In 2013, Cornell University’s In-Plant print shop was utilizing paper order forms with internal staff for print job quoting and production. This manual process was touch-intensive and the shop wanted to bring in technology to modernize and streamline its educational printing workflow.

PageDNA performed its best-in-class implementation service to quickly launch the PageDNA custom digital storefront solution for the university’s In-Plant print shop and customers. The goal was to enable automation of various processes, streamline its workflow, and provide insights on job orders through real-time reporting. However, during the implementation process, additional needs were uncovered and addressed.

PageDNA’s Support for Multiple Customer Types

As we do with all clients, PageDNA initially sat down with the print shop to learn about their core needs. During the process, we learned that it was critical for the storefront to address the goals of three key groups:

  1. Faculty: Make it as easy as possible to place and track orders online to enable professors and their staff to spend more time focused on what they do best: educating students.
  2. Students: A unique aspect of the In-Plant’s services included printing for students, who have different product catalog, pricing and payment needs than faculty. The print shop wanted to increase revenue and relevancy by enabling these non-staff customers to place orders.
  3. Other Teams: Like many print shops, Cornell also serves alumni and other groups inside and outside of the school. The print shop wanted to embrace these groups as well, while recognizing they have unique needs.  

Efficiency Through “Divisions”

To address each group’s needs and goals, PageDNA created a custom storefront with “Divisions,” a powerful PageDNA feature that allows different groups to have their own unique online experience. Each Division, or user group, on the storefront can have access to different items, pricing, and billing options. For example, faculty can log into their storefront via single-sign on, have access to their own view and their own features, like business cards and custom print ordering. They can even pay for jobs with university-specific chargeback codes.

Students are a separate Division with their own templates. PageDNA’s integrated e-commerce solutions allow for sales tax collection and for students to pay with credit cards. Students can now order items like copies and personalized business cards – and pay for them .

“PageDNA’s digital storefront has increased the visibility of our print shop from that of just our traditional staff to also include students, alumni and other groups. Automation has helped us become more efficient with our workflow and we have gained so much visibility with the university. As a result, we are bringing in more business to our print shop!”

  — Belinda Leonardo, Manager of Print Services, Cornell University 

Efficiencies abound for all groups. Print shop customers (faculty and students) have access to instantaneous proofing and job pricing and they can review every job immediately when they place an order, saving time and resources. What’s more, every time a job order is completed, an email is sent out, notifying faculty and students that their job is ready for pick up – or has been shipped.

On the print shop side, every time a job order is placed, the staff is notified by email. The jobs can then be tracked in PageDNA’s Order Manager. Administrators have a dashboard to view job ticketing, order management and real-time reporting that provides insights into everything happening within the shop. The “Unshipped Items” scheduled report helps ensure that all orders leave the shop on time, every time by catching production exceptions early in the process.

By effectively addressing the needs of faculty and expanding the audience of the print shop with external and non-traditional customers, the In-Plant has increased top-line revenue and bolstered the print shop’s visibility and financial strength.

Seamless Implementation

Technology was a huge part of the In-Plant shop’s improved efficiencies but they needed more than just the storefront to truly be successful. Having a 3x higher on-time launch rate than their competitors, PageDNA’s implementation team shines where others fall short. PageDNA’s emphasis on customer success includes an onboarding plan with state-of-the-art project management, training and notification tools.

Using these tools, PageDNA implemented a storefront solution in eight weeks using only one hour of the customer’s time per week. This process included gathering and implementing all of the print shop’s requirements, real-time job pricing, development, and training. The implementation plan involved weekly one-on-one training calls with print shop administrators, on-demand training videos, and access to customer care managers.

PageDNA’s team provided a solution that not only delivered upon – but exceeded – the expectations of the university’s In-Plant. In addition to the efficiencies the digital storefront has created, the solution has increased the visibility, relevance and impact of the print shop with both internal and external customers.

Continued Expansion and Success

As of 2023, Cornell continues to expand its usage, with Divisions on their storefront for the Law School, Engineering School, and even the general public to order. This continued expansion of the system allows the print shop to continue to reach to new audiences, all with PageDNA’s wonderful automation for everyone involved: print requesters, the print shop, and the administrative teams overseeing Cornell’s operations.

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