City of Duisburg
Benefits in Change Management Through Prepress Automation
Process digitalization and a modern machine park for greater efficiency
The challenge: At a certain point, the City of Duisburg decided it was time to rethink its approach by merging its in-house print shop and IT department. While many other municipalities across Germany continue to operate these departments separately and in a decentralized manner, Duisburg combined these two central services — and now benefits from numerous synergies gained through this move.
The city administration on the Rhine and Ruhr wanted to digitize its processes, replace outdated 288-page print systems with more powerful ones, and achieve significant improvements particularly in transactional printing, which makes up the majority of print jobs. With an annual print volume of around 20 million pages in both color and black-and-white, the municipality’s focus in its tendering process was not only on speed but also on reliability and a high degree of automation.
The OneVision Highlights
By combining OneVision software with Canon’s varioPRINT 6330 TITAN production printing systems, the City of Duisburg was able to implement its original vision. Choosing the interplay of hardware and software — along with service and tailored consulting — Duisburg received a workflow automation solution optimized to its specific needs.
- Integration and real-time data exchange across all systems involved
- Intuitive user interface with self-explanatory modules
- Ability to handle unforeseen workload peaks (e. g., letters triggered by unexpected legislative changes or citizens’ initiatives)
- Operation and customization of the software as a no-code solution
Arne Baade, Head of Customer Communication Management“Due to an internal change, we needed a specific feature quite early on that didn’t exist at the time. Just a few weeks later, with the next major update, the feature was released as a new function. We applied the update — completely seamlessly. OneVision simply grows with us.”
Automated Prepress: How Duisburg is becoming a role model for other municipalities with OneVision Software
OneVision adapts to the current needs of prepress while remaining future-proof. Automated error correction for around 130 indicators — for example, converting a letter format into DIN A4 — happens without additional intervention. Changing an address line can be done in no time. This perfected handling has already led to two other municipalities outsourcing their print jobs to Duisburg. Several more cities are on the waiting list to use Duisburg’s support for their printing needs. Recently, representatives from a neighboring major city visited to learn more about the optimized output management processes. Arne Baade confidently states: “We see ourselves as pioneers — and we want to be copied.”
The success story of the City of Duisburg and its workflow optimizations was created by our partner Canon. The full version of the case study can be found on their website.