Optecon npower case study

Document printing services for major utilities is a complex and time-pressured business. When npower wanted Optecon to print an extra 90,000 daily items, the company had to switch work from another print supplier. But with assistance from Docuplus, the six-month project was completed successfully.

As the document solutions division of OTM, the Leicester-based digital print and transactional mail specialist,Optecon offers secure print and mailing services for utilities, financial services,government, professional services and health authorities. It prints, personalises, encloses and despatches up to 2.5 million items per week.

Optecon customers include Avis plc, npower, Paysmaster, IBM and B&Q. Neil Cook,OTM's IT Director,says that the new half a million pound contract with npower resulted from the utility's review of printing arrangements for its Yorkshire Electricity and Northern Electricity divisions. Optecon already handled a larger contract for npower. "npower had previously spread their outsourcing between Optecon and another provider and due to the excellent service provided by Optecon, they now wanted to bring all work to a single supplier" said Cook.

Optecon’s investment in technology is impressive. Using IBM AIX systems,the business accepts data in virtually any format, manipulates it, carries out complex processing and then outputs formatted print streams to high-speed IBM and Xerox printers. The front-end software is bespoke with commercial packages for data manipulation and formatting.

Although npower requested a simple migration, the technology differences between the print suppliers meant substantial work. Early analysis for the change - involving 70,000 bills and 20,000 other documents daily - revealed non conformities between existing systems and the document archiving system,and some processing problems with PDF files. However, an immovable deadline had to be met.

"They had over 100 document types which needed to be migrated. I realised that to do the project effectively, we needed between two and three days per week of project management time. Ithought the best thing to do was to utilise additional skills from an outside supplier" said Cook.

Optecon spoke to Docuplus which Cook describes as experienced specialist providers in the transactional document marketplace. Appreciating the project's importance to the business and recognising its diverse technical challenges, the supplier proposed a project manager with a technical background and previous experience of managing similar projects.

"I had confidence in the project manager's ability to work with Optecon. There was no doubt in my mind that Docuplus was the right choice," said Cook. The project manager completed the relevant analysis, helped design the solution, wrote the project plan, and then assisted management of Optecon’s in-house technical resources. As the project gathered pace, a specialist Docuplus consultant worked full-time alongside Optecon staff. During this critical period, Docuplus was able to increase project resources - often at short notice. This supplier also offered software solutions to resolve specific technical problems and supplied the necessary expertise for associated implementation.

Docuplus also offered bespoke development for enhancements to existing Optecon solutions. One Optecon solution utilises a document composition tool which creates documents from raw data while PPFA internal scripting routines and ACIF handle the legacy line-mode data. Docuplus suggested adding Compart’s DocBridge Mill print stream transformation software to post-process
the composed AFPDS and PDF print streams being received.

The testing phase was understandably thorough with Docuplus and Optecon working closely together to check each migrated print stream. Docuplus' wide industry knowledge and depth of experience provided an early warning for any obstacles and allowed potential solutions to be swiftly evaluated. Cook says that the Docuplus project manager assisted the project focus and enabled the
work to proceed very smoothly. When the project manager went on holiday, a well-briefed substitute ensured full continuity.
By March 2006, in line with the deadline,an impressive 95 percent of the migrated print streams worked flawlessly the first time (representing approximately 99% of the volume), with the remaining minor production glitches being swiftly resolved.

A continuously used communications link with npower now receives over 100 different print streams daily. The formats include composed AFPDS, PDF, line mode data, ASCII, and EBCDIC. According to Cook, the success of the project is due to Docuplus' professional approach in liaison with Optecon and npower. This has included tactful handling of npower change requests, minimising any risks to delivery deadline. Docuplus was also seen as working for both npower and Optecon, a unique position that quickly built up trust. The project manager was viewed as experienced, focussed and dedicated.

"Docuplus added experience from a wealth of other projects and an understanding of the industry. They also gave Optecon an perspective which enabled Optecon to re-evaluate effectiveness" said Cook. "I had a very positive experience throughout the project thanks to the combination of Optecon and Docuplus' expertise, people and solutions."

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