When your business relies on IT systems, you need to have complete confidence in your solution’s capability. That was why when CPC needed a new range of printers, Martin Williamson, the company’s stores development manager, opted for a managed print solution from XMA.
Mr Williamson said: “We send out over one million orders per year across the UK and overseas. We have high volumes of paperwork we need to print – three pages per each of the orders that get sent out of our warehouse. We chose to install three main HP printers, along with 10 others across the warehouse, and needed them to be able to produce high print volumes on demand. At the time, when we were ready for new printers and looking at options, XMA demonstrated a significant saving with heightened levels of service.”
Major savings
Mr Williamson discovered XMA’s managed print solution could save CPC 23% a year on its total cost of ownership. Mr Williamson said: “I worked out the cost of everything from sheets of paper, to annual volume of the printers and the toner.
“We verified the annual costs on each machine to work out our total cost of ownership. There were other options in the marketplace but XMA’s solution offered a very good saving.”
Now, having provided the HP printers, XMA carries out scheduled preventative maintenance to keep the system running smoothly. The company also provides toner via an automated ordering system, which removes the requirement for purchase orders. All devices are supported through a four hour onsite service level agreement.
A service to depend on. Although the cost savings were compelling, Mr Williamson said it was also important that CPC knew it could rely on XMA’s service. He said: “There was always some risk to choosing a managed solution. We were able to talk to other customers who use XMA to find out how the company operated but we knew that not all companies faced the same pressures as us. In our business, pickers enter the warehouse and have to scan paperwork at the start of their assignment. Therefore, if the paperwork isn’t produced when we want it our business would stall. When print stops, our business stops.”
Planning ahead
For Mr Williamson, a key benefit offered by XMA was the flexibility to make the solution work for his business. He said: “Our printers have a high usage and we have found that if we have them serviced every two weeks that increases a device’s up-time significantly.
To me it’s better to be pre-emptive than to wait for problems. It was good that XMA was prepared to do that rather than fix a problem when it occurred. We also wanted three main printers, which produce in excess of 200,000 pages per month, so we would have a level of redundancy. Our experience told us that this meant if one was down we would still be in a good position. Whatever we needed, it has been put in place by XMA. We certainly ended up with the right solution.”
“Thanks to our deal with XMA, we also have a fixed cost per page for the duration of our contract. It’s good for our business to have those fixed costs.”
The company has recently added two existing printers to the agreement. Mr Williamson said: “We didn’t want to replace them as we felt they still had life left in them so we added them into the agreement and they now enjoy the same service. Again, it was something we wanted to do which they were able to make happen.”
Looking to the future
Mr Williamson said CPC staff knew from the beginning their systems would require a certain level of maintenance. He said: “As our printers have a high throughput, we naturally expect to have problems, so the service XMA provides is vital. My account manager can help with anything. He is always available on the phone or by email and is quick to respond and follow-up any query. It all seems to work well.”
“We are now considering looking at installing new printers and multifunctional devices for the office and administrative side of the business. We will ask XMA for their ideas and look at carrying on with our partnership.”
