Printing and copying in the education market is not just course packs and black market versions of last semester's term papers. It's part of a substantial infrastructure of document production that weaves throughout many aspects of higher education, with much the same economic impact as it has in business. Educational documents also reach over into the private sector for corporate training at some of the largest and most successful companies on the planet. Take a look at three very different challenges in educational printing.

Enabling one person shifts at the Media Factory

Microsoft's training needs go well beyond the software manuals that come with its shrink-wrapped products. To meets Microsoft's urgent worldwide needs, Bertelsmann's west coast Media Factory produces 60,000 to 80,000 customized training kits per month, with page counts ranging from double-digits to more than 1,000 pages. The average manual totals some 600 pages, often inserted into a binder. The customization is the tricky part making production of these documents much more complicated than just sending a file to the printer.

The Microsoft application uses Courseware software developed in conjunction with Oce in Germany. This collaborative background provides an advantage when inserting a Microsoft customer's special needs in a POD environment in the U.S. For example, finishing is an important part of the training package. "It is in the details that Oce demonstrates a deep knowledge of finishing, combined with a strong service network so we have the services we need," says Axel Kruse, vice president of On Demand Services at Bertelsmann. "We always have direct access to state-of-the-art technology."

While some documents are destined for ring binders, others require saddle-stitching. Once a slow process on digitally printed documents, Bertelsmann's Media Factory demands maximum uptime. The Oce DigiStitcher, which can bind documents at the full rated speed to the Oce DemandStream 8090, integrates automated finishing with a Standard/Hunkeler unwinder, cuter and stacker. One DemandStream has a transfer station to the DigiStitcher. These configurations enable the DemandStream 8090 to provide end-to-end inline finishing all the way to final shrink-wrapped documents. According to Kruse, the equipment configuration pays dividendsin reduced manpower. "Just one operator on the night shift enables us to produce very high volume cost efficiently because we don't need as much manpower.

Driving Microsoft's documents through the DemandStream is Oce's PRISMA architecture. PRISMA gives Bertelsmann the ability to design various types of books and make quick adjustments. This make it possible to combine content to create new training manuals and on-the-fly, one-off books. Kruse says Oce has developed the kind of technology needed to meet the demands of customers like Microsoft and is a strategic partner that helps Bertelsmann offer solutions in new markets.

End-to-end solutions for a multi-campus university

When Bill Roberts added up the costs of the copiers and printers chomping away at his budgets he decided it was time for a completely new solution. The vice president of operations at National Louis University (NLU) realized the decade-old facilities management agreement the school had with a major vendor was far from efficient and was a significant drain on both people and capital. The solution he found turned out to be a multi-million dollar win for the school with a 6-month ROI.

With thirteen campuses spread around the Chicago area and in several states east of the Mississippi, NLU needed to address not only the copying and printing needs on its campuses but also day-to-day business printing needs such as bills, statements, and checks along with report cards and other student-related documents. Most of the existing equipment--primarily old analog devices and a few networked printers--was up to ten years old and still costing some $90,000 per month. In addition, Roberts wanted to be able to charge back machine usage (maintenance and costs such as toner and paper) to appropriate departments to provide a more accurate measure of document production expenses. All printers, from large network devices down to desktop laser printers came out of a single budget.

NLU was already working with Collegis to integrate Banner software, a modular, customizable suite of server-based software purpose-designed to handle the many types of documents and information educational institutions generate. Roberts knew he also needed to update his printing systems and turned to Oce and facilities management provider Archer Management Services for a solution that would work with Banner and give the nine campuses an up-to-date printing and copying system.

The first device to go online was an Oce 8465 printer onto which were loaded a series of electronic forms covering a full range of accounting, payroll, purchase orders, billing and student grading documents, many of which can work as self-mailers. Because the Oce 8465 allows users to manipulate the data it prints, NLU has enormous flexibility in how the programmed forms can be used. With the exception of MICR printing on checks,most documents use blank stock and the format is dictated by the datastream, eliminating the need to pre-print and inventory dozens of different forms. Because many forms were previously maintained, printed and mailed by an outside supplier, the new system has allowed those functions to come back in-house at NLU, saving thousands of dollars a year.

For instance, NLU was paying $119/thousand for pre-printed forms. By using specially designed blank, perforated forms that could be populated with data from the various electronic forms loaded on the Oce 8465, the forms cost dropped to just $48/thousand. This saving extended into the mailing process. Stuffing, inserting, and sealing student bills, for example, had been outsourced at a cost of $10,000/month. Using the perforated forms on the Oce 8465, pressure-sealing the pages using a sealing unit from Moore Binding and mailing the bills through NLU's mailroom virtually eliminated the monthly charge. Based on an installation of a single Oce 8465 and associated programming, and a Moore Binding System for the self-mailing forms, National Louis University had a return on its investment in just six months, not counting the savings on forms that no longer had to be pre-printed and inventoried.

Bill Roberts' need to track printing costs is another part of the solution. Over 100 network printers, an Oce CPS200 digital color printer-copier, and some 450 desktop inkjet and laser printers across the different campuses are networked using Oce Office Exec software. Although the printers come from different manufacturers, custom-programming of Office Exec provides a high degree of print system routing, control and accounting, allowing Roberts to track and assign costs at a departmental level.

The system also allows faculty and staff to tap into the NLU printing network remotely and send a job to a printer with the costs being tracked and billed to the user's account. This is enabled by a new proxy architecture Oce developed to interface with Citrix, a thin client/server infrastructure used at NLU that allows roaming end users to pull up applications on any terminal connected to the Citrix host. With Office Exec, the system tracks print jobs by user, regardless of where they are, whether they are using their own computer or someone else's, or using a printer in a remote location. Office Exec is one of the few software utilities (if not the only one), capable of capturing accounting and user data in this type of environment. Office Exec also tracks jobs in the main print facility to account for all the jobs using the special blank perforated paper stock, helping monitor costs and serving as a check on inventory levels.

The scope of the challenges at NLU shows how Oce can partner with best-in-class proprietary software providers to provide end-to-end solutions that make a bottom-line difference for customers.

Never upset a Librarian

The library people at the two bastions of learning along the Charles River in Cambridge Mass. were not happy. When Oce notified long-time customers Harvard and MIT--two of its top library copier purchasers--that it was eliminating its library copier it rapidly became apparent that this action was a particularly sensitive topic. And as one might expect from Harvard and MIT, the result was out of the ordinary and successful for all concerned.

Library copiers are a lot more than office copier with a coin slot. They have to be especially easy to operate, be robust enough to handle to abuse of students and able to copy, reduce and enlarge pages ranging from small paperbacks to giant directories, atlases and reference books--without damaging the books themselves. Upon Oce's announcement Harvard and MIT, Oce customers since 1983, were worried that other manufacturers wouldn't be able to offer machines that offered the durability, ease of use and reliability they were accustomed to.

So concerned was Jay Willwerth, head of Imaging Services at Harvard College Library, that he flew to Oce headquarters in Venlo, The Netherlands to plead the case on behalf of U.S. colleges and universities. His passion was tapped when Oce asked Willwerth and others from Harvard and MIT to collaborate with Oce R&D that resulted in the design of a new library copier, the Oce 2465LC.

Together, Harvard, MIT and Oce showed how mutual credibility and long-term relationships made the difference in providing effective solutions that proved successful for each organization.

(This report is from Noel Ward's Digital Asset Directions. The report was originally produced in March for Oce.)