Océ helps Standard Life improve efficiencies and drive cost reductions

Brentwood, Essex, 7 July 2009 — A £5million investment in Océ state-of-the-art colour and monochrome printing systems by finance giant Standard Life has already paid dividends.

Standard Life, which has over 6.5 million customers worldwide, has taken 11 cutsheet and two web fed systems to increase productivity and save costs at its headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Vinny Wornin, Document Production Manager for Standard Life, said: "The equipment is excellent in terms of efficiency, quality and productivity. It has given us increased print capability and has allowed us to insource work that was previously outsourced. Océ literally hit the ground running and it has been a fantastic achievement by everyone involved."

Océ’s colour and monochrome offering – two Océ VarioStream® 9230s, four Océ VarioPrint® 5115s, three Océ VarioPrint 2110s and four Océ CS665 systems – is used for all kinds of transactional statements, marketing literature and other member collateral. It is complemented by sophisticated software systems from Océ, including Océ PRISMA™

Pensions, mortgages, savings and investments, healthcare and insurance are all part of the financial portfolio from Standard Life. In total, the systems produce ten million print images per month.

The new printing and software replaced other systems to improve efficiencies and drive cost reductions, said Vinny Wornin, who added: "One of our strategic objectives is to take operational excellence on to a new level and to get it right first time. When we put our print contract out to tender we asked the vendors to review our operations, be innovative and come back with what they thought was the best solution going forward.

"This was a massive leap of faith for us and Océ put in a very convincing story and we had a really positive engagement from the outset.  Océ has positioned us for the future in terms of transactional mailing and they understand the process and opportunities with the documents and imagery."

Steve Wilson, Océ UK’s Director of Production Printing, said: "The results are speaking for themselves and we’re delighted to be working with yet another major financial institution such as Standard Life. From our own experiences, we know that these printing and software systems will provide added value as well, which will include additional marketing and business opportunities for Standard Life." 

 Further information from Colin Harding, of Shaw Communications,

tel + 1344 761208, + 44 7730 4354000

About Standard Life

Standard Life is a major asset managing company headquartered in Edinburgh and operating across the globe. Established in 1825, Standard Life provides life assurance and pensions, investment management, banking and healthcare insurance products to over 6.5 million customers worldwide.  The Group has around 10,000 employees across the UK, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Austria, India, USA, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Standard Life’s diverse business includes one of the largest life and pensions businesses in the UK with more than 4 million customers; Standard Life Bank, which currently has over £9.7bn worth of mortgages under management; Standard Life Investments, which currently manages assets of over £123bn globally and Standard Life Healthcare, a private medical insurance company which is one of the largest in the UK.

About Océ
Océ is one of the world’s leading providers of document management and printing for professionals. The broad Océ offering includes office printing and copying systems, high speed digital production printers and wide format printing systems for both technical documentation and colour display graphics. Océ is also a foremost supplier of document management outsourcing. Many of the world’s Fortune 500 companies and leading commercial printers are Océ customers. The company was founded in 1877. With headquarters in Venlo, The Netherlands, Océ is active in over 90 countries and employs some 23,000 people worldwide. Total revenues in 2008 amounted to € 2.9 billion. For more information on Océ, visit www.oce.com