Accommodate Exponential Growth
Over the past three years, Total Billings has seen its customer base grow from 40 to more than 140 customers. This growth rate of nearly 300 percent, coupled with burgeoning workloads and the limitations of proprietary technology, led Total Billings to investigate faster and more powerful continuous forms, digital printing and workflow management solutions.

According to Total Billings CEO, Greg Stadermann, ‘Our existing cutsheet printers couldn’t support the growing print volumes or provide the economies of scale we needed. We decided to look at production class, continuous forms digital systems that could handle two-up printing, highlight colour, and provide the increased flexibility and productivity enhancements we needed.’

Vice President of Operations, Phil Dorroll recalls, ‘We also needed to improve quality, and lower costs. With our previous systems, we had significant productivity challenges caused by bottlenecks at the print phase of the production cycle that forced us to deal with inconsistent workflow dynamics.’

The company turned to Océ for an open digital solution that could seamlessly interface with its remaining cutsheet systems to overcome these challenges.

The Océ VarioStream 7300 Triplex Solution
In June 2003, Total Billings installed one of the nation’s first Océ VarioStream® 7300 Triplex systems in its Charlotte facility. Stadermann states, ‘We have always prided ourselves on pioneering new technology, which is why we invested in the Océ VarioStream 7300 Triplex.’ Part of the Océ VarioStream line of versatile and modular, production-class, digital, continuous feed printers, the Océ VarioStream 7300 system combines three print engines, which can be run independently as single units or together as duplex or colour devices. This flexibility enables versatile support for a wide range of application types, including simplex and duplex documents with highlight colour on one side. It has also enabled Total Billings to reduce costs and build productivity by improving reliability and eliminating manual steps and bottlenecks from the production process.

More Balanced Workflow…
The Océ VarioStream 7300 system was installed with Océ PRISMAproduction® LCDS workflow software to streamline workflow and convert Xerox and PostScrip data streams to IPDS for fast, efficient printing—without requiring timeconsuming application rewrites. And, with the Océ PRISMAproduction workflow software, Total Billings can better balance its workloads. Dorroll comments, ‘With the Océ workflow solution, we can queue jobs into an Océ PRISMA® server. In fact, we can queue eight to ten jobs without ever having to stop the printer, whereas with the older technology we had to stop and manually start every print job.’

Total Billings Print Operation Today
Today Total Billings is migrating the bulk of its applications to the Océ VarioStream 7300 production class digital printing solution. The company will retain some of its cutsheet systems to support smaller jobs and applications requiring special papers or card stock. According to Dorroll, ‘We deal with a number of smaller daily jobs with run lengths of between 7,000 and 20,000 images. With the Océ VarioStream 7300 Triplex digital printing solution, we can take on any type of job while improving our output and productivity.’

Business Benefits
Total Billings has realised a number of significant business benefits by implementing an Océ production class solution comprising the Océ VarioStream Triplex and Océ PRISMA software. According to Dorroll, ‘The Océ solution eliminates the bottlenecks that previously disrupted production. With Océ technology, our workflow is much smoother and quality has significantly improved.’

Total Billings has reduced labour and overtime costs dramatically, anticipates doubling productivity, and can scale to growth projections without having to increase staff. And, because of the Océ VarioStream Triplex system’s colour capability, pre-printed inventories have been minimised. All in all, the rapidly growing Total Billings print operation is strategically positioned to meet client needs today and tomorrow—with much greater workflow efficiency.