Each year, our sister publication Computer Dealer News hosts the Channel Elite Awards to recognize IT Solution Provider for their innovation, leadership, and commitment for creating value for their customers. As Canada’s leading IT channel publication, CDN invited solution providers to submit their best work to nine different categories for 2013’s awards. Here, we present the case studies these award nominees put forward to us. Find out who the big winners are on Sept. 11 when CDN presents them at the CEA Awards Gala.
Learn more about CDN’s Channel Elite Awards 2013
Nominee: LaserNetworks from Oakville, Ontario
Describe the solution, service or initiative
A Toronto-area private school engaged LaserNetworks to conduct a print Assessment for them as they were not satisfied with their current level of control of student and staff printing and copying. After a thorough investigation of the school’ print and copy infrastructure a Secure-release printing solution was determined to be the best option for tracking print costs on a per/student/staff basis as well as offering many benefits in cost reduction and environmental stewardship. PaperCutMF was installed on all MFDs and their print-servers. Integration with Active-directory allowed both staff and students to print and copy only once authenticated by pin-code.
What makes it original or innovative?
For most school systems, tracking and accounting for print at the staff/student level is not common. The contract was awarded to LaserNetworks because they were the only respondent to the print RFI that suggested software-based control solutions. Most MPS providers only provide toner and service to print devices and LaserNetworks is one of the few that have the expertise and I.T. know-how to incorporate print-related software solutions.
Describe the improvement this solution made to the customer’s sales or revenues and provide measurable evidence of such.
Cost savings: They experienced an immediate reduction in total page output of over 20%. Most of this was due to the complete removal of waste-pages produced from multiple versions of the same document, items forgotten at the printer, etc. Jobs are only released from the MFDs when the student/staff authenticate at the MFD interface through the PaperCut software. Colour reduction was even higher, nearly 40%, due to PaperCut policy-settings that ensured all email bodies were printed in Monochrome instead of colour. Additional savings were experienced by forcing duplex printing for all student printing. The amount of physical paper costs were reduced by over 30%.
Describe the improvement that was made to the customers efficiency, with measurable evidence.
User Satisfaction: Students and staff no longer had to wait in line at an MFD or printer to retrieve their print jobs. If one MFD was backed up, student and staff simply found another device in the area, entered their PIN code and the job was printed there. PaperCut allows users to print to the “print cloud” and they determine the device to release the job at any print enabled device within the school. Users enjoyed the fact that they didn’t have to call I.T. to have additional printers added if they moved locations or classrooms. Sending jobs to the print-cloud allowed students/staff the added benefit of being able to use any printer in the school’s two physical campuses. They could send a print job from one location and retrieve it from another location at a time of their choosing. I.T. was happy that if a printer experienced downtime that it no longer impacted users ability to print. Users simply retrieved their jobs from an alternate device. Environmental/Sustainability Benefits: The customer reduced their Annual tree-consumption related to printing from 211 to 164 trees. The customer saw Carbon emissions reduced by over 25% due to improved device utilization and the ability of the software to universally shut down all print devices at night.
How did the solution improve the customer’s ability to serve internal or external clients?
LaserNetworks has increased its wallet share with the Toronto-area private school by adding software and professional services to our contract. We also earned the privilege of providing our customer Managed Print Services for an additional 60 months. The customer has benefited by giving students and staff more control over what they print, greater access to alternative methods of document access such as on their Tablets, and dramatically reducing measurable Sustainability metrics such as number of trees and carbon consumed in the production of pages. As mentioned previously, the benefits were measurable after the first 30 days: The customer reduced their Annual tree-consumption related to printing from 211 to 164 trees. The customer saw Carbon emissions reduced by over 25% due to improved device utilization and the ability of the software to universally shut down all print devices at night. Cost savings have also been achieved due to the dramatic decrease in efficiency and cost savings: They experienced an immediate reduction in total page output of over 20%. Most of this was due to the complete removal of waste-pages produced from multiple versions of the same document, items forgotten at the printer, etc. Jobs are only released from the MFDs when the student/staff authenticate at the MFD interface through the PaperCut software. Colour reduction was even higher, nearly 40%, due to PaperCut policy-settings that ensured all email bodies were printed in Monochrome instead of colour. Additional savings were experienced by forcing duplex printing for all student printing. The amount of physical paper costs were reduced by over 30%.
In what ways does the solution go above and beyond industry expectations?
Most MPS providers are happy having their customers print as much as possible. LaserNetworks has gone above and beyond the norm by actually helping the Toronto-area private school to print less. And the solution allows us to work with our customer on a quarterly basis to find additional areas of print reduction and increased use of digital/Tablet based access to documents for students and staff.
How does the solution further your customer’s green or environmentally friendly plans?
The students at the Toronto-area private school were some of the biggest advocates for reducing the environmental impact of traditional learning aides in the form of printed pages. LaserNetworks enabled them to easily experience the following environmental footprint reductions with little or no loss in ease of access to learning content: The customer reduced their Annual tree-consumption related to printing from 211 to 164 trees. The customer saw Carbon emissions reduced by over 25% due to improved device utilization and the ability of the software to universally shut down all print devices at night.