Modern Slavery Statement
Introduction
Worcestershire County Council deployed a new managed print solution which will result in costs savings of over 40% over 5 years. In addition, it will have a significant impact to reduce their carbon footprint and work towards their sustainability goals.
Customer background
Worcestershire County Council’s main campus has 3 buildings, alongside several other sites situated across Worcestershire which include libraries, adult and child social care teams.
The legacy print set up included 181 print devices that had been purchased outright and included several older machines, which had been in use for over a decade. Any print issues were raised with the IT department who had to organise costly repairs or purchase a new device. This was time intensive for the IT department and often meant printers could be out of use for several weeks.
As part of the council’s drive to reduce costs and to become more sustainable they wanted to reduce the printing output across all sites, particularly the use of colour printing to reduce the overall printing costs. They also wanted a solution which removed the management burden from IT.
Objective
Worcestershire County Council set up a print working group with representatives from each directorate to implement a print reduction strategy. As part of this process it was decided to investigate a managed print solution.
Banner were invited along to propose a solution along with several other suppliers.
The main aims of the project were:
- Reduce and monitor the number of networked print devices across all the council’s sites
- Reduce the management burden of printing issues from the IT department
- Reduce print volumes and the ratio of colour printing – therefore reduce printing costs and the environmental impact of printing
- Replace the outdated Safecom solution
- Implement an automated process to allocate print costs according to a department’s usage
- Support the council’s overall drive to increase sustainability; by reducing the carbon footprint and emissions across the council’s sites.
Banner’s Approach
The first stage of the project was an audit and discovery phase. Following initial discussions with the project lead in the Council’s IT department, the Banner MPS team visited several sites across the council to complete a site audit to gain a better understanding of the current set up and the aims of the project.
Given Banner were the primary consumables supplier, we were able to utilise our own data to help construct an accurate current cost situation which included supplies, paper, parts and maintenance kits. Monitoring software was also set up on the servers to get a comprehensive picture of print volume and type by device, team and location. In addition, Banner calculated the costs for IT in general management and fault resolution.
During the audit stage it became apparent that the Council’s structure was extremely fluid, and the fleet needed to flex to be suitable for each different department and task.
Kirsty Gilmour, project lead commented; “Throughout the project, Banner’s MPS team worked closely to understand our needs and keep abreast of the changes and fluid nature of the business. They were happy to undertake additional site visits to understand the complex print requirements of different teams which were not outlined in the initial project brief.”
During the audit stage, the rules for designing the new fleet were formed collaboratively to ensure all aspects of the business output requirements were both acknowledged, and a way forward was agreed. During this stage, Banner also worked with IT to investigate options available for Follow Me, fleet management and reporting to select the most appropriate approach.
The Proposal
A proposal was sent to the Council’s IT department and presented to them alongside the print reduction working group. The cost for the new solution was presented for a 5-year term and options were included to see the impact of print volume reduction and environmental comparisons.
| Previous Situation | Proposed Solution | |
| Number of Devices | 181 | 119 (97 new and 22 kept) |
| Number of Colour Devices | 111 | 108 |
| Number of Laser devices | 180 | 30 |
| Follow Me/ Job Accounting | Safecom | PaperCut MF |
| Fleet Management | None | HP Web Jet Admin |
For this project, HP’s Page Wide technology was selected as this met all the objectives and provided significant cost and environmental savings over traditional laser-based technologies.
A single A3 Colour MFP model was selected to cover most of the main campus locations, alongside an A4 colour MFP and a basic A4 mono printer for the remaining devices and locations.
New HP software was implemented to manage colour print usage and costs. This replaced the old Safecom solution and included automated reporting and easier management systems. This allowed print costs to be requested, allocated and charged to each department based on their usage.
Improved delivery solutions were put in place to automatically order replacement toners when running low; reducing the time spent ordering new print supplies. This solution also allowed fleet wide changes to be made in minutes including firmware updates, considerably reducing the management burden for the Council’s IT department.
Another benefit was the removal of the day-to-day running requirements, the IT department would no longer have to fix or replace faulty devices as this would be handled by Banner and HP with their next day service guarantee.
All old devices would be taken away by Banner for recycling and data removed securely.
The council’s decision on which solution to choose was based on two main criteria: cost and confidence. Banner were the most competitive demonstrating considerable cost and energy savings across the 5-year project term. In addition, throughout the audit and proposal stage the stakeholders at Worcestershire County Council were impressed with Banner’s professionalism, knowledge, passion, and collaborative approach to recommending the best MPS solution.
Deployment
Deployment was scheduled over 18 days and consisted of two main phases, rollout at the main campus followed then by the satellite sites. Users were provided with a custom quick start guide ahead of deployment which allowed them to understand the changes coming to avoid a significant break in service.
Kirsty Gilmour commented; “We were impressed with Banner from start to finish. It has been a really good experience. We are very happy with the solution implemented and the service and support received throughout. The MPS team are professional, very helpful and experts in what they do. They have been able to assist and deal with any issues raised quickly and effectively. The whole IT department have been impressed with their knowledge and willingness to help.”
Outcome & Success
“This has been a hugely successful project.” Darius Mason, IT Programme Manager, Worcestershire County Council
- A new print solution implemented and deployed which can flex as the business requires
- A centrally managed print fleet – for quick and easy deployment and a consistent user experience
- Reduction in print related calls to the IT helpdesk – with day-to-day running requirements supported by Banner and HP
- Follow Me rules implemented to reduce colour and overall print costs
- PaperCut deployed providing automated custom print reports for management – saving time and the need for manual intervention
- Automated ‘just in time’ deliveries for supplies – reducing administration burden Old print devices removed for recycling and data securely removed
With Banner you can relax knowing all your MPS requirements are in safe hands
Customer background information
Worcestershire County Council’s main campus has 3 buildings: County Hall, Wildwood and the Countryside Centre. Alongside this are several other sites situated across Worcestershire which include libraries, adult and child social care teams, some of which are located in other public buildings such as hospitals.
Banner
Printing doesn’t need to be complicated. Banner can remove the costs, headaches and inefficiencies from printing.
Our MPS solution includes:
- Print fleet transformation services
- Current situation analysis
- Future proof recommendations
- Proactive volume reduction
- Solutions enterprise
- Deployment management
