Automation at Fox Valley Technical College Delivers Higher Satisfaction for Everyone

• Print Case Study

Customer Background/Solutions Overview

Fox Valley Technical College 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 7-person centralized Printing Services operation supplies all students and instructors with curricula and classroom materials as well as marketing and operational materials, such as business cards for the school itself.

Printing Services’ mission is, “to provide professional, outstanding quality cost-effective document and printing related communications for FVTC with superior services and a dedication to being reliable and responsive, and exceeding customer expectations while utilizing technology, innovation, partnerships and efficient and sustainable processes that control cost.” Shana Farrell, Printing Services and Distance Learning Manager, sums that up more simply, “Our role is to support the College by taking on print work so they can focus on their core business.”

They can all work toward this mission better than ever before since they’ve implemented WebCRD’s Web to print capabilities. In fact, turn-around time on the average job has gone from two-weeks to two days– an 86% improvement.

“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 made it their goal to build relationships with their customers and be more of a consultant on the front end of projects. They set out to implement a multichannel communications strategy to increase awareness of their capabilities. On a quantitative level, they aimed to increase utilization of their color devices for high-volume jobs. One of the first steps to achieving their new goals was engaging Rochester Software Associates. FVTC purchased WebCRD in July of 2010. It was implemented just two months later. And between December, 2010 and September 2011 they achieved implementation across campuses.

A technical college leveraging technology to improve services. Logical.

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 filed 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.

Using WebCRD, 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 Van Dyn Hoven, “But now that only represents less than 15% of our work. This has removed a huge bottleneck on the front end.”

Customers love the real time estimate and SurePreview™, because they can be sure how their job will look before submission and know their cost ahead of time. For FVTC, it eliminates rework and improves satisfaction.

WebCRD has also allowed Printing Services to track all jobs in real time. They previously used spreadsheets that were out of date as soon as a job was handed from one person to the next. “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.”

“Getting the word out” is what Printing Services is all about.

“There were many critical success factors in bringing WebCRD to the College,” says Van Dyn Hoven, Printing Services Online Administrator. “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 and 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 WebCRD’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.”

Success is a team effort every time

Printing Service recognized that their manual process was antiquated. Their customer satisfaction survey helped define the priorities for needed change. The Printing Services and Distance Learning manager worked hard building relationships and creating awareness with College leadership. The production staff worked just as hard to build credibility with customers. Together, everyone made the college community aware of the benefits Printing Services can now offer the organization. Printing Services successfully leveraged technology to achieve a better, faster, web-to-print process for Fox Valley Technical College.

The road ahead is filled with dynamic growth

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 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. Using WebCRD’s Dynamics variable capabilities, they plan to produce precisely targeted and personalized materials such as business cards and variable post cards 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.

“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.

© 2016 Rochester Software Associates, Inc. All brands and product names are registered trademarks of their respective companies. 2/2016