The State of Oregon’s in-plant has saved millions for its customers, while enhancing document security.

By Erik Cagle

Outside Procurement

When a job calls for offset printing, that's when DAS Publishing & Distribution turns to its electronic bulletin board for competitive bidding. Based on an old (but popular) e-mail system called First Class Mail, two contract buyers post the jobs for vendors to bid on. The system then sorts the responses and ferrets out the lowest bid. While the system is somewhat dated, Hendrix says it is extremely popular with printers, who went as far as to testify before legislators when it was in danger of becoming cut.