Palo Alto, Calif. – HP today announced that O'Neil Data Systems completed a highly successful and intensive production run of approximately 3.2 million personalized insurance welcome kit booklets using HP's high-volume digital print production solution, the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press.

After the Los Angeles-based company exited a beta-testing period for the breakthrough digital press last year, it began planning for the large volumes of personalized printing its clients in the health insurance industry require during their open-enrollment season. Convinced of the press's profit potential, as well as its ability to deliver in the most challenging production scenarios, O'Neil Data Systems purchased the press last month.

Staying ahead of surging demand during open enrollment, O'Neil Data Systems kept the 2,600 pages-per-minute inkjet press in operation six days a week, 24 hours a day, from October 2009 through early January 2010. During that time period, single--day print volumes reached as high as 1.8 million 4/0 pages, with the total volume exceeding 80 million pages.

"Selecting the HP T300 press to complete this groundbreaking production run reinforces the confidence O'Neil Data Systems has in the press's ability to deliver in very demanding scenarios," said Aurelio Maruggi, vice president and general manager, Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions, HP. "This is just one example of how our HP T300 customers are confidently relying on this product to improve productivity while delivering higher-quality print collateral that helps grow their business."

Better economics, with higher quality
The press has a 1,200 x 600 addressable dots-per-inch resolution and uses a unique bonding agent consumable that allows customers to print on most standard uncoated media. For O'Neil Data Systems, the press offers higher print quality as well as higher throughput rates compared to the monochrome electrophotographic presses the firm used in past open enrollment periods. O'Neil Data Systems improved the quality of its welcome kit booklets with the T300, while also switching the job to a lighter, 40-lb. uncoated paper, saving insurance customers approximately 20 percent in postage costs.

O'Neil Data Systems executives reported remarkable uptime of 80 percent for the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, compared to an average of 60 to 70 percent for its other digital web presses.

"The HP T300's significant uptime and throughput advantages is a game changer in terms of the advantages we can offer our customers," said Jim Lucanish, president, O'Neil Data Systems. "The press has been so reliable and productive, we even put off a planned field upgrade from HP for three months to keep running the high volumes that this press is capable of delivering."  

Making the most of full color and variable data
Taking advantage of the HP T300's color capabilities, O'Neil Data Systems added process-color covers to the welcome kit booklets. The company is now introducing new, more colorful welcome kit page designs and samples to help its customers envision further improvements for the 2010 open enrollment season.

Each of the approximately 3.2 million welcome kit booklets O'Neil Data Systems produced on the press is fully personalized, with each booklet varying in length from 24 to 280 pages based on each insurance company customer's specific coverage plan. O'Neil Data Systems also has installed HP Exstream software to manage its variable-data document creation operations.

With HP Exstream software, O'Neil Data Systems can integrate Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) format data streams in its HP digital printing workflows. Future scheduled HP Exstream software implementations will improve the level of communication and collaboration O'Neil Data Systems has with insurance companies, including integrated client customization and editing capabilities using HP Exstream's browser-based Remote Collaboration features.

In addition to the welcome kit booklets, O'Neil Data Systems uses its HP T300 to produce explanation-of-benefit forms and other health care documents for its customers. The HP press also prints "The O'Neil Database, Volumes I and II," a weekly financial reference publication.

O'Neil Data Systems at the Dscoop5 Conference
Mark Rosson, vice president of O'Neil Data Systems, will describe his company's experiences with HP technologies during a presentation on Feb. 19 at the Digital Solutions Cooperative HP users' group Dscoop5 Conference in Dallas. Dscoop5 also will feature presentations and workshops from other HP graphic arts customers and industry-leading consultants.