The goal of Farlington School in West Sussex, which accepts pupils between the ages of 4 and 18, is to ensure that its students leave the school as well-educated young people with strong interpersonal skills and a broad range of interests. To help meet this goal, the school gives careful attention to every aspect of its operations, including ancillary services such as document management, to ensure that they perform efficiently, reliably and cost effectively.
With this in mind, Farlington recently enlisted the help of Toshiba’s Business Partner, DOCEX360, to re-assess its document management needs and to provide a robust and cost-effective solution. As a result of the assessment, Farlington purchased 12 new Toshiba multifunction printers (MFPs) and these, together with innovative PaperCut software, are delivering savings in excess of £100,000.
The first step DOCEX360 took when approached by Farlington was to visit the school and take the time to learn more about the real document management and printing needs of the pupils and the teachers.
“During our initial visit we went to the school and spoke to a wide cross-section of people there to find out about their document usage – daily, monthly and throughout the year”, said Ben Coughlan, Director at DOCEX360. “During this exercise we learned that the school was having problems with its existing print infrastructure – mainly the poor reliability of the equipment and the difficulty of accessing support. In addition, the document management and workflow software the school was using could hardly be described as user friendly.
“It was clear that a better solution was needed,” he continued, “so we submitted a report suggesting that the school should replace the 30 printers it was currently using with 12 MFPs and also switch to using PaperCut software. After carefully assessing our recommendations, the school asked us to go ahead with implementing them.”
The PaperCut MF software that underpins the school’s new document management systems allows users to easily manage their print assets, collect usage data by location and device, identify inefficiencies and implement cost recovery and allocation strategies to maximise system productivity and return on investment.
The integrated scanning feature in PaperCut makes scanning to individual or group email addresses, home folders and scanning straight to the cloud simple, and PaperCut mobility print lets the software do the heavy lifting so BYOD printing "just works" on any device.
The new systems also feature a more efficient billing arrangement. This means that the school is now billed based on amount of print coverage on a page rather than simply the number of pages printed, which has led to substantial savings. The school is also benefiting from working with the latest printing and document management technologies, as well as having easy access, should it ever be needed, to a helpful and responsive support team.
“The staff are really appreciating the benefits of the new machines,” said Louise Higson, Headmistress of Farlington, “and when we started to see the savings they were making for us we knew that we’d made a very good decision in purchasing them. Indeed, the financial savings we are making are in excess of £100,000 over the 3 year contract which is very attractive on its own, but we’re delighted to find that we’re also getting ease of use, much more versatile document management facilities, and excellent support.”
The printing needs of the school differ from one month to the next, depending on the school calendar. For instance, at the beginning of term there is a need to print a large volume of booklets for parents and staff. In the past, this task involved multiple steps and was both time-consuming and complex. Now, thanks to the MFPs from Toshiba and the PaperCut software, school employees can print directly from their PC, laptop or smart device and create the booklets on the fly. Similarly, when printing is need for art classes in term time, the new systems allow pupils to realise their creativity without being hampered by hard-to-understand technology.
Machines that consistently deliver outstanding performance are a key benefit for Toshiba customers, but the customer, like Farlington, is also committed to protecting the environment. With the help of experts co2balance, Toshiba has created a scheme to help compensate for CO2 emissions by offsetting its products. Carbon offsetting allows for investment in CSR projects that save the emission of or absorb an equivalent amount of CO2 to that associated with the Toshiba product. In this way, emissions are balanced to become ‘Carbon Zero’ which allows for positive business activities with no detriment to the environment.
“Working with Farlington to deliver document management improvements has been an interesting and pleasurable experience, and we are delighted to confirm that their purchase of new printers will also help the planet and less fortunate communities”, explained Chris Mills, Marketing Manager at Toshiba. “As a direct result of the order from the school, Toshiba will provide two stoves that will improve quality of life for 11 people in rural Kenya. The stoves will also save five tonnes of wood and protect 0.02 hectares of woodland.”
At Farlington School, a progressive educational facility that recognises, encourages and supports students’ creativity, Toshiba MFPs and new document management software have truly made a difference. Cost and time-savings have now been added to user-friendliness and environmental benefits, making it even easier for the school’s pupils to ‘discover, believe and achieve’.
Further information is available at www.toshibatec.co.uk