Editor’s note: At the time of the interview, David Hobbs was communications director for First Baptist, Hendersonville. Since the article was written, he has moved to a new position. His quotes are used with the permission of the church.
When churchgoers at First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, Tenn., started receiving higher-quality bulletins on Sunday, what they didn’t realize was that the church’s bottom line was also looking better as a result.
“When I got here about four years ago, we had a two-color press to print our 3,000 weekly bulletins that went into four-color shells we had printed by Lifeway,” said David Hobbs, former communications director for First Baptist, Hendersonville. “We were limited on what we could do with screening photographs and, of course, time limitations.”
As a streamlining solution, “We sold our two-color press and started sending our weekly files to a local printer that did four-color printing for our bulletins each week,” Hobbs said, adding that while the print quality improved, cost and production time were still issues.
Hobbs discovered the best solution, Océ North America, through a phone conversation with a representative of Lifeway’s OneSource program – a service through which churches and religious organizations can receive discounts on Lifeway-endorsed products and services.
Lifeway has endorsed Océ North America, a Canon Group company since 2009 as their exclusive vendor of multifunctional printers that print, copy, scan and fax. In the last two years, nearly 400 churches across the country have saved more than $2 million in equipment costs from MSRP, said Jennie Taylor of Lifeway’s OneSource program.
“Océ called us at the church and after hearing our process, said they thought we could print our bulletins cheaper, faster and at an improved quality,” Hobbs said. “I gave them a sample that we printed at the local printer and they turned around printed pieces that were printed, folded and produced all on the Océ machines – and the color and definition is noticeably better.”
What also became noticeably better was the savings the church experienced.
“When we ran the numbers, it looked as though we could save some money,” Hobbs said. “Now that we’ve gone with Océ, not only are we saving significant time (it takes approximately four hours for the Océ system to print and fold 3,000 bulletins), we’re saving about 25 percent over what we were paying in ink printing costs.”
Hobbs said Océ sent three trainers to the church to train the staff that would be operating the machine. They were able to run through a variety of printing jobs to become familiarized with the process.
“Saving over 25 percent in bulletin costs alone is a great deal for any church that needs to keep the belt tightened. For a church our size, that translated into a lot of money,” Hobbs said. “Also, the beauty of this machine is that this is a lease. Technology is constantly changing and a lot of churches and businesses that purchase copiers and printers find that the machines are quickly out of date.
“In our situation with Océ, we get the benefit of their commitment to technology upgrades,” he said. “We can trade up to new technology in as little as four years and continue to have the most up-to-date machine to fit the changing technology needs of the church.”
Visit LifeWay’s Océ page to learn more about Océ printers and copiers or call 800.464.2799 for more information.
by Russ Rankin, Communications Department
