Sydkraft Försäljning

Kent Jerlström, project manager in Sydkraft Försäljning, meets us at the company head office in Malmö, Sweden. Satisfied he recounts the journey from a print environment with lack of control over a time with damage control to the present situation that is proactive and controlled.

“Now our support staff even receives an email if a printer breaks down or runs low on toner reminding them to order new supplies.”

Chaos ruled

As so many other companies Sydkraft Försäljning with head office in Malmö, Sweden had a broad range of different printers and models scattered throughout the offices. Users had access to one or more printers. The variety of printers posed a challenging task for the purchase department as well as for the support staff.

The printing method was push print where the user prints a document from the PC and then goes to a previously specified printer to collect the document. Often people forgot to pick up their prints, which resulted in huge paper waste and high costs, this also meant a breach of security.

“We had no direct control over the number of printers, supply usage, or required support. We just knew that the costs for print and copy were fairly high, and so we decided to go over the printer fleet and printing routines.”

“We wanted to fully analyse and understand the costs in order to figure out how we could save costs. Consequently we contacted Martinsson in Lund.”

Thorough analysis

“First we wanted an overview of the present situation. Therefore we asked Martinsson to work out an analysis. The analysis examines the entire process from implementation of products to interviews with the users about their routines.”

“In order to get the best result it is important to talk to the users early in the process of change. They provide the best answers about routines and how changes might affect them.”

The analysis resulted in a report that concluded that Sydkraft Försäljning had many different printer models of varying standard and quality. This meant unnecessary high strain on support and maintenance. It also revealed a rather high cost per print.

In the Sydkraft Försäljning offices there were around 100 printers for 750 employees. Hereof approximately 75 were personal printers placed inside the users office. This practice had been deployed due to the frequent need to print out confidential documents. Because of the demand for security these could not be printed to a work group printer.

“We were forced to take into account that our users were used to having a printer close nearby and that the document security must be upheld”, says Kent.

Standardization and Pull Print

It was obvious that changes had to be made to the printer fleet as well as to the routines in order to achieve savings. After discussion with Martinsson it was decided to standardise the machines and also introduce SafeCom.

Standardization meant reducing the various printers to a few different models. This simplified processes for purchase as well as for support. Return on investment for the new printers was around 1 year.

In addition Sydkraft Försäljning chose to introduce the SafeCom Pull Print solution in order to handle printing in a simple and secure manner for all users.

In a SafeCom solution a number of printers are linked to one network to which all users are also connected. When a user wants to print a document it is send to a database. When the user wants to retrieve the document he goes to any printer, logs in via card or user code, and prints the documents he has sent to the database. This is called Pull Print. SafeCom makes the user independent of specific time and place for the printing, meanwhile security is kept high.

“The user can print to the database at any time, but the document is not printed onto paper before the user is standing at the printer typing in his user code. This way integrity is held very high.”

Flexibility for all

Standardization was a must in order to gain control over the purchase function and the time spent on support. SafeCom was added as a feature that would minimize the number of unnecessary prints and give the user an easy workday with secure printing. “With the SafeCom solution we have reduced the need for many printers, saved paper and toner supplies, reduced the time spent on support, and at the same time we have given the users secure printing. Many of our users were used to having a printer in their office, however, the new solution works very well due to its flexibility.”

The solution has even given the administration an efficient control tool for administrating updates and usage combined with a very user-friendly interface that can show cost profiles on a single printer basis. The administrator receives an email each time a printer is running low on toner or is out of order.

“The SafeCom solution means flexibility for everyone”, says Kent. “It is fantastic to see such a big difference in reduced administration and at the same time give the user the required simplicity and security”.

Next step

The target is to soon be able to connect offices in other geographic locations to the central SafeCom solution.