Rochester Grammar School wanted to modernise its print services by merging all contracts to one supplier, to reduce paper waste.
Key points
About Rochester Grammar School
As the lead school of the Thinking Schools Academy Trust,
The Rochester Grammar School provides support and
development opportunities to all 12 schools in the network.
In order to continue delivering high quality support, the school wanted to modernise its print services, making it easier for all the schools within the Trust to work and communicate together, merge all print contracts to just one supplier, reduce paper waste and bring efficiency to cost management.
The challenge
Like all schools, The Rochester Grammar School has a duty to the taxpayer and to its students to ensure that public funds are spent to the greatest effect and, as such, it is always looking for ways to drive efficiencies.
The school’s print estate, which consisted of 100 devices spread throughout the school, emerged as an area that could deliver significant savings, in terms of both cost and carbon emissions. With no visibility over precisely what was being printed, and no centralised mechanisms for controlling its printers, the school found that a significant proportion of print jobs were being wasted, impacting its finances and environmental footprint.
Philip Finnemore, Network Manager for the Trust explained: “Fundamentally we had far too many print devices in our estate and they lacked the smart functionality we needed to better manage their outputs, which led to a lot of waste. If a printer ran out of paper or had a technical issue, students would often walk away and try another printer. When the same printer resumed operating, it would then print several pages of wasted material.”
“Annodata understood our needs and focused on our requirements rather than pushing us to a particular brand they preferred.”
Philip Finnemore, Network Manager for the Thinking Schools Academy Trust
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The solution
With Annodata’s vast experience of working with similar schools and educational establishments, it was the preferred choice of The Rochester Grammar School to introduce a centralised print management solution. After a comprehensive audit of the school’s print estate, the Managed Service Provider devised a solution that would save costs, reduce waste and offer greater levels of control and visibility.
As part of this solution, Annodata rationalised the old print fleet down from 100 devices to 22 fully-networked Kyocera multi-functional devices (MFDs), fully embedded with Print Management software to control print activities across the entire estate. The ‘followme’ printing means that when documents are sent to print they can be collected at any device when staff and students present their unique printing ID cards. The print policies set within the print management software, such as default duplex and mono printing, together with the ‘pull printing’ release means that costs and wastage have been significantly reduced and it also allows for accurate tracking and costing of individual and departmental usage.
Annodata’s overhaul of the print estate has also streamlined the school’s management requirements. Rather than having to manage different service contracts, each with different cost structures and invoicing requirements, Annodata manages everything and provides a single and predictable bill each month. Moreover, the entire solution is backed up by Annodata’s industry-leading service level agreement, which includes a four-hour call out in the event of a service failure.
The result
Thanks to Annodata’s bespoke print solution, the school now runs a more productive and cost-efficient print operation. By rationalising the print fleet and installing the latest print management software, print jobs have decreased by around 30%, saving money for the school and reducing its impact on the environment. Additionally, as part of its service, Annodata provides an on-going support help line, which reduces maintenance costs and saves time.
“We have noticed a significant reduction in the amount of paper and ink we order in, which has generated significant savings for us. This is largely due to the functionality of the MFDs and Annodata’s expertise in helping us realise the potential of the solution,” Philip said.
One of the key benefits of working with Annodata has been its vendor independence, meaning that it was free to select devices that would best meet the school’s needs. Philip continued: “We have previously worked with vendors who have had their own preferred partners and often found that they would not work with our systems and software. However, Annodata understood our needs and focused on our requirements rather than pushing us to a particular brand they preferred.
“Going forward, we want to centralise print management at the Trust to operate similarly to a multinational corporation, with each school reporting back to one centralised network. This will make yearly budget reviews easier, saves our time and most importantly reduces overall costs and paper waste. We are glad that we have found Annodata as partners, who have this expertise and are delivering solutions that are helping us to achieve this,” he concluded.
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