Global Printer Consolidation

With print costs at just one of their sites reaching $500K per year, our client was looking for a way to reduce their annual print expenditures.They had already contracted with Xerox to provide the actual hardware, however, they needed help implementing a plan that could satisfy the needs of their manufacturing center, distribution operations, as well as several business lines. Ensunet was tasked with designing a solution that would reduce the costs for printing, scanning and faxing. We were also responsible for managing a global rollout with minimal disruption.

Developed a site plan to accommodate the needs of a multidisciplinary workforce.

With employees that spanned administrative personnel, manufacturing operations and distribution, the print needs of our client were, by necessity, highly variable. We conducted a detailed assessment of every site to evaluate current print usage then arranged to meet with both the local IT departments and business line managers to uncover potential obstacles that would impact the migration away from traditional print servers.

Coordinated with vendor to identify the specific print needs of multiple business lines.

After the needs for every business line were established, we worked closely with Xerox to identify and install printers that would fit the needs of specific business groups. Our team also met with local business managers to map out where every printer would be located. The printers varied in print capacity, with some locations receiving printers that could handle up to 18K print jobs per month, as well as in available features, for example, being able to print in color as well as copy, fax, and scan to email.

Reduced the number of printers in their North American sites by 78 percent.

Three months of in-depth planning and consultations with both the client and the vendor resulted in a significant reduction in the number of printers being used in their North American operations.

Plans are already underway to implement a similar migration plan in two global locations, one in Europe and another in Central America.

Designed a secure print environment that reduced costs by 20 percent.

Our client required a flexible printing solution that could accommodate an employee population that frequently traveled between different offices or that handled confidential material. We upgraded every desktop and laptop computer to 1Print, a platform that allows employees to access their print jobs from any printer, no matter where it is located. Print jobs can be retrieved when employees login into the printer using their badge. The new system makes it possible for employees to easily print and retrieve confidential material. It also reduces instances of employees accidentally sending work to the wrong printer or printing work that they never retrieve.

Successfully modernized printing operations at a fast-paced distribution center.

The distribution center processes hundreds of shipping orders on a daily basis. Their need for quick and easy processing meant that a badge-based system (which required login for each print job) was unfeasible. Furthermore, they also depended on specialized applications that automatically sent print jobs to specific, dedicated printers. To minimize disruption to their well-established workflow, the distribution center requested that any new printers be configured to accommodate their core systems.

• We disabled the feature that would have required employees in the distribution center to use their badges to access print jobs. This gave the distribution center the flexibility they needed to quickly meet their daily quotas.
• Those employees responsible for generating shipping orders were set up so that their print jobs would be automatically routed to specific printers.
• We also assigned a special alias to their core applications. Any print jobs from these applications would continue to be sent to predesignated printers.