Edcon, South Africa`s leading retail group in its market segment, has reported savings of R3.6 million a year since completing a comprehensive printing consolidation exercise at its Edgardale head office.
The savings constitute R300 000 a month through reduced toner and paper usage; more responsible printing; and a dramatically reduced number of printing devices to manage. They are 100% in line with the figures projected by Xerox distributor Bytes Document Solutions and Business Connexion, the vendors which managed the project on behalf of Edcon.
The contract, awarded last year, is worth R45 million over a five-year period.
Edcon`s paper volumes at Edgardale are significant, and growing rapidly as the group completes a number of acquisitions, says Henk van der Watt, Edcon service delivery executive manager. "Our group is doing very well, and we`re in an acquisitive phase," says Van der Watt. "This is driving our print volumes - in the last year our volumes grew 77%. Our 2 500 end-users generate more than 1.5 million pages a month, so as the volumes increase, so do our savings proportionally."
Prior to the consolidation exercise, Edcon had 726 desktop printers from a variety of vendors - it has managed to slash this number to 83: now only secretaries/personal assistants have their own printers. In their place are a number of black and white and colour Xerox multifunction devices (MFDs) located at convenient spots throughout Edgardale.
In addition, productivity is up through users having the right machines in the right place at the right time; through significantly reduced printer downtime; through the ability to print to any device; and through a common user interface, irrespective of where the users find themselves.
Management in turn has far better control of its investment, with improved asset utilisation and optimisation of printers.
Wastage and abuse have been sharply reduced, and with less toner and paper being used, there is reduced impact on the environment.
No unauthorised printers
In addition, unauthorised printers cannot be introduced to the network, which reduces the potential for rogue procurement.
Critical to the success of the project was the Pharos tracking software solution, implemented 12 months ago - Pharos is a global partner of Xerox.
Pharos permits optimal use of output devices, and helps educate users regarding the cost of their printing.
With Pharos, Edcon can bill costs back to the appropriate cost centre with a high degree of precision, and easier budgeting.
In their business case, a project team made up of staff from Bytes Document Solutions, Business Connexion and Edcon had predicted:
* Savings of 10% in hard and soft costs;
* Rogue consumables, a problem in all corporates, would be reduced;
* With all paper and toner now supplied and replenished by Bytes Document Solutions, the group would enjoy better control;
* There would be tighter user control of output; and
* Internal chargebacks would be facilitated.
All of these benefits have been realised.
A major benefit for Edcon is that responsibility for printing resides with the end-user, which was how the group wanted it.
Since implementation at Edgardale, the printer consolidation exercise has been extended to Ormonde (group IT), the Laub Street regional credit office; and regional credit offices in Durban and Cape Town.
"75% of companies know they need to control output management. Gartner projects cost savings of 10% to 25%," says Aloma Beith, business development specialist at Bytes Document Solutions, "but companies don`t know where to start. According to Gartner, the consolidation threshold is companies with a minimum of 500 users and 40 devices."
Business Connexion is Edcon`s principal integration partner, maintaining Edcon`s entire IT infrastructure. As such, Bytes Document Solutions worked in conjunction with Business Connexion to deliver the printer consolidation project.
Linda Glieman, client service manager at Business Connexion, says centralised printing compels people to "think more about their print output. Because end-users can see exactly what their print job is going to cost them before they commit it, there is less casual printing".
Furthermore, the ability to print anywhere in the organisation seamlessly by using a follow-me system allows for black and white print jobs to be released from any centralised multifunctional printer, and colour print jobs from any centralised colour multifunctional printer. The follow-me system caters for the confidentiality and security issues required by Edcon, as jobs are only printed at the device once a user`s security code has been entered into the terminal device on the printer.
Beith says the project depended on a number of critical success factors: "First, was the buy-in of the executive team, and a direct line of communication between them and Henk, who heads up service delivery.
"Second was a detailed and comprehensive process of change management. It is vital that you work closely with the people affected by the changes, and maintain open lines of communication so as to obtain buy-in.
"Third was the partnership between Bytes Document Solutions, Business Connexion and Edcon: we worked as a tightly knit team, and presented a united front to users."
The Xerox MFDs are used for print, copy and scan-to-e-mail functionality.
Edcon is South Africa`s largest clothing, footwear and textiles group. Its brands include Edgars, Boardmans, CNA, Jet, Legit, Prato and Red Square. It has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years and has a market capitalisation of around R17 billion.
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