University of Sunderland - Ricoh
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Case Study University of Sunderland Education Managed Print Service The University of Sunderland has used a Ricoh Managed Print service to help transform the way printing is delivered to the University community. Name: University of Sunderland Location: North East England Size: 20,000 students, 1,300 staff Activity: Higher Education Challenges • In-house print service no longer meeting the needs of staff and students • ‘Peaky’ high-volume print demand making capital investment in print equipment unsustainable • Improve the cost and efficiency of campus facilities for students and staff Executive summary Solution • Ricoh Managed Print Service • Ricoh Document Production Centres as an overflow facility Benefits • Delivers up to 25% saving compared to an in-house print service • Opens up access to Ricoh’s huge bank of knowledge and experience, especially in the Higher Education sector • Delivers a fast and reliable service to users • Increases quality and efficiency with tools like online job submission University of Sunderland transforms cost and efficiency of facility services with a Ricoh Managed Print Service The Ricoh solution provides staff and students with a high-quality, customer-focused and cost-efficient service.
Transcript of University of Sunderland - Ricoh
Case Study
University of SunderlandEducationManaged Print Service
The University of Sunderland has used a Ricoh ManagedPrint service to help transform the way printing isdelivered to the University community.
Name: University of Sunderland
Location: North East England
Size: 20,000 students, 1,300 staff
Activity: Higher Education
Challenges• In-house print service no longer meeting the needs of
staff and students
• ‘Peaky’ high-volume print demand making capital
investment in print equipment unsustainable
• Improve the cost and efficiency of campus facilities for
students and staff
Executive summary
Solution• Ricoh Managed Print Service
• Ricoh Document Production Centres as an overflow
facility
Benefits• Delivers up to 25% saving compared to an in-house
print service
• Opens up access to Ricoh’s huge bank of knowledge
and experience, especially in the Higher Education sector
• Delivers a fast and reliable service to users
• Increases quality and efficiency with tools like online
job submission
University of Sunderlandtransforms cost andefficiency of facilityservices with a RicohManaged Print Service
The Ricoh solution provides staff and students with ahigh-quality, customer-focused and cost-efficient service.
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Challenges
The University of Sunderland, based in the city ofSunderland, has just around 20,000 students. Founded in1901, the University provides a wide range of coursescovering applied sciences; arts, design and media; businessand law; education and society. It has two campus sites inSunderland with students also located at partner institutionsin the UK and around the world, one of which is now a fully-owned University of Sunderland campus in London.
At the University, print is seen as a key service for both staffand students, so a few years ago the decision was made totransform the way print is managed and delivered. The printoperation had been run in-house, but this was no longermeeting the needs of staff and students. The Universitywanted to look at how it could make its print operationmore efficient and increase the level of service it offered tostaff and students.
One specific challenge for the academic community isdealing with very peaky demand for high volume printingduring a year. The University of Sunderland has to produce alot of material very quickly at the start of a new academicyear and at other times, but this falls off significantly for therest of the year.
Rob Dixon, Customer Services Manager at the University ofSunderland, says, “Although students are free to goanywhere for their print requirements, part of our overallservice is to give students an enhanced experience byoffering a service that is convenient and competitivelypriced. We were finding that students were paying over theodds and were having to travel to get their special printprojects completed. Although the University is not directly
responsible for this aspect of a student’s work, theUniversity was keen to have a service available to studentsas part of the overall offer.”
To find a partner to help it transform its print services, theUniversity used the Higher Education Frameworkagreement which collectively helps higher educationorganisations by pre-qualifying suppliers. But the Universityfound there were only a handful of suppliers able to delivera complete solution.
“We felt that Ricoh had a very good operational handle onall aspects of the service and how each different elementinterlocked to create a single, unified solution. Ricohdoesn’t just major in one aspect of the service, with the restas add-ons,” says Dixon.
Solution
The University has deployed a Ricoh Managed Print Servicecomprising a central print room run by on-site Ricoh staff;a fleet of Ricoh Multifunction Products (MFPs); printsoftware applications and an overflow facility using Ricoh’sDocument Production Centres to handle specialist andpeak demand work.
The print room has been kitted out with Ricoh’s high-performance production printers and finishing equipmentand is used for complex or high volume jobs. The Universityhas located 69 Ricoh MFPs in Learning Resource Centres(LRCs), open access areas and administration offices acrossits two campus locations in Sunderland and in its centre forlife-long learning in Newcastle.
The Ricoh MPS includes software to manage and controlprint and device use across the University and Ricoh’s@Remote software reports on and manages environmentaland energy efficiency. The Alchemy Gold application fromRicoh is used to manage bulk scanning for archiving by theUniversity. The Ricoh MPS is used for a wide range of printjobs, including work for students, handbooks and studyguides, leaflets and signs.
Ricoh staff in the print room manage the production printoperation, as well as managing and supporting the fleet of MFPs.
The University still has a number of desktop printers, butthese are being phased out and replaced with Ricoh MFPswhen it is cost efficient to do so and as existing equipmentreaches end of life. The Ricoh MPS will also be extended tothe University’s London campus as existing contracts andequipment reach end of life.
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Case Study University of Sunderland
www.ricoh.co.uk
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Benefits
“The Ricoh MPS comes down to something quite simple.Anyone in the University of Sunderland community, whethera student, lecturer or administrator, can be confident thatthe print, copying or scanning work they need will be donewhen they need it, to the quality they need and for areasonable cost. That’s the number one benefit of the serviceRicoh provides, and that’s across the complete servicespectrum, from printing an essay in an LRC, to producingthousands of new-starter letters in the Ricoh print centre,”says Dixon.
From a management perspective, the Ricoh MPS is a single,one-stop-shop for all print related requirements, whichenables the University to provide a high-quality service tousers in a very cost effective way. One area where the RicohMPS has had the biggest impact on cost is in removing theUniversity’s fixed costs. The University no longer needs tobuy, maintain and manage expensive print equipment andresources, some of which were not fully utilised. The University estimates that the Ricoh MPS is saving asmuch 25 percent of the cost of running its own print service.
The University has also seen an improvement in the qualityof service from the Ricoh MPS, especially for speed ofservice. Any job that is submitted in the morning will becompleted by the afternoon and any job arriving in theafternoon will be returned the following morning. Before, itwas difficult to guarantee a turnaround time, particularlyduring busy periods.
Dixon says, “One of the key features of the Ricoh MPS is theonline submission tools which allows staff to submit workonline, but also get an estimate of costs. It is moreconvenient for staff - they don’t have to walk across campusin the rain and deliver the job by hand. But it is also a quality
issue, because the print room is dealing with an original,electronic version of the job, rather than getting somethingthat may have been re-copied several times, which alwaysdegrades quality.”
Dixon adds, “One of the hidden, but hugely useful benefitsof working with Ricoh is access to Ricoh expertise andexperience gained with other customers, which is fed backinto the service we get at the University. It’s things likeunderstanding the peak and trough printing periods,unique to the higher education environment, that helps toimprove the service and advice we get from Ricoh. And it’sthis kind of knowledge that will help develop the solutionat the University of Sunderland in the future.”
Any supplier providing services to the University must beable to demonstrate that it meets the University’s highstandards for sustainability and all the Ricoh productsdeliver low energy consumption, low CO2 emissions andseveral features to enable the University to minimise theenvironmental impact of it print operation.
“At the University, we see print as one of those stapleservices that you shouldn’t have to worry about, but you doif it goes wrong. With the Ricoh MPS, however, we’ve hadvery little cause for worry,” says Dixon.
Case Study University of Sunderland
2013 Ricoh UK Ltd. All rights reserved. Replication of part or all of this document requires the express written permission of Ricoh UK Ltd.
www.ricoh.co.uk
Ricoh Solution/Products• Ricoh Multifunction Products
• Ricoh Production Printers
• @Remote
• The Alchemy Gold
• Ricoh Print and Document Services Centre
“The Ricoh MPS comes down to something quite simple. Anyone in the University of
Sunderland community, whether a student, lecturer or administrator, can be confident that
the print, copying or scanning work they need will be done when they need it, to the quality
they need and for a reasonable cost. That’s the number one benefit of the service Ricoh
provides, and that’s across the complete service spectrum, from printing an essay in a LRC, to
producing thousands of new-starter letters in the Ricoh print centre.”
Rob Dixon, Customer Services Manager, University of Sunderland
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