Quanta recruits Annodata to secure business data in end-to-end IT Solution.
About Quanta Consultancy Services
With more than 25 years in the recruitment sector, Quanta Consultancy Services specialises in recruiting for the life sciences, renewable energy and ICT industries. Based in the UK, Quanta now offers its recruitment expertise to over 20 countries, having developed a client base across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and North America. Handling sensitive data from prospective candidates and employers, Quanta turned to Annodata to help it with a print management solution that would ensure this information remained secure.
The Challenge
With a rapidly expanding business and a critical business need to keep sensitive personal data, such as salaries and other human resources-related information, Quanta needed a print management solution that would offer secure file management.
With an existing supplier that could not offer a good value service and a legacy printing estate that was breaking down with increasing regularity, Quanta’s IT Manager Andrew Hale approached the market to find a provider that would not just provide printing equipment but work in partnership to deliver a comprehensive, secure print management solution.
Andrew discusses some of the challenges that Quanta were facing with their existing printing solution: “As a recruitment consultancy we handle a lot of sensitive, personal data and it is more important than ever, with GDPR, that
we protect this information as vigilantly as we can. One issue that we encountered was that when a colleague hit print, a document would be automatically sent to a device and printed. We wanted to implement as secure a printing option as possible, to ensure that sensitive data was always well-protected.
“In addition, we didn’t have as much control over our colour printing as we would have liked. It was quite easy for the team to accidentally print documents in colour that didn’t need to be, and that can be very expensive. The issue
of billing was another problem we wanted to resolve, as we wanted full transparency and oversight over our printing, with a full breakdown of costs.”
The team really took the time to understand our needs and the challenges we were facing.
Andrew Hale, IT Manager
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The solution
Quanta approached Annodata to provide a full consultation on its printing requirements. Annodata conducted an analysis of Quanta’s print requirements and concluded that a fleet of Kyocera multifunctional devices (MFDs), tied together with the Kyocera Net Manager application would meet Quanta’s requirements.
The Print&Follow element of Kyocera’s Net Manager ensures that documents are not just sent to a device and printed, and then left lying on the printer available to anyone to see. Files are sent to the secure Kyocera server that all the devices in the office can access and the document can then be printed from any free device. This helps reduce printing queues and increases the overall security of documents, as the device does not release the document until the sender has logged in and selected it for printing. The Kyocera Net Manager solution also enabled Quanta to set specific permissions for colour printing. To reduce the amount of colour printing, and therefore the cost, Quanta established permissions that set the default print option as black and white, which could then be changed to colour by certain users. It also defaulted emails to be printed in black and white, to ensure that any small elements of colour did not mean that the cost of printing that page went up significantly.
Andrew discusses the solution: “When Annodata demonstrated the solution to us at their Reading showroom it was clear that it was exactly what we needed. The customisation capability of the Kyocera Net Manager really stood out to me as something that would benefit our users. It enables them to add the settings they use most frequently, which ensures that when users log into a device, they can instantly select where they want a document to scan to, whether that’s their email account or a specific folder. Most important to us, however, was the spirit of partnership in which Annodata wanted to work with us. The team really took the time to understand our needs and the challenges we were facing.
“While we were working with Annodata to specify the print solution, we were also looking to integrate a robust disaster recovery and business continuity solution into our IT estate. Annodata was able to take this service on as well, providing us with a reliable, marketleading service from Datto, to ensure that all our sensitive and business critical data will be backed up and accessible should anything go wrong. As a fast-growing business, it is immensely helpful to have a single provider delivering a range of services.”
The Annodata Benefits
Andrew explains some of the benefits that Quanta has seen since the implementation of the Annodata solution: “Annodata is providing us with vastly more transparent billing and invoicing, so we have much better insight into how much our printing is costing us. The Kyocera Net Manager technology has really helped to eliminate wasted print jobs and reduce our colour printing, which has generated significant cost reductions.
The introduction of the Datto disaster recovery service also makes us much more secure as a business, as our data is so important to our success. “We also now have real peace of mind thanks to improved security of our print management solution. Staff don’t have to worry about hitting print and then running over to the printer to collect the document before anyone else can see it. In fact, the staff have been immensely positive about the move to the Annodata solution, and have embraced with real enthusiasm the changes that we have made, because it makes their lives easier.
Data protection is an essential part of our business and it is comforting to know that we have eradicated the potential for a breach. “The most important benefit that we have seen is the partnership we have formed with Annodata. The team has ensured that the solutions we have taken on are absolutely right for our business and the challenges we face. Quanta is growing faster than ever, and we are delighted that we have found a partner that can support us in this with end to end IT solutions.
As we continue to develop our IT services we will be looking to Annodata to see how we can continue to work together.”
