UK Local Authorities benefit from Océ’s technology

11 July 2008, 9:51am

Brentwood, Essex – 11 July 2008 – Liverpool City Council has enhanced its print function capability with an award-winning Océ VarioPrint 6250. The installation will allow the council to print double-sided A3 documents three times quicker and up to 40% cheaper than its existing systems. The council is also one of the largest local authorities in the UK to print and fulfil all daily transactional and year-end billing in-house, which add up to several million items a year.

The council’s document production unit, known as the Resolution Centre, prints a number of variable-data documents vital for local government such as council tax bills and benefit letters. Tony McNulty, Document Production Manager, Resolution Centre, Liverpool City Council, said: “The efficiency and flexibility of the Océ VarioPrint 6250 has enabled us to increase the amount of work that we take on and also the type of work we can handle.

“In the first quarter of 2008 alone, we’ve printed approximately five million documents. For the first time, we are now printing all the council’s daily transactional and year end billing in house, enveloping it and making considerable savings on print and post. In fact, in the 2007/08 year-end billing, the first to be completely done in-house, we printed and fulfilled 220,000 council tax bills and 180,000 other documents. Now we have the capacity to print around 96 million documents per year, we want to offer our services to other local authorities so that they can experience the benefits that we are achieving, without the need for significant investment.

“Printing all our documents in-house gives us greater flexibility and allows us to stay in control of the whole process. Many other local authorities don’t print billing in-house because they have not invested in the skills and infrastructure needed for such jobs, something Liverpool City Council has done.

“I’m delighted we’ve been able to continue working with Océ to help us set a benchmark in the document production arena amongst UK local authorities. Its digital technology has allowed us to move to the next level by not only undertaking an efficient and cost-effective service here in Liverpool but allowing us to offer this technology to other local authorities around the UK.

He added: “We have won some new business as a result of new Océ system, a lot of which has come externally from the private sector. Within that new business, 90% of that is variable data printing such as forms, letters and bills. An added bonus has been that because we can now print it quicker, it leaves us more time to fulfil, so any daily billing work that Liverpool City Council had been outsourcing for fulfilment has been brought back in-house.”

The Océ VarioPrint 6250 works alongside an Océ VarioPrint 2090 and an Océ VarioPrint 3090 mono-printing systems, and two Océ CPS900 Platinum colour systems. These systems allowed the council to implement a single document management strategy across the council, which allowed best use of resources to increased productivity and output by 100% compared to the previous solution.

McNulty concluded: “We can print on the Océ VarioPrint 6250 three times quicker and for half the cost of the other two mono systems, although all three of our machines work alongside each other. The Océ VarioPrint 3090 covers all data printing, including transactional billing such as council tax bills, the Océ VarioPrint 2090 prints general documentation such as letters and booklets. While the two previous systems cover one or the other, the Océ VarioPrint 6250 prints both types of documentation.”

Roy Bartholomew, Océ UK’s National Sales Manager for the Public Sector said: “Liverpool City Council is one of the largest local authorities in the UK. When the Resolution Centre was created to handle all the council’s print, mail and scanning processes, we were pleased to have played a key role. I’m now delighted that Océ is now helping the Resolution Centre and Liverpool City Council to move to the next level in document production and in the process aid other local authorities around the country.”

www.oce.com

Geo: International