Project: Mailroom equipment upgrade

Jurisdiction: Detroit

Agency: Information Technology Services

Vendor: Hayward, Calif.-based Neopost

Date: February 2007

When the Detroit Information Technology Services (ITS) Department assumed control of the city's mailing operations about 18 months ago, it found 40 mailing machines — all under lease agreements — in myriad locations throughout the city. “The reality is, very few machines are needed to handle the city's mailing needs,” says Sreeny Cherukuri, deputy director of ITS. “Departments bought machines based on their peak mailing load, but many only have a peak load once or twice a year. So, virtually every department had a mailing machine that far exceeded its daily needs.”

The city contracted with Hayward, Calif.-based Neopost to reduce the number of machines by 80 percent, setting up eight machines for medium- to high-volume mailings in a few city buildings. Three of the larger machines were positioned in city hall for use by ITS' central mailing and printing staff, and the Treasury Department. The remaining machines were placed in three outlying locations, each convenient to several departments.

The machines are connected to the city's computer network, so users can track all mailroom activities online. “Previously, our biggest challenge was trying to keep track of everything, especially when it came to downloading money onto all of the postage accounts. We had to go out to reload 40 machines in multiple locations,” says Mattie Pritchett, an operation supervisor for ITS. “Plus, there was password protection on every machine, and only [two people] had passwords. There was far too much wasted time.”

By consolidating the mailing equipment, the city saved $100,000 in machine rentals and $400,000 in postage in the first nine months. “We have been driving more work into our centralized print facilities,” Cherukuri says. “Consequently, we can also advise people on how to produce their materials in a fashion that will enable them to reduce postage. We also expect that the increased efficiency will lead to a reduction in the use of overnight mailing services, since we're actually optimizing the mail to the times of the postal pick-ups.”

Since the machines have been installed, ITS department officials have identified other inefficiencies in the city's mail operations and plan to reduce them next. “Now that we've centralized, we're seeing that we have serious problems with address quality, and massive amounts of returns,” Cherukuri says. “Before, nobody internally had the knowledge base to take advantage of that.”