Enhanced data security and lower print costs.
This was achieved by installing a bespoke MPS solution for The Action group.
About The Action Group
The Action Group (TAG) is a remarkable charitable organisation. Its staff work with children and adults with learning disabilities – and their families – who need additional support to live their lives. They offer care and advice to over 1,700 children, young people and adults across East Central Scotland in as many aspects as they need – from employment to housing, from personal care and support to benefits advice, and from holidays to emotional support.
The Challenge
Printing in excess of one million documents per year, The Action Group depends heavily on its print estate. The charity had been working with an incumbent supplier which managed 25devices, made up of a number of different models, across four different sites. Such a wide range of devices with different user interfaces introduced a great deal of complexity to printing, causing confusion amongst staff and regularly impacting office efficiency. At the same time, The Action Group had been growing increasingly aware of the amount of money it was spending on printing and the number of pages printed each day.
As a socially conscious charity, it not only wanted to cut this expenditure, but also reduce its environmental impact and improve its carbon footprint. Yet, as staff had no print management software or monitoring system under the previous implementation, they were unable to get a clear handle on what was being printed. Additionally, working directly with so many children and adults means that The Action Group manages a huge amount of personal data and information. This means that a safe and secure print estate is an absolute necessity, but this was not something that could be guaranteed through the previous supplier.
Paul McCrory, IT Manager at The Action Group, explained: “As a public-facing organisation we hold a large amount of citizen data. This meant that we needed a print solution that could help us stay compliant in today’s GDPR era and eliminate the risk of, for example, staff printing sensitive information and leaving it lying on a printer for anyone to pick up. We were also struggling to retrieve basic analytics regarding print activity through our previous arrangement. As we were keen to drive down the overall cost of our print estate, it was imperative that we could enhance this visibility, while simultaneously increasing security and reducing our costs and environmental footprint.”
The work that Annodata has done with us, right through from preparation to after-sales service, has been very impressive and the story has not stopped there.
“
The solution
Following a thorough audit of its print requirements across its head office and premises in Haddington, Livingstone and Edinburgh, 25 existing devices were removed and a mix of nine Kyocera MFDs and printers were brought in. Across all devices, secure PIN release was installed to provide The Action Group with an additional layer of security and ensure sensitive data could not get into the wrong hands. To help The Action Group reduce costs, Annodata also implemented its market-leading three-tier billing system.
Annodata bills print jobs that only have a small amount of colour at a lower rate than full colour prints, which means that The Action Group only pays for what it uses. In addition, the billing process outlines how much The Action Group is paying in total for its printing, and breaks down the cost by device and category, such as colour and black and white.
Finally, Annodata installed Kyocera Fleet Manager to provide The Action Group with muchneeded visibility over departmental printing activity. As they are located across a number of different sites, the software provides a centralised interface where, for example, the IT Manager can access and remotely monitor machine diagnostics. This ensures that, if there were to be a fault, the charity would be able to quickly pinpoint where the problem is, increasing efficiency by keeping downtime to a minimum.
The result
Thanks to Annodata’s managed print solution, the Action Group has seen a 20 per cent reduction in print volume and a 40 per cent reduction in A3 printing. Overall, this has significantly reduced the charity’s environmental footprint and saved it over £12,000 per year.
The introduction of secure PIN release across all devices has also gone a long way towards shoring up what is a crucial area of the IT estate. Paul McCrory, concluded: “We have seen a number of significant benefits since the implementation of Annodata’s bespoke print solution.
We now have a more compact print estate and much greater visibility of how much we’re spending on printing, allowing us to find out where we can cut costs and streamline our operations. Most importantly, the money saved means we can channel more resources into ensuring those in need have an improved level of support.”
Key points
- Annodata delivers overall cost savings of over £12,000 and 40 per cent reduction in A3 printing.
- Annodata’s managed print solution gives The Action Group improved control over its print estate and increased security.
- Annodata’s three-tier billing process simplifies and brings new visibility to The Action Group’s printing expenditure.
