47 Million Impressions (and Growing)
THE LEANDER (Texas) Independent School District has been growing continually for more than a decade, going from six campuses in the mid-1990s to 30 campuses for the current school year—and there’s still more to come.
“We’re opening two elementary schools and a high school this summer,” says Jennifer Espinoza, the district’s manager of document production services. Volume has grown from 35 to 47 million impressions over the past three years.
What’s even more amazing than the volume is the number of orders.
“We don’t have lots of long jobs or packets that are constantly printing,” says Espinoza. “We take any order of 20 or more impressions, and in 2007 we completed over 120,000 orders.”
The jobs all relate to schoolwork in some manner—standardized tests, forms, flash cards, curriculums—and July to September prove to be the busiest months as everyone gears up for classes.
Espinoza has a staff of six full-time employees, who work in three shifts, and five on-call workers who fill in during peak season and employee leave.
To keep the printing process speedy, customers are limited to a choice of white or five other colors in either standard paper or card stock.
“Gluing, cutting and folding are done offline, which is one way we can keep up with volume,” says Espinoza.
A WebCRD online job submission system from Rochester Software Associates was put in place three years ago.
“Teachers can now submit work from home if they change their curriculum,” says Espinoza. “We store some orders, such as booklets that every first grade teacher uses, and customers can reorder documents from previous years because the files are on our servers. We charge everyone the true costs of completing an order.”
On top of everything else, Espinoza and crew manage 200 multi-function units at the various campuses, visiting staff and teaching them how to convert hard copy to digital files.
“In addition to making it easier to get jobs to us via Web submission, they can place the files online so that students and parents can access them directly,” she says. “I’ve been really trying to teach them to use less print, and once you get a few converts, they start talking with everyone else. One campus wants to have zero hard copy orders next year, and I’m hoping to make it happen.”
—By W. Eric Martin
