi CASE STUDY
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FOX VALLEY TECHNICAL COLLEGE IMPROVES CYCLE TIME AND SERVICES
© 2013 W. Caslon & Company. All rights reserved Page 1
FOX VALLEY TECHNICAL COLLEGE IMPROVES CYCLE TIME AND SERVICES
VERTICAL MARKET: Higher Education
BUSINESS APPLICATION: Web-to-Print / Business Communications
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) in Appleton, Wisconsin offers associate
degrees, technical diplomas, certificate programs, and apprenticeship
trades instruction to more than 50,000 students each year. With a main
campus in Appleton and multiple outreach centers throughout a five county
region, FVTC employs more than 300 full-and part-time instructors and
more than 1 ,000 adjunct instructors. Their 8-person, centralized Printing
Services operation supplies all students and instructors with curricula and
classroom materials as well as marketing and operational materials.
Shana Farrell, Printing Services and Distance Learning Manager, sums their
mission up simply, "Our role is to support the College by taking on print
work so staff can focus on their core business."
"We surveyed our customers back in 2009 and asked what we could do to
make things easier for them," explains Farrell. "Three common themes
really stood out in their responses. They were frustrated by the turnaround
times. They didn't like manually filling out work orders. And they really
didn't know what our department was capable of doing beyond
monochrome copying. "
Printing Services needed a new solution that would:
Reduce number of touches
Accelerate turnaround time
Increase volume without increasing staff
Improve accountability and tracking
Fox Valley Technical College Improves Cycle Time and Services
© 2013 W. Caslon & Company. All rights reserved Page 2
RESULTS A new web-to-print to print solution was developed using WebCRD. With
the new workflow Printing Services now enjoys the following benefits:
100% of orders are submitted electronically
86% cycle time reduction – turnaround time on the average job has
gone from two weeks to two days
97% of manual work eliminated for digital monochrome work
85% of volume now produced in two touches – down from four
PREVIOUS PROCESS FVTC used to have numerous manual touches on each job. In fact, most
jobs had to be touched at least four times. Printing Services would receive
an email with a file attached from an instructor or staff member who
wanted materials printed. The administrator would have to read the email,
make sure the attached file matched the work requested, and then enter the
job into the make ready software for every job. The administrator also had
to make educated “guesses” about what the customer expected to see in
the finished piece. To track jobs Printing Services had to use spreadsheets
that were out of date as soon as a job was handed from one person to the
next.
NEW WORKFLOW With the new solution make ready is virtually
unnecessary and all jobs are ticketed
automatically. 93% of monochrome print jobs
are now completed with just two touches.
“We still have to setup some jobs manually,
such as manuals with tabs, and non-digital
orders,” explains Jessica Van Dyn Hoven,
Printing Services Online Administrator. “But
now that only represents less than 15% of our
work. This has removed a huge bottleneck on
the front end.”
Users appreciate the real time estimate which lets them know their cost
ahead of time. They can also preview their job to be sure how it will look
© 2013 W. Caslon & Company. All rights reserved Page 3
when printed. For FVTC’s Printing Services this eliminates rework and
improves customer satisfaction.
The new workflow also enables Printing Services to track all jobs in real
time. “Real-time tracking helps us all be on the same page,” says Van Dyn
Hoven. “For example, if the bindery area is getting busy we can see that
ahead of time and work more as a team to keep everything running
smoothly for our customers.”
DRIVING USAGE “There were many critical success factors in bringing WebCRD to the
College,” says Van Dyn Hoven. “We knew that one of them would be
marketing our new web-to-print system to the entire College so we could
truly achieve our goals.” To get the word out Printing Services developed a
branded name, logo and look for their communications materials. Then
they advertised the new system in multiple channels. “We tried a little bit of
everything to get our customers excited about this new system,” explains
Van Dyn Hoven. “We started out by sending e-mails. Then during the
holidays we handed out bookmarks. In February we sent out Valentine's
cards with our messaging. We created video tutorials. We even placed
advertisements in the College wide In-service packets.” All the materials
called out the new system's ease of ordering, and available training dates.
“Our piece-de-resistance was a video spoof on the hit TV show Extreme
Makeover Home Edition,” adds Van Dyn Hoven. “The video helped us show
our customers the impact WebCRD could have not only in our department
but for Fox Valley Technical College as a whole.”
Sample documents printed by Fox Valley Technical College Printing Services
Fox Valley Technical College Improves Cycle Time and Services
© 2013 W. Caslon & Company. All rights reserved Page 4
After 1.5 years with the WebCRD system, Printing Services has processed
over 11,800 orders and they have 425 users who have placed one or more
orders. Printing Services averages 1.15 million impressions per month.
REASONS FOR SUCCESS As more people catch on to how easy it is, FVTC expects to attract jobs that
might be sent to outside vendors, or are being done manually on MFDs and
other office printers. They also hope to attract more work from adjunct
instructors who can order online so Printing Services can have their
materials available for them when they arrive on campus. To achieve these
objectives FVTC proactively promotes its services through these and other
strategies:
Reviewing click count data and meeting with Departments to help
them save budget dollars and to create awareness of their products
and services
Staying actively involved in College events and initiatives. Examples
include collaborating with departments by providing in-kind printing
for College-sponsored events and presenting relevant topics during
in-service and other events
Conducting a customer service satisfaction survey to gather
feedback on how well they are meeting customer needs, gauge
interest in potential new initiatives, and increase awareness of their
products and services to all employee groups
Using WebCRD's Dynamics variable capabilities, FVTC also produces
precisely targeted and personalized materials such as business cards and
variable postcards and letters. FVTC anticipates using the new capabilities
to reach people in a targeted way via multi-channel communications to
offer them something of interest, rather than just mail thousands of static
pieces. Their variable data printing efforts continue to increase each year. A
main department goal for 2013 is to increase the complexity of VDP work
and to grow awareness of VDP efficiencies and cost savings for
departments and the College. FVTC also plans to increase the amount of
customizable templates they have available for customers within the
WebCRD (Printing Services Online PSO) Dynamics library.
© 2013 W. Caslon & Company. All rights reserved Page 5
"Our goal for the future is to support FVTC by working with customers with
a consultative approach, to determine the best way to produce a job at the
best possible price. It's also important to help the customer understand
choices and alternatives to meet their core business needs. For instance,
customers may also want their piece mailed with a custom printed return
envelope and other customized inserts as well. We need to shift our
thinking from fulfilling orders to better understand and help customers
meet their business needs," said Farrell.
“As a technical college we strive to be a leader in technology. We’re always
searching for better, faster processes,” said Van Dyn Hoven. “We knew that
web-to-print was the solution we were looking for.”
This solution earned a PODi Best Practices Honorable Mention, Workflow
Automation category.
C L I E N T Fox Valley Technical College, www.fvtc.edu
Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) in Appleton, Wisconsin
offers associate degrees, technical diplomas, certificate
programs, and apprenticeship trades instruction to more than
50,000 students each year. With a main campus in Appleton
and multiple outreach centers throughout a five county region,
FVTC employs more than 300 full-and part-time instructors and
more than 1 ,000 adjunct instructors.
P R I N T P R O V I D E R Fox Valley Technical College Printing Services
The centralized Printing Services operation supplies all students
and faculty with curricula and classroom materials as well as
marketing and operational materials.
H A R D W A R E Two Kodak Digimasters, One Kodak NexPress, Roland VP-540
Large Format Printer, Sakurai OLIVER 258 EPII offset press
S O F T W A R E Rochester Software Associates’ WebCRD
EFI MicroPress
T A R G E T
A U D I E N C E
Faculty and staff at Fox Valley Technical College
V O L U M E 300 to 350 orders per month;
1.15 million impressions per month
D A T E Full implementation achieved in July 2011
