East Riding College
East Riding College is a large further education college located in Yorkshire. As with all educational establishments, they are under pressure to reduce costs and provide effective support facilities to both staff and students.
College reduces costs with Canon MFPs and uniFLOW Output Manager
The collegerecently replaced 80% of their desktop printers with Canon Multifunctional Printers (MFPs) and uniFLOW Output Manager, a print management application to improve the management, cost control and reporting of the college’s document output.
East Riding College
East Riding College has a large campus of 1,600 full-time and 7,000 part-time students aged 16-18 spread across four main sites in Beverley, Bridlington, Carnaby and Hull. The college is proud of the high quality of learning offered across its diverse course programme – success rates are above the UK FE (Further Education) college sector average. Diversity and equality of opportunity are the college’s top priorities and they provide a friendly, caring and supportive environment for students to maximise their potential. East Riding College has excellent links with industry and has developed its curriculum to match the needs of students with the skills and experience required by prospective employers. With around 1,200 PCs supported by 25 servers, IT is at the heart of college life.
Gaining control, reducing costs
As with all educational establishments, East Riding College needs to cut costs, reduce paper consumption and provide first class facilities to both staff and students. “We had a large number of desktop printers from a diverse range of suppliers scattered across the campus and our two Reprographics Centres,” explains Steve Bucknall, IT Manager at the College. “To provide effective support for these printers was proving both costly and time consuming. We were holding stock of consumables for up to 50 different types of printer. We needed a solution that was going to be easier to support and reduce our operating costs significantly. We also wanted to put in place a robust print strategy, standardise our print platform and be able to produce consistent high quality output. “Contracts across the college were up for renewal and we were keen to take this opportunity to make critical changes across the college that would support our future growth.”
Canon MFPs and uniFLOW Output Manager
“Due to the size of the contracts up for renewal six suppliers were invited to tender and a committee of four staff were involved,” Steve explains. “In addition to considering costs, all proposed equipment was rigorously tested. ”IT@Spectrum, a Canon Accredited Business Partner submitted their tender based around Canon’s Multifunctional Printers (MFPs) and uniFLOW Output Manager, a print management application designed to improve the management, cost control and reporting of document output.
“We eventually decided to go with IT@Spectrum. They scored highly in the tender process and produced evidence of successful implementations for other customers. I was also impressed with their proposal from an IT point of view and the sound print strategy they suggested. We felt that they had a real vision for our future and would be able to provide the level of IT support we demand,” Steve continues. “The implementation plan worked well. We didn’t encounter any disruption or technical issues. What’s more we received excellent training particularly on the IT side and for all staff and students.”
Their solution included eMaintenance, Canon software that enables the MFPs to communicate directly with IT@Spectrum’s service team via email, should a visit from an engineer to fix a fault or carry out maintenance be required. It also sends back meter readings automatically, ensuring accurate billing without the customer having to physically take manual readings from each machine. Students and staff operate the MFPs and pay for printing using swipe cards. IT@Spectrum and Canon liaised with the card supplier to build a solution so these can be read and monitored using uniFLOW Output Manager. Now Steve and his team can see who is printing what and on which machines, data that will enable them to develop the print strategy to meet users needs effectively in future. “uniFLOW Output Manager has provided us with detailed management information for department heads on what is being printed, when and how. This has given them a greater awareness and focus to reduce their costs and improve processes.
The Benefits
“We now have the consistency and quality of print output in place across the college that we wanted. 80% of our stand-alone printers have been taken out and replaced with Canon MFPs. As consumables have been standardised across the college we are now able to hold considerably less stock, this has helped to reduce our costs considerably. The simplified printer fleet and reduced downtime have freed up Steve’s team. “I have been able to change the focus of my technical support staff to a more proactive approach providing assistance to users.
“With uniFLOW Output Manager, we now have a far greater control of our print. The swipe cards have worked really well with the ability to decide where print is picked up proving useful.” A user can send the work to print from their desktop and then output it at any MFP by simply swiping their card, particularly useful on a large multi-site campus. This avoids the usual high number of forgotten prints or documents printed in error being left on the output tray. With this system, known as ‘My Print Anywhere’, they are never printed out so, as well as saving the user money, it also reduces paper and consumables wastage and helps the college towards meeting sustainability targets.
It seems the system is very usable: “I have received excellent feedback from both staff and students on the Canon solution. Students can log into the college’s Intranet and obtain an up-to-date figure on the number of prints they have left before re-charging their cards,” Steve explains. “Another benefit is the ability to scan in paper documents at any MFP, convert them to PDF and send direct to your inbox.”
- Reduced paper usage and costs
- Effective print strategy
- Fast output, high print quality
- Improved processes
- 80% reduction in desktop printers
- Greater control and flexibility
- Effective management information
IT@Spectrum Approach
Graham Frankish, IT@Spectrum Account Manager explains the company’s approach to East Riding College. “When East Riding College gave us the opportunity to tender for all their print requirements our first step was to investigate their needs fully. We carried out numerous site visits and used print audit software to find out average monthly volumes of all the printers and what they were being used for. Then we put together a comprehensive proposal to simplify maintenance, reduce consumable costs and meet their current needs. “The Canon MFPs have provided the print quality the college sought and uniFLOW Output Manager has given them the management information they needed to monitor and reduce expenditure. Now we work with Steve in quarterly account reviews to ensure we use this information to deliver an effective print strategy.”
“By using uniFLOW Output Manager with Canon’s MFPs, East Riding College can now fully utilise the benefits of print management. Based on their positive experience, we have been able to show other colleges how to drive down costs and improve processes and productivity.”
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