First pan-European Managed Print Service yields cost reduction of over £310,000 p.a.

Dec. 15, 2010 - PRLog -- IMS Health, a leading provider of market intelligence, wanted to drive efficiencies in every area of their business. Xenith worked with them to identify how they could reduce the cost and the environmental impact of their document production, while increasing productivity at the same time. Print confidentiality and a standard print policy across offices in Europe were other key goals.

Utilising a fleet of Xerox Multifunctional Devices and Software Solutions on a fully Managed Print Service (MPS), Xenith have reduced energy consumption by 45% and paper usage by an annual 4.6 million pages, resulting in a total saving of £310,000p.a. – 32% of their original printing cost.

In the first stage of the project, Xenith performed an Office Document Assessment. This was a multi-phase evaluation of print workflow and practices for each office, including empirical data of current print volumes and asset lists alongside documented user requirements gained from focus groups. This led to the design of the pan-European print strategy, followed by implementation, and finally continual management of the fleet.

Of course, the savings mentioned above would mean nothing without increases in overall productivity. Printer related calls to the Help Desk used to be 12% of the total call volume – they have now been reduced to 1% due to the migration from many desktop printers to fewer, more robust, high capacity machines. The service includes proactive break-fix as well as the continual monitoring and optimisation of the fleet. This allows employees to access their print when they need it, enabling them to focus on real business. Paul Paz, European Desktop Manager at IMS Health says:

“We simply took control of our printing environment. Not only are we saving money, but our users are very happy with reliable printing and new functionalities such as scanning and Pull-Print. Our help-desk used to get 20 printer-related support calls every week in the UK alone. Now we may get one every month.”

Wastage was reduced by implementing a SafeCom solution as users walk to their machine of choice and ‘pull’ their print from the print queue. Print-jobs which are no longer required can be deleted from the queue at the machine and documents no longer get lost and then abandoned on the output tray. Higher document security was established as print jobs are only released when a user authenticates via card at their choice of printing device.

Document storage was made easier by scanning to PDF, Word and Excel and travelling users can print at any site without having to involve support services and release their documents securely at any device. Stacey Arnell, Senior Purchasing Manager EMEA at IMS Health says:

“We can now print anywhere. I can send my bulky presentations from my own UK desk and pull-print them the next day when I arrive at the office in France, Italy, wherever.”

The transition to Managed Print Services was first tested at the London office, and then carried out on an office-by-office basis across the EMEA region. Further savings are expected as the solution is rolled out globally.
The successful planning and implementation of MPS is dependant on various factors. Justin Milligan, the Director of Services and Solutions at Xenith, says:

“Whenever we take up a project we make a set of promises to our customer which includes staying aligned to identified business requirements. Usually clients want to make cost reductions whilst minimising their environmental impact, and improve processes which enable them to focus on core business activities without having to worry about printing.”

He goes on to explain that the term ‘Managed Print Services’ can mean different things to different people. However, the essential objective in every Xenith MPS is to ‘deliver the promise’ and it is this commitment which has yielded best results for Xenith Document Systems and their clients.

# # #

Xenith are experts in cutting the cost of producing documents while staying aligned to specific business requirements. They are Xerox’s leading partners in this field and have been supplying document solutions for over 30 years. They still have many of their original clients and staff from those early days.

The London-based company is committed to personal, professional service, winning the prestigious ‘Xerox Premier Partner of the Year’ award three times in the last five years. Although Xenith’s services are delivered locally, they are supported globally by Xerox’s expertise and toolset.

To read some of Xenith’s Case Studies, please visit:
www.xenith.co.uk/ClientsCaseStudies

For more on Managed Print Services, please visit:
www.xenith.co.uk/ManagedPrintServices/Whatwecandeliver