Overview:
A few years ago, veteran print manager Terry Oliver faced a situation familiar to many in-plant departments: an organizational review to justify the expense of an in-plant compared to outsourcing. While she prided herself on her ability to meet clients’ needs, defending her in-plant meant she would have to quantify many of the intangibles of service she offered.
Challenge:
“My customers’ main concern is taking care of patients, so when it comes to them ordering print, it has to be easy, and when a customer asks if we can meet a tight deadline, I want to say, ‘absolutely’ as often as possible.”
Terry Oliver, Print and Design Manager, OhioHealth
“You can’t put a price on customer service,” Oliver says, “but several of our customers spoke up to explain that our in-plant was the best way to get quality work done quickly.”
Technology helped Oliver prove the point beyond a shadow of a doubt. At about the same time as the review, Adam Frix, a local print production solutions analyst for Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA, showed Oliver how a Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C8000 with an EFITM Fiery® digital front end (DFE) could extend the in-plant’s capabilities to handle the high-quality, full-color printing OhioHealth’s marketing department outsources to commercial printing firms.
Solution:
OhioHealth eventually selected Konica Minolta as the provider for all its office and production print equipment. At the in-plant, the transformation started
with a pair of monochrome Konica Minolta bizhub Pro 1200 series digital print production systems. While Oliver, who had used Fiery Command WorkStation® software in the past, wanted Fiery technology for her new production engines, it was not available for that particular monochrome platform at the time.
“We used another product to manage our printers, and it was a big step back compared to the Fiery DFE,” says Oliver. Before too long, however, OhioHealth replaced another color production device it had with a Fiery DrivenTM Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C8000, which gave the in-plant a chance to stake its claim in high-end color work.
Oliver says having a Fiery DFE was “was one of the non-negotiable requirements I had when it came to adding the C8000.”
With the new Konica Minolta/EFI Fiery system in place, the in-plant could really compete on color work, providing marketing collateral that was as good as, or better, than the work local commercial printing firms were selling to OhioHealth. Plus the new technology meant the in-plant could deliver lower costs and faster turnaround times.
[Tweet “With #EFI Digital StoreFront and #KonicaMinolta MFPs our orders are processed 50% faster @EFI_Print_Tech @KonicaMinoltaUS”]
Results:
Once it had established its high-end color credentials, OhioHealth’s in-plant progressed even further with additional, advanced EFI technologies. Oliver installed EFI Fiery Central, the linchpin that gave the in-plant essential, time- saving capabilities for streamlined management of monochrome and color jobs.
Results:
“We are much more efficient with Digital StoreFront, and that gives us the labor and capital resources to continue expanding our operation.”
Terry Oliver, Print and Design Manager, OhioHealth
With Fiery Central, OhioHealth benefits from a common, intuitive visual user interface — the award-winning Fiery Command WorkStation — to manage the Konica Minolta production devices and additional Fiery prepress applications.
Konica Minolta’s Frix and EFI’s local support staff also showed Oliver how the in-plant can manage even more work in less time by integrating Fiery Central with another advanced technology, EFI Digital StoreFront® web-to-print and eCommerce software. The in-plant installed an EFI-hosted Digital StoreFront system in 2013, and it has transformed how Oliver serves her customers.
“Before Digital StoreFront, we were manually handling between 1,200 and 1,800 jobs each month, and nearly all of our document changes and approvals were coming to us by fax,” says Oliver.
Although Digital StoreFront only went live at OhioHealth a few months ago, the in- plant’s customers are rapidly taking notice. “We only receive a few faxes today,” Oliver says, “and our orders are processed 50% faster than they were before.”
OhioHealth used Fiery Command WorkStation to integrate its monochrome devices to Digital StoreFront, automating the file intake and production, creating a significantly streamlined process where jobs require fewer touches.
Digital StoreFront also gives the in-plant the ability to accurately track chargeback costs to departments, ensuring greater budget accountability across the entire OhioHealth organization.
The total combination of complementary Konica Minolta bizhub and EFI Fiery and Digital StoreFront technologies has taken the OhioHealth in-plant full circle from the days when it had to justify its existence. Offering outstanding quality and fast turnaround — and being easy to do business with — has yielded superior results. The in-plant not only handles monochrome forms, manuals and booklet work better than ever before, it has become the smart, cost- effective option for a growing volume of high-impact color documents that help OhioHealth build its brand and win new business.
That is essential for a rapidly expanding health organization. In addition to its continued string of hospital acquisitions, OhioHealth has added a number of physician practices. With the in-plant, newly acquired practices accustomed
to using full-color print marketing collateral can save time and money while continuing to promote their services with high-end brochures, mailers and other materials.
And, perhaps most telling of all, OhioHealth’s main marketing operation — a department that once kept the in-plant at arm’s length in deference to outside commercial printing firms — is now a trusted partner. Long-run, full-color jobs that favor the economics of offset production are still bid out, but now, for the first time ever, OhioHealth’s marketing department sends more of its jobs to the in-plant than it does to external print providers.
Beat the competition and profit with EFI’s integrated Fiery®, VUTEk®, Jetrion®, Print MIS and Web-to-Print solutions.
Visit www.efi.com to learn more.
Why EFI?
EFITM (www.efi.com) helps businesses worldwide bring their visions and goals to life with a scalable, digital product portfolio. Our powerful servers; controllers; RIPs; inkjet printers, and precise color and imaging solutions help companies increase their brand recognition and market reach on signs, buildings, bus wraps, graphic displays and more. Our business automation software helps companies work faster and more cost-effectively. Our office, enterprise and mobile cloud solutions help companies create, access, and communicate impactful information that can win them more business.
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