Colorado In-plant Takes Over IT Printing

FOR YEARS, Colorado's Office of Information Technology (IT) handled all of the state's mainframe printing, including checks, reports and statements. At the same time, 15 miles away, the state ran a separate full-service printing operation called Integrated Document Solutions (IDS), part of the Division of Central Services, which reports to the Department of Personnel and Administration.

When he took over IDS four years ago, Mike Lincoln quickly realized that his 58-employee print and mail operation could handle IT's printing and save the state money. Yet his proposal to do this went nowhere. After all, argued IT, Lincoln's staff lacked the IT skills necessary to understand the mainframe.

Recently, though, that hurdle was overcome, and in September, IDS formally took over mainframe printing, allowing the state to redeploy the IT staff that had been doing it.

"Being able to redeploy staff right now, especially in this economy, is pretty important to the state," remarks Lincoln, northern regional manager. In addition to this cost savings, transferring IT printing to the in-plant has resulted in more efficient production and faster distribution, Lincoln adds.

"It's been hugely successful," he reports.

Though IT had been sending some of its digital printing to IDS since 2005, Lincoln had long pushed for more of IT's high-volume work, which was being printed on Xerox DP 100 MICR printers. Finally, in early 2009, IT assigned a project manager to do a feasibility study. In the end, IT was able to create "pseudo commands" for the mainframe.

"Which is plainer programming language, so my operators didn't necessarily have to have the skill set to output mainframe print," Lincoln explains. "Once they came up with that plan...the staff took to it like ducks to water."

He says this was the most seamless integration he has ever participated in, and he praises his staff for all they did to make the transition so smooth: "We're pretty proud of what we've done," he proclaims.

More Efficient Workflow

Since taking over IT printing, IDS no longer has to send a driver to IT's shop to pick up checks and reports. Because some of those items required mailing, the driver used to have to return to IDS to drop them off, then deliver the rest to agencies in Denver, 12 miles away.

"Logistically it was difficult," says Lincoln.

Now, items can be prepared for distribution as they're being printed, he notes. Instead of packaging products for transportation to IDS for mailing, they are simply placed on carts and wheeled over to the mail center.

"Getting it under one roof made a ton of sense," he declares.

Lincoln says the new work accounts for about 400,000 additional impressions a month. To handle it all, his shop added two Xerox Nuvera 120MX MICR printers. The in-plant also runs a Xerox Nuvera 288, two Xerox Nuvera 144s and a Xerox DocuColor 252. Overall, he expects IDS to produce 75 million digital impressions this year.

That number, however, may be affected by an initiative aimed at reducing unnecessary printing. Because many reports are viewed once and recycled, Lincoln wants to output them directly to PDF or TIFF files and store them in an electronic data warehouse for retrieval by agencies and taxpayers. He recognizes that this will mean less printing for his in-plant.

"But at the same time it's the right thing to do," he says. IPG