Ecstatic About Océ at West Contra Costa

It would be hard to find a more enthusiastic supporter of his vendor than Tom Aleman.

“We are very happy with Océ,” declares Aleman, supervisor of the print shop at West Contra Costa Unified School District. His Richmond, Calif.-based in-plant runs a host of Océ equipment, the most recent additions being a pair of VarioPrint 6150 printers with duplex printing capabilities.

Since switching to Oce, he says, “My crew couldn’t be happier. My supervisors are very pleased about the production we’ve been able to [maintain]. We’re projected this year to do 20 million copies.”

In addition to the 6150s—which each have an inline booklet maker—the shop runs an Océ 650 color copier, two Océ VarioPrint 2110s and an Océ DS60 scanner, which allows the in-plant to scan hard copy submissions, clean them up using Océ Doc Works Pro and send them to any of the shop’s printers.

The shop is now negotiating to upgrade the software on the 6150s to make them 6250s.

“That will increase the speed of the copies from 150 copies to 250 copies per minute,” Aleman says.

The in-plant, which handles printing, mailing and delivery, has eight employees, three of them operating the printing and bindery equipment. The shop produces such typical K-12 work as tests, report cards and assessments, as well as signs, forms and business cards, which are printed on the 650. Aleman is in discussions with the district to take over the “Open Court Books” from an outside vendor. These books, which average 200 pages and cover reading, language and arts, go out to each student in the 31,539-student district.

Aleman is confident his Océ equipment will be up to the task. He said it never jams and hardly ever breaks down. And when it does need maintenance: “Service is just great,” he reports. “They’re here that same day.”