Documents drive education
A diverse stream of documents drives this educational process. Classroom syllabi, scientific dissertations, confidential exams and transaction documents, flyers and posters are all part of the mix. The university’s GrafiMedia Group produces the lion share of these documents and is responsible for making the process work. Their mission is to provide optimal services on a zero profit basis. Their yearly turnover is 3.5 million Euros, 2 million of which is spent on high volume black and white printing alone. 37 employees run the central printroom and 7 satellite locations spread over the campus.

New learning process
It used to be that education was based solely on paper documents. Scientific results and dissertations were published in printed journals and students learned from printed books and syllabi. The digital revolution has changed all that and is having a profound impact on university document processes. Peter Smits, Manager of the GrafiMedia Group explains: ‘The most important challenge in the coming years is that the digital learning environment is going to play an important role. Students will be able to collect their study material electronically. On the one hand that is a challenge, because we want to play a guiding role in that process. It’s also a possible threat because it means that they can determine what material they want on paper and that will put pressure on our volumes.’ Not only students, but faculty and staff also want more control over their printed documents.

Complete workflow approach
This was the situation at the University of Groningen a few years ago when they decided to invest in new printing equipment. After making a thorough inventory of their customer’s needs and expectations, they drew up a European request for tender. The most important requirement: ‘Help us make the transition to digital printing services’.
 

After a thorough evaluation of offerings on the market, the University chose Océ. The competency that Océ showed in document workflow was a key advantage. Smits notes, ‘We were all very happy that Océ scored the best in the European tender, because the offer itself convinced us that they were offering a relevant solution, rather than just selling us equipment. For myself, I really felt like they looked over my shoulder at what my customers wanted and came up with an ideal solution for the GrafiMedia Group.’

Smits describes their previous situation, ‘In the past, we had a lot of different printers at each location that all produced different quality results, even though the end users had to pay the same price for everything. Our employees were also less flexible because they were constantly being confronted with new machines.

You can do that for 2 locations, but it’s really difficult to do that for 8 different locations. Dividing work over different locations was also difficult because you could never get the same quality.’

With the help of Océ, the university’s GrafiMedia Group redesigned the university’s document management processes to provide better and more convenient services. Smits explains, ‘To achieve our goals, there are several important elements in our organisation: offering convenience, providing a variety of services and delivering materials on time, where needed. This may sound standard, but those are important improvements that we can achieve by using document workflow systems.’ The complete workflow solution that the university chose combines the unique Océ PRISMA software with superb quality printers in the main and satellite printrooms.

Consistent quality and operational flexibility
‘There are several important goals that we had in choosing the Océ VarioPrint 2110’, Smits remarks. ‘We chose ten 2110 systems, 3 in the high volume printroom and 7 in the decentral locations. That was a conscious choice. First, we can guarantee overall the same quality. So if we do a high-volume job in the central location and we get a later reprint order that is produced at the decentral locations we will always produce it
with the same quality.’

He continues, ‘Second, I have more flexibility in placement of personnel. It doesn’t matter if my personnel are working in location A, B or C. They will go in and find a machine that they are familiar with. Another reason that we chose the VarioPrint 2110 is ease of use. For instance, job programming. It is fairly easy for users to programme complex jobs with inserts, colour inserts and dividers and this is an essential part of our production process. Our final argument for choosing ten VarioPrints was load balancing. In peak periods, we are now able to shift the workload to other locations. Océ PRISMA for Printrooms will play an important role in that. And it is nice to know that we have a lot of capacity available so that we can maintain our services in peak periods.’

 

‘Productivity? My equipment keeps on running, when you’re refilling toner, refilling staples, refilling paper. And it still produces more than 6,000 prints per hour, hour after hour. That combined with an SDD HVS6000 High Capacity Stacker means that I can fill my paper trays, go away at night and come back in the morning, while my machines have been producing for hours and hours.’

Explosion of colour
High volume printing is just one aspect of the new GrafiMedia service offering. Colour is suddenly popping up everywhere on campus now that there is an Océ CS220 in every satellite location. Smits says, ‘The Océ CS220 meets our need for a low-cost solution. We’ve seen the use of colour explode, which has added tremendous value to our services. Another big advantage is that with job merging we can integrate the colour printing of the CS220 with the productivity of the VarioPrint 2110 so we can compose entire booklets. This is a very economic way for us to produce high value materials.’

‘For the high volume colour segment, we are currently trying out the Océ CPS series. That was again a choice for quality because we feel it is critical that print number one looks exactly the same as number five thousand. Consistent quality is especially important for repeat orders, because we don’t want any colour variations. The order that we deliver this week has to look the same as last week’s and even more importantly, the same as next year’s.’

High marks for Océ solution
After just a few months, the new approach is getting high marks from all the users according to Smits. ‘The Océ solution that we are implementing will result in shorter turnaround times, more efficient production processes and savings in both time and money.’

He adds, ‘In terms of quality, the VarioPrint 2110 plays a very important role. The printing quality is excellent. Compared with the machines that have come out in the last several years, the Océ VarioPrint 2110 stands head and shoulders above the other machines... With the systems we’re now using we can present ourselves as a professional grafimedia business.’

 

But the GrafiMedia Group has much bigger things in mind. And Océ PRISMA for Printrooms is the key to their future vision according to Smits.

‘PRISMA for printrooms is functional and scalable. That means that we can grow—faculty by faculty, department by department, connecting each area to our system until we eventually create a virtual printroom, maybe
even a digital campus for the entire university.’

Here is how this virtual printroom will work:

With the help of Océ, Smits is confident that they will meet their ambitious goals. ‘The choice for Océ was the choice for a total solution. One that allows us to enrich our printroom services to fully meet the needs of our customers. Especially in terms of flexibility, quality and productivity. That helps GrafiMedia improve its image and in the end should help improve the image of the University.’