Inserting Can Help You Add Value

By adding envelope inserting services, in-plants are making customers happy and increasing their value to their organizations.

LIKE ANY city, San Antonio sends out a lot of mail to residents. Before last October, though, mailings that required a large amount of folding and inserting were essentially impossible for the city's four-employee in-plant to handle.

"We didn't have the manpower to fold 50,000 sheets of paper and then insert it into envelopes," explains Guillermo Castoreno, Central Services manager for the city. "We would tell them that we couldn't do that for them." The customers would then have to assemble their own staffs for an envelope-stuffing party.

That all changed last fall when the four-employee in-plant added a Pitney Bowes DI 950 Fastpac folder/inserter. Now, inserting letters, return postcards, maps, brochures and countless other items into envelopes is a snap. What's more, this new service is helping Castoreno's in-plant move closer to becoming a one-stop shop, where customers can drop off a file and have it printed, folded, inserted, addressed and mailed.

"Whenever we do these projects, it kind of helps establish the value that we offer the city," Castoreno says.

All around the country, in-plants are looking for new ways to demonstrate their value. Inserting machines are just one of the solutions they've found to help them get printed projects out the door, while making life easier for their customers.

Out in Hemet, Calif., the Hemet Unified School District's in-plant also found this out when it replaced its aging Secap inserter with a new Hasler PS140 last September.

"If somebody brought in a letter that they wanted in the mail today, we could have that letter folded, in an envelope and sealed within an hour. Easily," proclaims Reprographics manager Karl Melzer—even if there were 900 of those letters.

"Nowadays," adds Castoreno, "you're trying to show as much value as possible as an in-plant, and I think this type of equipment just gives you a lot more flexibility to do more than you could before. It makes you more credible and more of an asset to your organization."

What's Available?

Here are just a few of the inserting machines on the market for in-plants:

The Böwe Bell + Howell BBH 150 inserting system operates at speeds up to 16,000 letter envelopes and 10,000 flats per hour. It handles a range of products with availability of different feeding technologies. It features easy-to-use setup enhancements such as tool-free adjustments, and uses industry-standard control electronics, motor drives, motors and sensors. The BBH 150 is ideal for self-service environments. —www.bowebellhowell.com

• MORE ON
• BINDING & FINISHING
• MAILING/POSTAL