DLSI has been voted “Top International Cost Consultant”, for ten successive years, in World Architecture’s annual poll of the world’s leading architects and their clients—for providing “best overall quality of service”. And in its domestic market, DLE has been voted “Surveying Practice of the Year” five times and has been runner up for four occasions in Building magazine’s annual industry awards.

The basis for effective change
It was DLE’s decision to relocate to a new purpose built headquarters that provided the impetus to undertake a complete review of all their existing document related processes. The underlying objectives and goals were the implementation of a uniform company strategy for the provision of copying, printing and document management services for its staff. It was envisaged that any new strategy should deliver efficient use of resources, both in human and equipment terms, whilst also providing cost effective and consistently high quality production of the printed page.

The review and a project for change
The project began by first undertaking a complete review of the existing provisions for copying facilities of their UK staff and the perceived issues. This quickly led DLE to expand the review to incorporate all document related processes including document printing. The previous policy at DLE
regarding the provision of document services centred around each office determining its own requirements and providing what were deemed to be the appropriate facilities. This had resulted in a proliferation of many different types of copying and printing devices being utilised across the UK from multiple suppliers. The overall effect meant that each location’s facilities differed in their ability to deliver consistent quality, cost effective production, and a uniform standard of service.

The move to a centralised uniform strategy
The review of document services led DLE to conclude that a number of benefits could be achieved by moving to a centrally managed strategy in which one supplier would be chosen to deliver a phased document management strategy to the group as a whole. DLE already had a profile detailing what would be required of their chosen supplier when they went to tender in 2002. Seven manufacturers were asked to provide presentations to DLE outlining their vision of what could be achieved by implementing an integrated national strategy.

The overriding requirements identified by DLE were value for money, consistently high quality and reliability of equipment and service backup. The challenge was to provide DLE with the benefits that digital technology can offer, while delivering the appropriate levels of support throughout the company to enable significant changes in culture and working methods to be implemented.

According to Michael Cooper, Head of Facilities Group Services at DLE, “the majority of manufacturers focused on individual products and failed to present an enterprise-wide vision of how we could restructure our existing document services”. “Oce’s focus was different, in that they were more interested in the underlying processes for producing documents, eliminating bottlenecks and unnecessary costs through delivery of an integrated plan.”

Delivery of their vision of the whole project required full support from everyone affected by the changes. This was clearly demonstrated with the endorsement of the project’s goals from Senior Managers and support from end users. It was seen as a major change in both culture and working practices where the benefits would need to be clearly demonstrated to all members of staff. “ This is where the professional trainers from Oce’s Education Services Team played a major part in supporting and delivering our plans”, states Michael. “ We were looking to implement a phased approach supported by thorough training at every stage.”

Professional consultancy delivers real cost benefits
Being in the Consultancy Services market sector, DLE understood the benefits that professional services could deliver and decided to appoint the Océ Business Services Group to undertake an in depth study of their current document processes and the costs associated with printing. The Océ team conducted in depth interviews with all the relevant teams through user representatives to discover what issues needed to be addressed. Key to the whole programme was the active involvement of DLE’s IT Team. The Océ CAT (client audit tool) was installed for a one month period to measure the level of desk top printing and its associated costs to enable an effective strategy, based on the facts, to be formulated. “ The survey conducted by Océ showed that we could achieve savings in excess of £ 120,000 per year, while at the same time improving our overall quality and efficiency,” says Michael.

The Océ office solution
At the core of the Océ solution was the delivery of digital multifunctional devices to allow both monochrome and colour copying and printing of documents through a single integrated platform. As part of the move, DLE specifically designed their new offices to maximise the efficiency benefits their new strategy could deliver. Therefore, the new offices were open plan and based over a single floor for all 400 staff. Five colour coded OSC’s (Office Service Centres) were established throughout the floor to become the focal points for document activities including copying, printing and faxing. Each OSC is equipped with Océ 31x5 copier / printers (now called the VP 2000 series) with digital mailbox facilities to allow staff to retrieve printed documents from their own personal mailbox.

“When we moved to our new office, we were able to eliminate most desktop printers straight away as part of our strategy for moving forward,” states Michael. “ When the staff arrived on the first day, we had standardised on the Océ print driver”. All of the new devices are supported by Océ Intra Logic software, which has dramatically improved users’ ability to control the whole process for managing their documents sent electronically to OSC’s. An Océ CPS700 colour production system was also installed in one OSC to provide for colour output at greatly reduced costs compared to their previous colour printers.

 

The Production Solution
Previously, the production facilities within DLE had been based on an analogue monochrome service, which was supported by manual workflows, with some services being outsourced. To improve the overall productivity, quality, and service levels, DLE chose to follow Oce’s recommendation and implement a new digital print room, which would be connected to their key users electronically by Océ DocWorks software. The software allows users to make a managed change to digital job submission through a PDF based workflow ensuring that what they see on their screens is what will be produced by their Print Room Team. Users simply choose to send jobs to the Print Room from within the Océ print driver, completing an electronic job ticket, which sends the job, together with finishing requirements, over the network to the Print Room. This can then be managed by the Print Room Team to meet their service targets in the most effective way. Océ DocWorks connects to an Océ VarioPrint 2105, Océ VarioPrint 2090 and another Océ CPS700 with enhanced software to support additional colour production work.

The Benefits
DLE’s strategy has enabled the introduction of new digital document production facilities that are easy to use and support an enabling environment for all of their staff. As a result, the IT Team has been able to focus on supporting a greatly reduced population of printing devices which has freed time for them to concentrate resources on key service and development projects. Océ Intra Logic software has extended their support capabilities by providing a single platform to view, manage and administer all of the devices now in use, including non-Océ devices. “This has been a massive change in the way people work, but the support provided by Océ and the way in which the DLE and Océ Teams worked together was central to the project’s successful implementation.”