Like all state agencies, the Michigan DTMB’s centralized print and mail operation had multiple, urgent needs. It must optimize efficiency and productivity while maintaining the flexibility to handle a large variety of application types.
To satisfy its complex set of challenges, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB) uses Output Management software and a file-based processing environment from BlueCrest to optimize print and mail processes
To satisfy its complex set of challenges, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget (DTMB) use Output Management software and a file-based processing environment from BlueCrest to optimize print and mail processes. File-based workflows link barcodes printed on every element of a mailing to an information-rich data file that controls production processes, mail piece tracking, and postal optimization.
The BlueCrest solution helps the DTMB:
Like all state agencies, the Michigan DTMB’s centralized print and mail operation has multiple, urgent needs. It must optimize efficiency and productivity while maintaining the flexibility to handle a large variety of application types. It must eliminate errors and offer the highest levels of data security and mail integrity. And, as a dedicated provider of services to over twenty internal customers—each with unique communications and compliance demands—it must ensure that the right communication reaches the right person on time and be able to prove compliance.
Simplifying and automating print and mail processes, therefore, represented an important goal. It needed to:
The department turned to BlueCrest for a solution based on file-based workflows. Michigan DTMB has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with BlueCrest (and its predecessor company, Pitney Bowe Document Messaging Technologies), with seven high-speed BlueCrest insertion systems on its premises.
Over that time, BlueCrest has become intimately familiar with the center’s evolving needs, environment, and challenges. Working together, BlueCrest and the DTMB designed and implemented a comprehensive solution encompassing software, professional services, and insertion solutions.
The new environment is off to a successful start. The BlueCrest software is “robust, available, and reliable,” said Tom Goodine, Michigan DTMB’s Manager, Mailing Services. It’s already helped the department slash the number of job setups, automate error-prone, formerly manual processes like “touch-and-toss,” delivered new insights on operator efficiency and inventory control, and simplify charge-back and accounting activities.
Early benefits have been significant. They include improvements in:
Crucially, the system is winning converts among Michigan DTMB’s internal customer base, Goodine noted. “We’re proving the concept and convincing agencies to migrate to it,” he said. “Many of them have traditionally had ownership over their look-and-feel and their processes. Now, with BlueCrest, the success story will just build on itself and give our customers the confidence they need to make the change and ease their transition.”