Partner & Customer Solutions
High Stakes Testing
NPC provides everything you need for secure and accurate production of your paper and pencil high stakes exams. We guarantee 100 percent accuracy, on-time delivery and complete security throughout every stage of the high stakes testing printing and production process. NPC has safeguards in place to answer all of your data, document and facility security needs.
Data Security - NPC's security architecture addresses information integrity at every level, from the software applications to the physical connections of our servers and computers. We go to great lengths to ensure the full protection of our clients' information assets, as well as the security of all Internet transactions.
Document Security - NPC specializes in secure and intelligent document solutions to protect against counterfeiting and fraud. ConfiDoc®, a division of NPC that specializes in creating solutions for document fraud prevention and protection, ensures that your transcripts, score reports and any other mission critical documents you value hold their integrity, and more importantly helps protect your brand, throughout the lifecycle of the document.
Facility Security - Our heightened physical security measures give our customers peace of mind when their products travel through our production facility – from preparation to delivery. Access to our production facility is limited to NPC employees, with restricted areas inside the building for contracts that require higher levels of security.
The foundation of our high stakes testing custom solutions has a common bond – we understand the critical nature of the information and the value it holds to our clients’ brand and proprietary knowledge.
“We do not go after the market from a traditional perspective – in other words, trying to print and distribute as many books as we can – we really take the approach of understanding what it means to produce a high stakes test,” explains Larissa Crum, Executive Vice President of Immersion, Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of NPC, Inc. “We understand the value of what the tests are from their purist perspective, and then we look to build systems and processes to support that.”
The Challenge
Our client needed an exam produced with multiple versions per printing/administration throughout the year bundled with a physical and human resource security plan, while maintaining 100 percent accuracy. Timely delivery was a concern, as well as making sure the correct exams shipped to the correct locations all over the world throughout the year. The most important attributes the client looked for when selecting a vendor was someone they could trust and who understood how critical it was to protect the authenticity of their information.
“Our focus was immediately drawn to understanding the needs of our customer,” said Greg Ritchey, Customer Service Manager. “We pay close attention to quality and accuracy, and then come up with solutions to minimize the opportunity for failure.”
NPC's Solution
In the past, the client had problems with missing signatures and double signatures in the printing process. NPC’s engineering team solved this issue by printing a paste-on-fold booklet that guaranteed 100 percent accuracy and eliminated the bindery function of the production process.
The finished exam came off our presses ready to be packaged, where we used end scanning technology to account for every exam that exited our facility. The scanning also verified packages for distribution so that documents with the same serial number were bundled and shipped together. NPC also dedicated a specialized team – which understood the importance of the mission critical information – for this project from the moment we received files until the last package shipped.
“Timely delivery is critical in the testing market,” Greg Ritchey says. “We want to be able to focus on our customers’ current needs but also learn and understand where they’re heading so we can anticipate future needs and offer suggestions and solutions throughout the process. We want to build a foundation with new customers and continue to grow with our existing customers.
Results
Delivering peace of mind. It sounds simple but that is how our client feels. We truly have a partnership that centers on trust and allows us to share information about each other’s business to improve our system on a daily basis.
“NPC has not had any test booklets with missing or double signatures in over 5 years of production, and we have distributed every exam in compliance with our customer’s delivery schedule,” explains Greg Ritchey.
“And being in the high stakes testing market is certainly not a Monday through Friday job,” Greg continued. “We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so one of the benefits our customers have is our accessibility.”
NPC continues to invest in cutting-edge technology to protect the integrity of our clients' information. We understand how imperative the exams are to each individual and how a mistake could impact the future of that person, so we take every precaution to ensure this does not happen.
“Some of our customers require an extremely high degree of accuracy and want to know what they need printed in an envelope is exactly what is being printed in that envelope,” company president Mark Kelly says. “We recognize that information is extremely valuable to our customers and their constituents, and handle sensitive information with a high degree of care, and that’s why our customers come to us.”
Learn more ...
If you would like to learn more about our customized, integrated solutions, contact an NPC representative today at 800-847-5757 or email info@npcweb.com.