Understanding how demand is shifting over time can be valuable information for in-plants. To measure confidence levels in the in-plant industry, IPG and NAPCO Research have launched the first in a series of monthly reports to illustrate how confident in-plant managers are that they will reach their sales goals, add new business and add new services in the months ahead. We focused on higher-ed and school district in-plants.
We conducted the first of our monthly surveys in November, and plugged the responses into a proprietary scoring algorithm, which weights each factor based on market significance and outputs an overall confidence score that educational in-plants will meet their sales goals and add new services. Each month we will compare the new score with the previous ones to show you trends in the confidence level of in-plants. Having this knowledge on a monthly basis will give you a benchmark against how your in-plant colleagues expect to perform in the coming month. (To participate in this ongoing confidence survey and be eligible for prizes, email us.)
Slight Lift in Sales Volume Expected
Overall, after plugging survey responses into our scoring algorithm, we ended up with a confidence score of 125.98. We’ll learn more about what the score means as we gather additional data every month, but for now, by parsing the individual responses and analyzing the open-ended survey questions, our initial index report reveals that higher-ed and school district in-plant managers expected their overall sales volume in December to be slightly higher than their sales during December 2015.
On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being significantly higher than last year, the average response was 5.71. Interestingly, 26% of respondents picked 7 on the one to 10 scale to indicate their increased sales expectations. Overall, in-plants in the western part of the country had the highest expectations for sales growth (6.2), while Midwestern shops had the lowest sales expectations for December (5).
Among those who expected flat growth, they pointed out similarly flat growth at their parent organization. Some who monitor monthly chargebacks reported that they are typically very close each month, so they expected no large difference in December.
"We are already doing all the work that our shop is capable of doing," noted one manager. "We are at full capacity."
Those expecting sales increases credited a variety of signs, including the addition of services, an increased effort at building customer relations, the implementation of a Web-to-print platform since last December, the steady migration of work from the MFP fleet to the in-plant, growth in the size of the organization and an increase in student enrollment. Curiously, some also pointed to a decrease in enrollment as a cause of higher print revenue.
"Low enrollment means more marketing materials being printed," a manager wrote.
An increase in insourcing was cited as a source of expected sales increases, both from other in-plants and from non-profits.
"We started doing work for all of the campuses, not just the main campus," noted one manager.
Several managers credited their significant growth in wide-format work for fueling their expectation of increased sales in December. New equipment also powered sales increase expectations.
"We should see some increase as a result of a new HP Indigo digital press, and an increased marketing campaign," said one.
Those who expected lower sales noted that budgets have been cut and many forms are going electronic. But also, some pointed out, December is typically a slower month.
"November was a big month for Christmas cards, letters, calendars, etc.," noted one manager, who expected a drop in sales in December.
Another grumbled that, "our leadership's unwillingness to give our department a right of first refusal and allowing other departments to seek and use outside venders," was the reason for expected sales decreases in December.
Cautious Optimism in Ability to Drive New Business
The survey also asked in-plants how confident they were in their ability to add customers and bring in new business this month. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being extremely confident, the average response was 5.83, indicating cautious optimism. The largest percentage of respondents (52%) picked 5, 6 or 7 to indicate their level of confidence.
When asked how confident they were that their in-plant would add a new service or capability in the next three months, managers hedged their bets a little. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being extremely confident, the average was squarely in the middle at 5. Though interestingly, 10% of managers said they were "extremely confident" by ranking their confidence level at 10.
Looking at their in-plant's sales volume over the past month and comparing it with their sales volume for that month last year, in-plants revealed a slight boost in sales. With 5 meaning "about the same," the average score was 5.69. Almost 31% of respondents selected 5 for this question, while nearly 36% picked either 6 or 7 to indicate a slight rise in sales versus last year.
If you are an in-plant manager at a college, university or school district and would like to participate on our in-plant confidence survey panel, please email us.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.