Information management company reaps $150k pa saving following print review

Recall, an Australian secure document backup and destruction company, recently reevaluated its own printing environment and found it to be inefficient. Following an audit of the environment, Recall is now saving $150,000 each year on print management.

Recall boasts some of Australia’s leading banks, healthcare providers and technology companies within its customer base, all of whom rely on Recall to securely store, manage, destruct and/or backup their valuable data and customer information.

The company employs more than 1000 people across Australia. To meet its print requirements, Recall Australia was using more than 320 printers, copiers and scanners across its 42 offices.

Regular office orders were being placed for toner - often in excess of requirements - and unused paper and cartridges sat in storage for lengthy periods of time. The business had more than 60 different vendor relationships in operation, each with unique service agreements, invoices and maintenance rosters to be managed at any one time.

The sheer number of vendor relationships meant the company couldn’t easily adapt its device fleet to suit changing business requirements. In addition, the inconsistent deployment of solutions across different areas of the business meant that costs were varied and it was difficult to accurately chargeback costs to departments and profit and loss owners.

Recall Australia engaged Upstream Print Solutions to conduct a review of its existing printing and document management environment. Following the audit, Upstream designed a solution that allowed Recall to reduce the number of devices in its fleet from 320 to 140, all of which are managed by Upstream. The solution is supported by service level agreements (SLAs) for uptime and speed of service response.

“We achieved great cost savings, but more than this it was Upstream’s ability to streamline our business process and reduce the burden on the IT department that added real value,” says Simon Hughes, Commercial Manager for Recall Australia.

According to Hughes, the solution allows the company to “easily scan and record shipping dockets, saving time, paper and cost throughout the business”.

As a result of the new system, Recall has achieved a 30% reduction in print management costs per annum - a saving of more than $150,000 per year.

The company now has improved accountability and more effective print cost allocation, thanks to interdepartmental print volume reports. Cash flow management has also improved, with the conversion of upfront device costs and monthly fees (like toner and maintenance) to fixed rental fees.

The solution reduced the number of printing manufacturers from 14 to just two and the number of different printer models from 60 down to 10. This has reduced helpdesk enquiries and allowed the IT team to resolve them much quicker.