Ohio Office of State Printing Doubles in Size

On July 1 the Ohio Office of State Printing doubled in size to 89 staff positions after the state’s mainframe printing operation was moved from the IT department to State Printing and Mail Services. The mainframe operation, with an annual production volume of over 88 million impressions, will now report to State Printer Joe Tucker.

As of the first of this month, Tucker has also taken over the operations of a large fulfillment operation run by the Department of Job and Family Services. This 28-employee operation has seven large inserting machines and does an average of 44 million pieces of mail annually.

“Gaining the fulfillment operations will enable us to offer large fulfillment capabilities to other agencies,” says Tucker. “We currently have several other large agencies operating separate fulfillment operations providing exclusive support to their parent agency. This first step in centralizing fulfillment for the state will move us to a more efficient use of equipment and staff.”

Tucker says he has the administration’s support in his push for centralized printing and fulfillment services.

“Over the coming year we now have the support to begin closing agency-operated copy centers and moving the state’s production to our centralized facilities,” says Tucker. “We anticipate savings for the state to be several million dollars annually in equipment cost alone.”

Tucker’s commercial print procurement section recently rolled out a new electronic bid submission process, a project that’s been in the works for nearly two years

“Rather than our vendors submitting a paper bid document in a sealed envelope, contractors can now submit their bids online,” he says. “The bids go into a electronic ‘lock box’ until the opening date and time. The Auditor’s Office, as required by our state statutes, opens the bids and certifies them electronically. My staff can then access the bid information and complete the evaluation and award process.

“Once the Auditor’s office electronically opens the bids, the bids are available to the public online for review,” he continues. “This process makes it easier for the vendors to participate in our bid opportunities,” which means more participation and lower prices for the state, not to mention a faster procurement process with less paper waste.

The Office of State Printing oversaw the procurement of 2,672 printing projects through term contracts and competitive bids during fiscal year 2006, totaling more than $29 million.