Houston's New Centralized Print and Copy Services to Save a Projected $250,000 per Year

The City of Houston today awarded a multi-year contract for document process management services to Oce Business Services. Oce Business Services will design and manage an on-premise centralized imaging solution center, for Houston City Hall. The center will provide complete print, copy and scanning services for the city's black and white, color and large-format requirements.

The contract award was the result of the city's analysis of cost-effective alternatives to upgrade its document management program and is the first time the city has outsourced these document processes. The city expects that the new center will deliver $250,000 annually in cost savings and greatly improve efficiency among its 16 departments and 20,000 employees, which are spread across Houston.

"As the fourth largest city in the United States, we pride ourselves on adopting innovative technology to better serve residents," said Gary Gray, Assistant Director of Finance for the city of Houston. "Our goal was to upgrade our document management program to a first-class operation that saved us time and money. Hands down, Oce Business Services was able to give us a more cost-effective, compelling roadmap for faster, higher quality print and copy services that will ultimately help us better serve taxpayers."

The centralized services will include:

• Convenient, Web-based job submission by city employees from geographically dispersed locations through Oce Doc Works Pro output management software
• A color production system that combines color copy press and direct imaging technology to deliver high-impact color, sharp registration and consistent color quality throughout the entire run with no user calibration required. From the Oce CPS series, the system also provides the flexibility to print on most types of media at 30 images per minute
• Powerful multifunction capacity for high-volume, high-quality printing, scanning and copying
• Professional staffing from Oce Business Services to manage the center and provide document and courier services.

Previously, a city-owned copy center and off-site printing operation fulfilled the city's document management needs.

"Oce Business Services suggested an operation-wide network solution, which allows all 16 of our departments to submit jobs from their desktops -- even though they are spread out across the city and even beyond city limits," said Gray. "It is estimated that we will increase production the first year by 10 percent using this solution. Combined with their expedient courier service and staffing, city employees will see a remarkable turnaround in print and copy requests which will benefit residents across the board."