It's simple. It's direct. And the answer seems obvious, but apparently not to everyone.

Why pay more to have your staff hover over a copier when you could be using their talents elsewhere?

Division Manager Kathy Jackson

That's the question Division Manager Kathy Jackson poses to potential customers at CenterPoint Energy in Shreveport, Louisiana, who sometimes unknowingly make the mistake of running large print jobs on the company's walk-up copiers. "We can print larger jobs in the copy center at a lower cost," she explains. "We ask departments to only purchase black and white MFPs and send the color work to the copy center. This can create an enormous savings to the customer."

Jeff Pullen, Burney Lummus, Darlene Plater

The 7-person team, comprised of 4 employees in Copy Center/Forms Management and 3 Mail Center employees all report to Jackson, the Division Manager, who oversees the Copy Center, Forms Management, Mail Center, Records Management Center,

Cathy Davis

Facilities Management and Security. The blending of experience makes a perfect team. Since they are all under the same manager, Mail Center employees can work in the Copy Center and vice versa. The cross-training is invaluable during peak production periods and allows employees to grow their skills. "Our ability to work as a team, delegating among peer to peer team members is probably our greatest asset."

"We know our clients so well...we can point out issues before the project goes to print."

As a one-stop print/mail shop, they are prepared to take on any and all challenges. "Give it to us and we will return a finished product quickly. We know our clients so well that we are able to point out issues before the project goes to print and notify the client before it is ever printed."

Jackson says customer needs are evolving rapidly.  Some of their most popular print products include color-bound books, black/white engineering drawings, manuals, presentations and posters. The shop, which offers wide format printing, wide format

color scanning, routine scanning and archival services, has recently received several jobs that require the heavy duty laminating of large posters, attaching grommets and also mounting items on foam board. In the future they would like to offer wide format color.

Peachie Robertson, Theo Anthony,  John Zator

The Mail Center processes 3-4000 USPS pieces and 300-400 UPS pieces monthly. "We are in the process of acquiring new postage meter equipment and have restructured the mailroom to process mail more efficiently."

Money-Saving Tip:

Jackson strongly recommends researching the maintenance history and the company's service history before purchasing or even leasing any piece of equipment. "Call others to find out if they have had any service issues." For example, although they have a service contract that states 4 hours on-site and one hour call back, that doesn't always happen. She suggests implementing strict penalties in your contract if service/maintenance is not delivered as promised. "Because down time can be extremely costly."