Dec 11, 2007
‘A Fresh Start’ Bolsters Print and Mail Finishing
Performance for the Judicial Branch of Connecticut
Upgrading technology, and not just equipment, enables faster and better service at lower costs
By George Linkletter
Virtually every business must upgrade aging equipment from time to time. That’s not news. But the way an upgrade is conducted is always critical and may well determine whether the investment merely maintains the status quo or achieves groundbreaking performance.
A case in point -- the upgrade challenge recently faced by Tom Francis, the supervisor of computer operations for the Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut, IT Division. Tom has nearly 35 years of IT experience, most of it in the private sector, and understands the need to look beyond the surface to get the best solution possible, especially since his mail volumes are both time and content sensitive. He switched to IKON and Canon for superior performance now and an easy path to broader capabilities in the future.
“We produce more than 15,000 mail pieces daily with four people over two shifts,” he explains. “The applications involve criminal and civil court matters, jury summons, and correspondence related to motor vehicle infractions. Most are just a page or two in length, but we also produce internal documents, such as HR materials, accounts receivable data, and reports that can be 150 to 200 pages long.”
His unit also coordinates with a courier service that picks up especially time sensitive legal data at 1:45 a.m. each night for delivery to lock boxes at 80 court locations across the state.
More than an Upgrade
“Our existing equipment had served us adequately, but we knew there were faster printers available,” he continues. “We wanted higher speeds to increase our print productivity to keep pace with our growing workload. But we also wanted the flexibility to network and accept multiple and varied print streams, so we could serve more as a centralized production facility. And we wanted the ability to create output in electronic form so we could produce PDFs and lower our cost of production and distribution when it made sense to do so.”
The upgrade proposal from the existing print vendor was largely status quo -- as well as costly -- so Tom invited others including IKON and Canon to review his needs and make recommendations. “Their proposal centered on the Canon imageRUNNER technology, which gave us the immediate boost in production we needed along with the PlanetPress software from Objectif Lune, which provided an easy and clear path to electronic output.”
The initial implementation involved two imageRUNNER Pro 110VP monochrome devices, which immediately boosted output from 50 to 110 pages a minute, yielding a productivity improvement of more than 100 percent. The configuration was later altered when an imageRUNNER Pro 7138VP monochrome printer was substituted for one of the imageRUNNER 110s. Currently, the two Canon devices produce about 800,000 impressions a month, and often handle more than 500 jobs daily.
Just as important, Tom reports that image quality is consistently superb, which is a fundamental prerequisite to any print application. He also points out that the equipment operates reliably, enabling his team to consistently meet production quotas and deadlines. “The devices are extremely operator friendly,” he adds. “On those rare occasions when a stoppage occurs, the paper path is waist high and easy for the operator to view and clear.”
Also helping to boost productivity is the multiple tray capability, which enables the devices to easily accommodate and print on two different sizes of paper (8.5x11” and 8.5x14”) as well as three-hole punched paper, which speeds assembly of lengthy reports and the occasional technical manual.
Digital Output
As for the new capability to accommodate multiple incoming print streams along with outputting documents in PDF format, Tom said the conversion to PlanetPress was smooth and uneventful. “Two specialists worked for about three months converting all of our forms,” he comments. “And we encountered no interruptions to our customers.”
Another plus was the continuing or ‘behind the scenes’ service. “Jeff Snyder, our IKON representative, pays attention to us. He stayed in touch throughout the conversion, stopping by from time to time just to make sure all was well. And he continues to call, without any prompting from us, just to make sure we are still satisfied and the configuration and technology still meet our needs.
Not only is the printing faster and smoother, but there has been a significant reduction in paper costs as well. In just one key application, the equipment enabled a switch from a specialty paper that was glued on the perimeter to a more standard format, resulting in a decrease in paper costs of 50 percent.
Now that he has more production capacity, as well as increased capability and expertise, Tom is soliciting additional work from the various entities within the Judicial Branch. “We can consolidate many smaller applications from offices and courts around the state and process them here at our central facility much faster,” he says. And since the output from those smaller applications is commingled with the unit’s larger volumes, and then sent to a centralized presort vendor, the cost for postage is lowered while delivery times across the compact northeast state remain unchanged.
Indeed, the facility has evolved into a showcase of sorts, with representatives from other state agencies stopping by to see if they might replicate the offering or even utilize the capability. “We want to have the most productive shop, as well as the most versatile one,” Tom explains. “There’s always talk about the coming of the paperless office. It’s not here yet, so we need top efficiency in our print operations. But we also need to be ready to migrate our print messaging applications to digital form as soon as the time is right.”
Comments? Contact georgelinkletter@charter.net.