Compart Custom Comparison Apps Give Japs-Olson Company More Confidence in Variable Direct Mail Proofing and Production

Japs-Olson Company is an industry leader providing direct mail and commercial printing services. Founded in 1907, Japs-Olson today employs more than 600 people and operates a modern 512,000 square foot facility around the clock to meet clients’ deadlines. The company had been searching for a better way to handle proofing and approval for customers’ variable direct mail communications. Japs-Olson also wanted to simplify the information used in production and to add to their uptime during the variable imaging process.

With today’s highly complex, targeted and personalized direct mail, it’s hard to predict where changes can occur from one file version to another or from one piece to another. Even simple software upgrades can cause unexpected challenges downstream.

The magnitude of the Japs-Olson operation required a powerful and flexible solution. Compart was the only provider that offered this flexibility. A combination of Compart’s DocBridge Delta document comparison tool plus four custom applications based on the Compart SDK has eliminated hours of effort and added to the accuracy of the review and production at Japs-Olson. The Compart applications add value as overall efficiency tools by catching even small changes in files that could affect pressroom production.

“The Compart tools make our operations more reliable and we can give customers full assurance that their jobs are produced accurately. With these tools, we can reduce the QC overhead of every job,” said Douglas Carl,Director of Data Services for Japs-Olson Company.

Custom Applications Enhance Proofing and Production Processes

“Because the core DocBridge engine was flexible enough, we could accommodate their custom requirements. As a result, Japs-Olson achieved a higher level of quality control that exactly fit their workflow, along with greater speed and reliability,” said Mark Maragni, Vice President of Sales, Compart North America.

Custom Application: Highlighting

When the production floor gets a mail piece for printing, the staff must know what will be variable on the document and what remains static. With clear visual cues from color-coded highlighting, operators can spot which regions should be static and where they should expect variable content. Before the custom automation from Compart, this quality check was done manually. Now Japs-Olson can produce variable data mailings with greater accuracy in less time.

The highlighting tool has another key benefit. “Eventually we will provide highlighting for our customers when they approve work. This will make the process easier for them because they can see all personalization scenarios in one easy-to-understand view,” said Carl.

Custom Application: Hot Spots

With variable imaging applications, it’s difficult to communicate the areas where variable print can occur on each piece. There can be subtle or drastic differences in what is printed from one piece to the next. With the Hot Spots solution, Japs-Olson can now concisely show where all print lands throughout an entire press run allowing them to confidently position print heads in a way that is best for their customers’ content.

“Imagine putting the ink from every record on top of each other all on one page, so as the letters change, you can see where the spacing and flow change. When we know where the imaged areas are going to be, it’s easier to set up the inkjet print heads that will spray on that information. Compart’s automated comparison is far faster than manually paging through the file output to check the suitability of planned inkjet head placement,” said Carl.