the Forest of Dean District Council case study

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Public Sector solutions
F O R E S T O F D E A N D I S T R I C T C O U N C I L
B E N E F I T S O F A D I G I TA L WO R L D
The Future
Now that Job Accounting software is being
utilised (to automatically capture cost codes and
export for recharging) on the DocuTech 6100,
another area to investigate is Corporate Print
Management Software. To make best use of the
centralised print resources The Forest of Dean
are also trialing the new DocuTech Electronic
Job Ticket which gives the end user ability to set
up their own documents for submission to print.
Scanning and indexing services will become as
important in the future as copying and printing
have been in the past. The Xerox DocuTech
6100 with Digipath and the multifunctional
Document Centres have provided the Forest of
Dean District Council with centralised and
decentralised scanning capability, as well as the
possibility to add web services when the time is
right. As Arthur James explains: "Scanning is not
an area we have fully explored yet but the
benefits, especially the saving on time, should be
significant. We have a basement full of archive
documents and we are looking at transferring
them onto disk for storage and easy retrieval."
Another important area for the Council is the
provision of a networked production colour
service. More of their customers are demanding
highlight and full colour in their documents to
improve awareness and increase response
rates.
Arthur James has visited Xerox to see how the
Council can acquire the latest generation of
Xerox DocuColour full colour digital printers. The
colour control and ability to provide colour
variable data documents as well as imposition
tools will be very useful in adding value to the
Council's documents. Implementation of the
digital colour solution should be in place by the
end of March 2001.
Xerox UK Ltd
Bridge House, Oxford Road,
Uxbridge, Middlesex,
UB8 1HS
0800 787 787
w w w. x e r ox . c o . u k
K E E P T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N G O I N G .
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Some calls may be monitored for training purposes. 03/01 708P86099GBE
R E A P S
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Overview
The Solution
The Forest of Dean, located in an area to the west of Gloucester
The report recommended the convergence of IT and Production Printing thereby
reducing the number of production printers to one. Previously, the Office Services
department, using a Xerox 5100, was only capable of printing one off requirements or
high volume documents such as local plans or health and safety manuals. The IT
department handled the printing of regular variable data documents - such as council
tax bills - which required merged data and printing on-line. However, this was very slow
and cumbersome. The way forward, therefore, was a Xerox DocuTech 6100 which
could handle merged data as well as high volume printing with finishing capabilities.
extends to some 203 square miles of predominantly rural land.
The Labour controlled District Council, based in Coleford, serves
a population of nearly 78,00 people and is a major employer in the
District with over 500 employees. The Council provides the area
with a range of essential services including housing,
environmental, planning and leisure services.
XDS looked closely at the Council's current Forms Design package, operated by the IT Department,
and recommended an upgrade, as well as improving the current forms. Paris Forms Design
Software is now used predominantly for creating high volume, variable print documents such as
Revenues and Benefits. The template is designed and the variable data can then be pulled in,
viewed and proofed before being spooled to the Xerox 6100 for printing. Certain documents, such
as consultation questionnaires, can be bar-coded so that, on return, they can be scanned for data
capture within their forms management software.
The review of the Council's desktop and laser printers found them to be slow, outdated and
expensive to run. Recommendations were made to change the Council's whole working office
environment to bring about greater efficiencies and cost savings. Xerox installed Document Centres
and multifunctional devices capable of copying, faxing printing and scanning. Most of these are
networked and are being used as a shared resource in workgroup environments.
The Benefits
The Need
Having used Xerox' solutions for many years, both Arthur James, Office Services
Manager and Keith White IT Manager from the Council were always very
interested in hearing about new developments from Xerox. In October 1997, they
both attended a seminar hosted by Xerox in partnership with Swindon Borough
Council. The Seminar was designed to demonstrate Xerox working in partnership
with Local Government to deliver Digital Solutions.
Arthur James and Keith White were very impressed with the way Swindon
Borough Council had established a clear strategy for improving services,
efficiency and reducing costs. They decided to recommend that a Document
Output Strategy be commissioned from Xerox Document Services (XDS). The
purpose of the study was to undertake a review of all the document output
facilities and to identify improvements to take the Council into the next
millennium. It was important, therefore, that solutions were digital, scaleable and
upgradeable to include scanning and web services.
The study was carried out across the whole of the Council and reviewed all the
laser and desk top printers, high volume outputs and generally how documents
were produced.
The introduction of the Xerox DocuTech 6100 to Office
Services has brought considerable benefits to the Council in
terms of time saved to process documents. As Arthur James
explains, "In the past it would take around 7 days to print out
all the council tax forms, but we can now do this job in 2 days."
"We have doubled our monthly print volume by adding IT
printing. However, we get the work done in far less time
without having to add additional staff."
Pat Byett, Reprographics Supervisor (responsible for copying,
centralised production printing and finishing) is also very
pleased with the move from analogue to digital technology.
"The transition has made a real difference to the way we work.
Now we can scan the job in and set-up all the chapter starts,
page numbers, mixed stocks etc. We can merge hard copy
and digital files to create a complete digital document such as
agendas. After printing, we can store them in the Document
Library and print them on-demand for our customers in the
future. This is an important service to offer as it cuts down on
wastage and supports the issues of limited hard copy storage
within the Authority."
The 'concurrency' of the DocuTech 6100 has been the most
useful to the Council's reprographics function. Previously,
when a long job was running on their high volume copier no
other jobs could be set up for printing. Now, whilst one job is
running they can be scanning and setting-up other jobs to
send to the print queue. At the same time, they can receive
jobs over the network, manage the print queues and finish online with stapling, collating, binding and signature booklet
making.
Janet Hudson, Senior Computer Operator at the Council, who
is responsible for forms design, is already seeing the benefits
of the new Paris software: "I can now concentrate on core IT
activities whilst the experts in Production printing, finishing
and distribution can do what they do best. It means the time I
used to spend managing print can now be better utilised
supporting the implementation of new technology across the
Authority, alleviating the need to recruit additional staff."
The introduction of networked, multifunctional devices in
some of the Council's offices has brought significant benefits,
despite initial reservations. "We did have some initial
resistance to taking away individual desk top printers," says
Arthur James, "but it's just a matter of people getting used to
a different way of working. Now that people are using the
Xerox equipment, they can see that its speed and flexibility
far outweighs desktop printers," adds Arthur James.
"The office environment has become far more efficient and
effective. Shared devices are not only faster, but you can use
both sides of the paper and incorporate a whole range of
throughput materials into documents," says Arthur James.
"The Xerox Centreware Software is intuitive and tells people
when their job has been printed. If necessary, they can even
view the queue status of the printer and choose to send to
another printer. Alternatively, they can promote their job in the
queue if it is urgent."
The ability to fax from your own desk has been a further
benefit to the Council's staff. They no longer have to spend
time queuing at a central fax machine and the Council has
seen a reduction in paper usage as a result of the new fax
facilities.