Xplor International, a worldwide, not-for-profit professional association, recognizes industry innovators with these prestigious Xplor International Awards, which will be presented at the Xplor International Conference & Vendor Forum in Tampa Bay, Florida, March 27-29, 2012.

Technology Application of the Year

The Technology Application of the Year is awarded each year to an organization to recognize an outstanding achievement in the imaginative application of current technology and unique implementation of existing electronic document systems. This year, Ricoh and LADWP, took home the honors for its implementation of a multi-faceted, end-to-end, hardware agnostic Automated Document Factory (ADF), driven by the InfoPrint ProcessDirector workflow platform.

With this offering from Ricoh, LADWP was able to:

• implement an easier-to-read, full color customer billing statement
• decrease the number of calls to the customer service center – making customers happier and driving down costs associated with supporting the call center
• lower operational costs and postage with workflow automation and USPS Full Service IMB
• increase customer participation in energy and water saving initiatives through dedicated full color inserts of marketing and promotional programs using the new space available from the reformatted billing statement

“This award-winning, state-of-the-art technology has enabled us to provide customers with the education they need to focus on environmental issues, as well as realize cost savings through infrastructure updates and installation of next-generation equipment,” said Mark Townsend, Assistant Director of Information Systems, LADWP. “By improving the readability of our statement, LADWP is on track to garner double-digit reduction in call center calls and is expected to lower overall statement operation costs. Ricoh has proven to be a valued business partner. It is deeply satisfying to see our work recognized by industry veterans like Xplor – it is a true honor.”

Ricoh supplied LADWP with its ADF offering to help enhance productivity, while minimizing errors and lowering costs with extensive printer and inserter management capabilities – vital considerations when producing millions of statements annually. The LADWP ADF will maximize postal discounts provided by the new US Postal Service (USPS) Intelligent Mail® system, which allows for further savings through more efficient mail preparation. Thanks to more efficient mail prep and distribution, LADWP will also be able to redirect statements of customers who have moved before the close of a billing period, enabling the Department to send the bill to the new address. This will minimize the costly distribution of statements to incorrect addresses, along with the associated customer service follow-up needs.

“This nomination from Ricoh and LADWP stood above the rest due to its commitment to provide a solution that offered both accuracy and automation from design to delivery. An integrated, end-to-end workflow implementation of this scale is a true novelty for the industry,” said Skip Henk, President and CEO of Xplor Industries. “This solution is a true game-changer and we are one of the first organizations to recognize this with an award.”

“We are extremely honored to receive this award from such a prestigious organization,” said Jay Robinson, Senior Solutions Consultant, Professional Services and Software, Ricoh. “Our world class team works hard to bring innovative and cost-effective solutions to our customers and we’re proud to see our efforts recognized by Xplor International. Working closely with LADWP to create better design and document composition was an exciting opportunity and this award further amplifies and confirms the success of our efforts.”

For more information about this implementation from Ricoh and the LADWP, please read this overview.

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