Washington Department of Printing Collects IPMA Management Award

At last month’s In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association conference in Charleston, Washington State Printer Jean-Luc Devis took to the stage under heavy applause to accept IPMA’s prestigious Management Award on behalf of the State of Washington’s Department of Printing (PRT). The award was especially satisfying for the 97-employee in-plant given the pressure it has been facing from politicians calling for its closure.

“I am extremely proud of our team approach of delivering greater value to Washington State government, while successfully navigating the worst recession in 80 years,” says Devis. “Our team stepped up to the challenges by focusing on the core competencies of our business and capitalizing on new technologies to deliver more value to our customers.”

The Management Award recognizes an outstanding corporate publishing and distribution operation that excels in efficient management practices to further the objectives of its parent organization. To earn the award, PRT showed it has dramatically reduced handling time, errors and cycle times by improving workflows with new technologies. It implemented processes such as 24-hour invoicing, the EFI Monarch print management system and a scheduling module that enables quick, accurate decisions for scheduling overtime and profit/loss.

In 2010 the in-plant launched myPRINT, an online ordering system that enables customers to monitor and control spending, place orders from their desktops, proof jobs online, store frequently used files online, price basic jobs, and more.

The group worked with customers to redesign print and mail projects to be produced and mailed more cost-effectively. The in-plant also worked with customers to reduce the number of envelopes from 400 to nine standard envelopes, bringing significant savings to the state. Two departments have already saved a combined $200,000 annually.

Contracts were developed to bundle printing, copying, scanning and faxing as a single coordinated service. This is already saving one department $360,000 per year, and the state could save as much as $6 million annually by implementing managed print services throughout all of its agencies.

“We are very proud that we were able to reduce expenses in tandem with declining revenues,” Devis notes, “and that we continue to enjoy high customer satisfaction ratings, while delivering tremendous value to our customers.”