“Digital production used to be viable just for our updates and short-run supplements. But with the fast, profitable web-fed digital press from Océ, we can now
print the entire standard work digitally for our publisher clients at a good price for them.”
Alois Palmer, founder ICS

Consistent modernisation
ICS is a medium-sized company with around 60 employees on its payroll. Over the last few years, founder Alois Palmer has gradually transformed ICS from a traditional offset print shop into a modern media service provider, innovating and investing smartly to move the company forward into its new role. A case in point: ICS was one of the first companies in Germany to install a computer-to-plate system. The one, two and five-colour offset presses were long since joined by two digital presses: a one-colour sheet-fed duplex machine and a four-colour web-fed duplex.

First twin at ICS
ICS was the first company in the world to have the opportunity of testing a twin system of the new Océ VarioStream 7000 family. Mid 2002, Alois Palmer decided to phase out the sheet-fed press that ICS used for producing loose-leaf sets. “We were looking for a fast, reliable web-fed press that we could use to print the standard sets as well as the updates and supplements,” says Alois Palmer. For Océ, ICS was the ideal partner for the pilot phase, because the print shop’s high volume meant the Océ VarioStream Twin could be tested in true-to-life conditions. The twin configuration can handle up to 360 A4 pages per minute (2-up) or, as at ICS, 760 A5 pages per minute in 3-up format at a resolution of 600 dpi.

Web-fed printing with perfect data handling
A major challenge was the huge volume of data managed by ICS: over 50 loose-leaf sets on legislation and accounting, some up to 24,000 pages long. Klaus Volmer, an ICS director and project manager, says, “Océ gave us a guarantee they would develop a solution to print our structured data without hitches. Other providers did not offer us this service.” The data is handled by the Océ software DPconnect, which links the Océ PRISMA+PoD server directly with Xerox DigiPath and automatically converts the data. Océ DPconnect also provides a whole suite of essentials for web-fed digital printing, like 3-up printing, which ICS uses for A5-format applications.

Passed with flying colours
Right after installation at ICS, the Océ VarioStream Twin faced a baptism of fire. ICS had to print and finish 7.5 million A5 sheets on 50 g/m² lightweight paper for a publisher—in a two-week timeframe. “We had absolutely no time in reserve for this order”, says project manager Klaus Volmer. “Basically, we had to get it right first time, with no test run: the transfer of our structured data, printing and finishing. Without the fast response from Océ, we would have lost the order, perhaps even our customer.

Ideally placed for the future
The pilot phase was a resounding success for both ICS and Océ. The system passed all its tests with ICS and many other customers, and has now been released. The Océ VarioStream 7000 systems will succeed the acclaimed Océ Pagestream and Océ Demandstream families. Like their predecessors, the new systems are versatile high performance printers,
engineered for the growing market of database-driven print-on-demand applications. And this is a market ICS is ideally equipped to serve—not least because the Océ VarioStream 7200 Twin can easily be upgraded to a 1,200-page system. As Alois Palmer says, “Digital production used to be viable just for our updates and short-run supplements. But with the fast, profitable web-fed digital press from Océ, we can now print the entire standard work digitally for our publisher clients at a good price for them.” ICS is confident they made the right decision in taking the business workflow digital. At a time when other commercial printers are laying off staff, ICS has taken on 12 new people—remarkable proof of the company’s continuing success.